This week at DICP I witnessed our food bank run dry for the first time since I have been here. On Wednesday we served 120 families, with our normal Wednesday average being 30-40 this was almost triple our average. I was amazed by this number but entirely shocked.
Over the last few weeks I have been noticing an increase in the amount of people using the food bank, many of whom have cars. I attributed the increase to the holiday season, but when I mentioned my observation to our food bank manager he had an interesting explantion which I had never thought of. He told me that as many costs rise and people try to pay their bills they are more likely to use food banks, knowing that they can at least feed their family for free for a couple of days, alleviating some of the stress in their lives. So they may have a car and a place to live and to many of us they seem like people that we work with every day but in many ways are living pay check to pay check.
After serving 120 families in one day all I could think, was " I am glad that could help that many people in one day but what will we do when people show up Thursday and Friday?" As I was leaving work Thursday our building supervisor was unloading a truck and trailer full of donated food. Someone had taken care of our problem.
I found a great article talking about many issues of dealing with hunger within our country. (http://feedingamerica.org/newsroom/press-release-archive/49-million-at-risk.aspx) Check out the Feeding America website for more information.
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