Joint Donation Effort Aims to Assist Growing Ranks of People Hit Hard by Struggling Economy
By Lori Aratani
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 15, 2008
The big blue Montgomery County Ride On bus took up four prime parking spaces in the busy lot of the Whole Foods Market on Rockville Pike yesterday.
But T-shirt-clad volunteers assured shoppers that it was for a good cause. They were there as part of the Manna Food Center's first Stuff a Bus food drive, an attempt to raise awareness about the needs of people struggling in a tough economy.
The bus caught Claudia Bezerra's eye. The massage therapist asked what was going on and returned a few minutes later with groceries.
"I wanted to do what I could," she said as she handed over the bag. "It's not much . . . but hopefully it will help."
Similar scenes played out at three other Whole Foods stores in Montgomery -- in Bethesda, Silver Spring and Gaithersburg. In addition to providing parking space for the buses, Whole Foods gave 5 percent of gross receipts from purchases at the four stores to the Rockville-based nonprofit food center, which seeks to end hunger in the county.
The county, which operates the Ride On buses, allowed the agencies to use the vehicles for the day.
Tim Lanigan, Manna's director of food collection, said economic pressures are driving more people to seek help from groups like his. In April last year, he said, Manna provided food assistance to 1,700 families in Montgomery; last month, 2,263 families received aid. Lanigan said Manna is anticipating a 20 percent rise in clients this fiscal year.
The case is much the same at food agencies across the Washington region, where goods are disappearing almost as quickly as they arrive. The increasing costs of groceries and utilities, as well as fallout from the mortgage crisis, are pushing people to seek support wherever they can, food pantry employees say.
Officials at Our Daily Bread, a nonprofit agency in Fairfax County, said they have a four-month waiting list for families that want to be part of their food delivery program, which provides supplemental groceries for up to three months. Last spring, the Arlington Food Assistance Center had 600 clients on its list. This year, that number was 850.
Chris Garris, Our Daily Bread's food program manager, said the group's food pantry was emptied in mid-February. Businesses and community groups rallied and provided more than $4,000 worth of goods, Garris said. Still, officials said, they can't keep their shelves stocked.
"All agencies definitely need the help," said Lynn Brantley, president and chief executive of the Capital Area Food Bank, the region's primary nonprofit food distributor.
People are going to the market and finding that it costs more to buy the same products, said Kristin Valentine, a spokeswoman for Bread for the City, a Washington relief agency.
"Food stamps aren't going as far as they used to," she said. "Clients that used to come a couple of times a year are coming a bit more. And we're definitely seeing seniors. They go to buy those same 10 things they always buy, and suddenly they find they can't afford those 10 things."
A report yesterday from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that food prices in April rose almost 1 percent, the highest jump since 1990.
Throughout the day, a steady stream of folks dropped by the Whole Foods in Rockville to donate bags of pasta, boxes of cereal and other nonperishables. By early afternoon, all of the seats on the bus and half of the floor space were taken up by food.
Some donors, like Bezerra, gave on the spur of the moment. Others, like Liz Oser, a mother of four from Rockville, had done their shopping earlier and stopped by between errands.
About noon, Oser pulled up in her car and unloaded nearly a dozen bags, stuffed with cereal, canned vegetables, flour and soups.
"There are people all over the world who are in need, but there are also people here in our community that need help," Oser said. "It's just the right thing to do."
Local nonprofit groups said spiraling food costs aren't the only thing affecting their ability to help those who need it. The high price of gasoline is also making it difficult for them to distribute food, because it costs more to fuel delivery trucks. The result, they say, is less money for food. Some volunteers also say they can no longer help with distribution because they can't afford to fill their tanks, Garris said.
On Rockville Pike, friends Lisa Flaxman, Robin Thieme and Eviva Goldfarb said they had seen headlines about the food crises in the Washington region and around the world. Yesterday, Flaxman made two trips in her blue Isuzu to drop off 650 pounds of food that the trio had collected.
"The need is real, and it's right around us," Thieme said as she helped load the bus.
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