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For the first winter in its 34-year-history, Charlotte's Loaves & Fishes pantry program is worried it may not be able to meet the needs of the community's hungry.
The network of 18 Mecklenburg County food pantries is seeing record numbers of clients due to the recession, and a survey released Wednesday showed over a third of the clients are first-time visitors.
As of Oct. 31, Loaves & Fishes has served 81,717 clients this year, compared with 57,420 during the same period two years ago.
"That's a 42 percent increase," said Executive Director Beverly Howard. "I'm not one to cry 'wolf,' but this is the most serious crisis Loaves & Fishes has ever faced."
Currently, over half the shelves are empty at the agency's warehouse off Old Pineville Road in south Charlotte. Several major food drives are now in progress, and Howard hopes they'll supply the agency's holiday needs. Late winter is when problems may arise, she says. None of the 18 pantries will close, but potential cuts could include limiting what families receive or doubling the time they must wait between visits.
The agency was able to avoid those kinds of cuts last winter, thanks to $325,000 in donations from the Leon Levine Foundation and the Critical Need Response Fund - an emergency effort that handed out more than $2 million to city charities providing food, clothing and warmth to low income people. The Foundation for the Carolinas managed that money last year and does not expect the effort to be repeated this winter.
Other details from Loaves & Fishes' annual survey showed more than 61 percent of those coming to the pantry are victims of the economy, including people who've been laid off or had their hours at work reduced. Most said the layoff had occurred recently, the survey showed.
"The most shocking statistic to me was that 32 percent of the clients had never been to Loaves & Fishes before," Howard said. "We're now helping people who were once supporting our food banks."
Among the busiest pantries in the county is the one at the Ada Jenkins Center in Davidson. The pantry has fed 12,552 people in the first 10 months of this year, compared with 7,558 over the same period last year. That's a 66 percent increase, officials said.
"We're seeing a lot of displaced families, a lot of people who can't find work, and a lot of elderly who are raising their grandchildren," said Binnie Neel, who coordinates the Ada Jenkins pantry. "Most of these are people who don't have a Plan B. They have no place else to go. This pantry is the difference between eating and going hungry."
