Food Pantries Struggling With Shortages

Julie Rack stocks nearly empty shelves at the St. Vincent Food Pantry, Thursday, Nov. 15, 2007, in Cincinnati. Food pantries facing an increasing demand that is outstripping supplies are being forced to cut back on portions to make those supplies feed as many as possible. (AP Photo/Al Behrman) (Al Behrman - AP)

"November weather has been relatively mild, and you haven't seen the cost of home heating fuel added to what a family has to deal with," said Evelyn Behm, associate director of the Mid-Ohio Food Bank, which supplies food to pantries, soup kitchens and other charities in 20 central and eastern Ohio counties. "Those prices, we all know, are going up substantially this year."

At the Society of St. Vincent de Paul food pantry in Cincinnati, clients now get three or four days' worth of food instead of six or seven.

"We are trying to stretch our resources to help more people," said Liz Carter, executive director of the society. "But it's so difficult when you see the desperation and have to tell them you just don't have enough to give them what they need."

Officials with the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York, which serves nearly 1,000 agencies in 23 counties, also are worried.

Through the end of August, the food bank was down almost 700,000 pounds of USDA commodities that include basic essentials such as canned fruit and vegetables and some meat _ food that is very difficulty to make up in donations, Executive Director Mark Quandt said.

"We're bracing ourselves for a very tough winter, especially with home heating fuel prices at record highs in the Northeast," Quandt said. "People living in poverty or near poverty just can't sustain those types of increases."

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Associated Press writers Dan Sewell in Cincinnati and Doug Whiteman in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this story.

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