Food pantry demand is rising

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Santiago Martinez talks at Central United Methodist Church in Traverse City. Record-Eagle/Keith King
Food and signs are arranged on shelves at the Father Fred Foundation food pantry. Record-Eagle/Keith King

August 19, 2012

Food pantry demand is rising

Seniors on fixed incomes are among the hungry

BY GLENN PUIT gpuit@record-eagle.com The Record Eagle Sun Aug 19, 2012, 07:14 AM EDT

TRAVERSE CITY — People on the front lines of northern Michigan's poverty fight are seeing significant jumps in demand for food to feed the region's poor.

The number of people getting groceries is up nearly 16 percent when compared to the prior year at the Father Fred Foundation food pantry in Traverse City. So far, through July 2012, the pantry served 31,820 people. Last year at the same time, the pantry had served 27,396 people.

"There's a lot of working poor trying to make ends meet right now," said Joan O'Neill, Father Fred spokeswoman.

At Benzie Area Christian Neighbors, demand for food is on the rise. Gerri VanAntwerp, executive director, said the Benzonia organization served an additional 200 families in recent months--up to 721 visits in July.

"We are seeing a huge amount of folks in the senior groups who are returning and needing (food) from month to month," said VanAntwerp. "They are on a fixed income, and there are not a lot of options for employment. We are also seeing more new poor and working poor who just can't make it on their wages."

Mancelona's Community Lighthouse served 420 families in July. Demand for proteins, milk and basic staples are escalating.

"I think the jobs are scarce and people don't have the funds to buy their groceries and pay all their bills," said Director Pat Milligan.

One of the thousands to visit Father Fred for food this year is Santiago Martinez, 54. The unemployed construction worker camps in a tent in the Benzie County woods at a site about 25 miles outside Traverse City. He and his girlfriend either sleep at the camp or in their 1998 Chevy. When they have the gas money, they drive into Traverse City to get food from Father Fred or breakfast at Central United Methodist Church in the 200 block of Cass Street.

"I'm still looking for work — construction," Martinez said. "It's pretty hard right now."

Jacquie Thomas, community service outreach coordinator at Central United, said the church served food three days a week to approximately 30 people a day in October 2010. Last week, the number of people showing up for breakfast topped 100 on three different mornings.

"We've tripled," she said. "We go through 45 dozen eggs a week and 15 pounds of sausage."

Thomas and others who offer services to the poor point to multiple factors for increased demand. One is the economic collapse. Michigan lost more than 1 million jobs since 2000, and northern Michigan was not immune. In this region, unemployment rates range from nearly 7 percent in Leelanau County to just shy of 11 percent in Wexford County.

Social workers and non-profits fear food demand will jump when the impact of the ongoing national drought and cutbacks in food and cash assistance in the state take hold.

Thomas also said food lines at the church are increasingly crowded with young men, ages 25 to 35, who leave prison with felony convictions. Even if they are willing to work, they can't find jobs.

"I think that's our largest social issue right now," Thomas said.