Supply-side troubles

In slow economy, donations to food pantries may not feed all the hungry

…Living Bread is one of a number of Massachusetts food pantries that are striving to meet rising demand. A plummeting economy, coupled with soaring food and fuel prices, has caused an unprecedented increase in need across the state, say pantry workers, even as donations in many cases have lagged, leaving agencies like Simon’s struggling.

“Is it worse than I’ve ever seen?” said Eileen O’Shea, director of member services for the Greater Boston Food Bank, which provides 30 million pounds of food and grocery products a year to 600 hunger-relief agencies in Eastern Massachusetts that feed about 83,000 people a week. Based in Roxbury, the organization has an annual budget of nearly $50 million. “Yes, definitely. And we haven’t even hit the winter yet.”


According to O’Shea, the food bank has a warehouse full of food, but, she said, “it comes in and it goes right out again.”

When donations drop, pantries and other agencies that feed those in need are forced to buy food, which is more difficult now that the price of spaghetti sauce is up 63 percent, peanut butter has risen 19 percent, and even ground turkey costs 10 percent more, O’Shea said.

Boston Globe