Losing the hunger fight

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, October 25, 2001

Herald Writer

In the 10 years she has helped battle hunger in Snohomish County, Virginia Sprague said she’s never seen food bank supplies so low.

"You can walk in the distribution center and see it," said Sprague, program director at the Volunteers of America warehouse that ships food to Snohomish County’s 19 food banks. "I see emptiness. This is the lowest food supply I’ve ever had here."

It’s not just the skimpy stocks with little besides government commodities including rice and cheese on the shelves of the 14,000-square-foot storeroom in north Everett that worry her.

Potential donors seem distracted by worries over terrorism and anthrax at a time when layoffs and the winter holidays place peak demands on food banks.

"It’s like people are shell-shocked," she said. "They’re so concerned with anthrax and everything going on that we’re just kind of forgotten here for the time being."

Both food and cash donations have been declining this year, Sprague said.

"I want to put the word out to the public that food banks still need your help," she said. "It’s the holiday season. I have no holiday items, pumpkin pie mix or cranberry sauce. I don’t even have a turkey in the place."

At the Everett Food Bank, which serves about 27 percent of those needing food assistance in Snohomish County, donations of food dropped by 25,000 pounds from July through September over the same period last year, Sprague said.

Donations at the food bank distribution center are projected to drop about 50,000 pounds by the end of this month from the 350,000 pounds donated last month.

"Remember the old days at the food bank with the lines down the sidewalk?" Sprague said, referring to people waiting to get food supplies at the Everett Food Bank. "Those days are back."

On Thursday afternoon, 20 people stood outside the doors waiting to get in. Once inside, they took numbers and sat in chairs, waiting their chance to pick up basic food items such as tuna and pasta.

Among them was a 51-year-old Everett Community College student, a single mom with two grown sons and one 18-year-old still at home.

"My grant money is exhausted," she said of the economic pressures that caused her to turn to the food bank. And at the human service agencies she hopes to work for, "nobody is hiring," she said.

"I hope I don’t need to come back," she added. "But right now my need is great. I’m a single mom. I don’t get welfare."

An Everett mother of three children said a doctor-excused illness was keeping her from working, and her husband had just been laid off.

"When there’s no bread in the house, there’s no way for me to feed my children," she said, adding that if she had to, she would go without food to provide for her children. "My kids come before I do," she said.

Food bank donations have slowed to a trickle.

For example, a one-day Everett food drive earlier this month that typically brings in 2,000 pounds of food tipped the scales at a mere 14 pounds, Sprague said.

While Volunteers of America usually distributes 200 large food donation boxes at grocery stores and other businesses throughout the county to gear up for its annual holiday food drive, only 10 of the large containers have been requested so far this year.

Basic food items needed by the food banks include canned soups, fruits and vegetables.

"We’ve got a lot of older kids making meals for themselves and siblings because their parent is working the swing shift," Sprague said. "These kids aren’t going to make big meals. Canned soups, with a sandwich, are easy to fix."

Wednesday evening, Sprague went to the Everett Labor Temple to talk with union officials about the need.

"They were very receptive," she said. On Thursday, the Snohomish County Treasurer’s Office asked for food donation containers to be dropped off.

"It’s frustrating not to have any Thanksgiving food items and the holiday is about a month away," Sprague said.

County food banks