Gasoline prices, food prices, mortgage payments and rents are all increasing, and it is creating new pressure on the Sky Valley Food Bank, said Director Julie Morris last week. "Some parents are working two or three jobs and still coming to the food bank," she said in her small office at the food bank Wednesday. "Our numbers are just flying up."

In January, the food bank gave out 2,839 boxes of food, totaling 10 meals each. In March, that number reached 3,204, a 12% increase in three months. "That was 3,650 more meals than in January," said Morris. "That's about 5,750 more pounds."

In the months following the holidays, before the May 10 Letter Carriers' Drive and other summer drives replenish the bank's reserve, supplies dip low. But they are lower than usual, even for this time of year, said Morris. Part of it is due to a rise in the number of senior citizens that the food bank serves. And part of it is due to a rise in the number of the working poor, said Morris.

"There is an incredible number of families that are working but still can't make ends meet," she said. "I would like people to know that their neighbors that they see driving back and forth and dropping their kids off at daycare, you don't know what financial situation is going on behind closed doors."

The parents she sees, particulary the new ones, are stressed out, frightened and worried about their children, she said. And she knows that some of the seniors she sees are going without meds part of the time, unable to meet the expense. "We've had rough years before," she said. "But we've never seen the dramatic rise in a three month period like this."

Demand is above average across the board, she said. Typically, the food bank goes through 28,400 pounds of food in March. Last month, it went through 32,000 pounds.

Donations, said Morris, are badly needed; not just of food, but of cash.
"We can buy up to three times as much purchasing in bulk that the average person could," she said. With cash donations, the food bank can supply such staples as oatmeal, beans and rice.

Donations of specialty foods are more critical than ever, she added. The food bank recently began a home delivery program called Rations on the Road. The program serves people too disabled or elderly to get to the food bank. Already, the program is serving 15 households, the maximum they can manage. And still others are on a waiting list.

"There's a disabled guy that walks down a long hill to catch a bus to get here, get bags of food, and go back to his stop, and walk about a mile, half of which is uphill," said Morris. "An elderly man saw him walking for a couple years and picked him up for a while, but he's dying now and said 'this is my last time...'" Morris paused and blinked away tears. "He's on the waiting list," she finished and sighed. "I need help."

Others in the program include a young mother with cancer, a diabetic senior citizen, a disabled grandmother caring for two of her grandchildren, and several seniors with high cholesterol and high blood pressure.

Most of the people in the Rations on the Road program, as well as many others who visit the food bank, have special dietary needs. Some are diabetic and need foods low in sugar. Others need foods low in cholesterol or sodium. Yet now, the shelves at the food bank for those special foods are nearly empty.
"We don't want to give people food that they can't eat," said Morris. "That doesn't make any sense."

As tough as times are now, Morris fears the worst may be ahead. If the country is truly headed for a recession, as some economists fear, history teaches her that the food bank may go through yet leaner days. "In the last recession, donations dropped dramatically and the number of people needing it went way up and we had to cut back on the amount of food we gave out," she said. "So right now we're trying to get ahead of the game and not wait until it's too late."

But she knows, she said, that if Monroe residents find out about the food bank's need, they will help. "Monroe comes through," she said.

To learn more about how to support the food bank, call (360) 794-7959.

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