Food Supply Not Enough To Meet Community Needs

PHILADELPHIA -- Nov. 19, 2008 – Philabundance is experiencing a serious shortage of food and is calling on Delaware Valley organizations and individuals to help meet the mounting need for food in communities throughout the region. This year food donations to Philabundance are down by 32%, compared to this time last year, and down 40% to this time in 2006. Coinciding with this deficiency is the Nov. 17 USDA report that 36.2 million Americans, including 12.4 million children, are food insecure.

Around the Delaware Valley more and more people than ever are seeking food aid from cupboards, shelters and emergency kitchens and because of this upsurge the need for food is increasingly underestimated and has not been met. One explanation for this decline is that retailers have found secondary markets to sell products that Philabundance and other food banks used to receive as donations. The decrease in retail donations combined with the faltering economy and increase in food costs have caused many people to not donate this year or to need help from hunger relief organizations.

“Everywhere we turn, there are stories about the rising unemployment rate, the number of people in danger of losing their homes, and the anticipated jump this year in home heating costs by 15%,” says Bill Clark executive director and president of Philabundance. “And then there’s the “sticker shock” we all experience at the end of the grocery check-out line. None of us are immune to the effects of our faltering economy.”

Echoing Clark’s words are the recent statistics from the USDA. According to the USDA, the overall price of food rose four percent in 2007 and is expected to have increased an additional four percent by the end of the year. The cost of individual products such as cheese rose 14.5%, eggs rose 16.3% and bread increased by 17.3% between July 2007 and July 2008.

“The fact that most of us are carefully weighing whether we really need that item that we’re considering buying serves as a reminder to me – and all of us here at Philabundance – just how much more serious life’s choices have become for our neighbors who were already struggling, or even just getting by,” says Clark. The need has increased as we see that families who in the past have been able to provide for their own are now looking for help.”

Philabundance is asking that during the holiday season -- a time of increased need but also of giving -- for individuals and organizations help to plan food-drives and to donate non-perishable food and funds. This will help in the effort to increase the supply of food distributed to Philabundance’s network of more than 600 agencies in the region that provide meals and foodstuffs to the 900,000 low-income residents in the Delaware Valley. These donations will enable Philabundance to secure enough food to distribute to those people in our community at risk for hunger and malnutrition.

Philabundance relies on the generous support of all segments of the Delaware Valley community – individuals, corporations, foundations, as well as community groups – to help feed our hungry Delaware Valley neighbors.

#  #  #