Greater need, skimpier shelves at food banks

Across Northern California, food bank directors are struggling to solve a worrisome equation: They're seeing more hungry people – and they have less food to give them.

As a weak economy sends growing numbers of new faces to local food pantries, those same organizations are reporting reduced levels of everything from canned meat to powdered milk.

"Everybody's getting a little less," said Melinda Annis, senior vice president of food programs for California Emergency Foodlink, a statewide organization that operates as a food bank for Sacramento County. "It's just trying to spread it a little thinner … when perhaps everything indicates that the need is greater."

Several factors are colliding to produce the food shortage:

• The nation's farmers are doing well. As a result, the federal Department of Agriculture's Bonus Commodity Program – which buys up surplus crops to provide financial support to farmers – is sending drastically reduced levels of that surplus food to states. In 2007, California food banks received just 8 million pounds from the program, compared with 63 million pounds five years earlier.

• Grocery chains and food manufacturers have become more efficient. With better technology and data collection, they have reduced the amount of damaged, overstocked and unsalable food – food that traditionally has been donated to food banks.

• Family budgets are tightening. Many food pantries are reporting a decline in donations from private individuals, which they blame on a weak economy. At the same time, high gas prices, spiraling credit card debt and growing numbers of home foreclosures are sending more people to food pantries for relief.

"You'll have people coming to services like this who wouldn't ever have dreamed of being at a service like this a year or two ago," said Jose Martinez, executive director of the Food Bank of Yolo County. And Martinez said his agency has seen a 36 percent decrease in private donations over the past year.

The food crisis has forced agencies in some parts of the country to turn families away – or even shut their doors entirely.

Northern California's food banks have weathered the crisis somewhat better, due in part to the large quantity of excess fruits and vegetables grown in the state. Agencies are replacing some of the diminished supply of free canned food, pasta and powdered milk with fresh, cheaply bought oranges, corn and potatoes. Some food bank directors say this could be a positive development in improving nutrition for the poor.

"We're trying to put a positive spin on it," said Larry Sly, executive director of the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano.

But Sly and other agency directors worry whether the overall amounts of food can ultimately be maintained as international markets drive up food prices.

"Our concern is that even the perishable stuff could be in jeopardy," Sly said.

Some agencies are pinning their hopes on the farm bill currently being hammered out in Congress. In addition to improving food stamp benefits, the new bill could include a provision to increase emergency aid for food banks from $140 million to $250 million annually.

Some food bank directors say the increased aid would help mitigate the declining amounts of farm surplus food they're receiving from the federal government.

Nancy Montanez Johner, undersecretary of food, nutrition and consumer services for the USDA, acknowledged that food banks are "in a very difficult situation." But she said her agency supports a 10-year extension of the current amount of aid, instead of the proposed increase, which would be funded for five years.

She also emphasized the role of private donors in alleviating the situation:

"I think it's a real issue out there that their shelves are low," she said. "All of us need to step up to the plate and say, 'What can we do?' "

In the absence of an immediate solution, agencies say they are watching two opposing trends – less food, more hungry people – with mounting concern.

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• Call The Bee's Jocelyn Wiener, (916) 321-1967.