They help thousands with Thanksgiving meals. This year, they need help themselves.
Thanksgiving is a bittersweet time of year for Neshmy Hernandez.
Her mother-in-law passed away a couple of years ago, and ever since, her family spends the holiday together, reflecting on the importance of family. But recently, her hours were cut at her cashier job, and Hernandez wasn’t sure how she was going to afford a Thanksgiving meal.
“I was thinking maybe we’d go to my mom’s house,” she said — until she received an email from her son’s school telling her about Loaves & Fishes’ food shares and pantries.
On Friday morning at Loaves & Fishes’ food share site at the Johnston YMCA, she was in the driver’s seat of one of dozens of cars blocking traffic on North Davidson Street, in line to receive a food box with Thanksgiving staples and a frozen turkey.
But due to a nationwide shortage, a limited number of turkeys awaited them.
Help in Charlotte
Loaves & Fishes has been around for 45 years and, pre-COVID, served about 1,000 people a week at 41 brick-and-mortar locations throughout the county. Thousands have relied on the food pantry, which recently merged with Friendship Trays, during the pandemic.
North Carolina is one of the country’s hungriest states, and about 15% of families experience food insecurity every year in Mecklenburg County. As the pandemic worsened last year, the number of hungry families in Charlotte did, too — especially among the county’s Latino families.
According to USDA data, 17% of Hispanic households experienced food insecurity in 2020. The food-neediest group was Black Americans — 22% of their households experienced food insecurity in 2020, more than triple that of white families.
Last year, data from food pantry Loaves & Fishes indicated that the number of Latino people who needed their services nearly tripled during the height of the pandemic, while Black clients continued to use the pantry in large numbers.
“In addition to food insecurity being segregated, we have populations and neighborhoods and ZIP codes that are segregated by poverty, but also by race, and the two seem to go hand in hand,” CEO Tina Postel said. “So there’s just a lot of systemic institutional things, barriers that we need to break down in order to solve this food insecurity issue.”
Loaves & Fishes’ marketing and events director Sue Bruce said the pantry saw a 50% increase last year in the number of people they fed through food pantries. Though the numbers have leveled off this summer to pre-pandemic levels, numbers are back on the rise during the last few weeks.
In 2019, they fed 80,000 individuals in a year, and those numbers bumped up by 50% to 120,000 in 2020. This year, Postel said they will “probably end up feeding around 90,000.”
“Thanksgiving is the one holiday that is all about food and gathering with family and friends to share a meal,” Bruce said. “We want to make sure that everyone we serve is able to have a Thanksgiving meal.”
Not enough turkeys
Issues affecting supply chains have plagued the country for months now, and make difficult a holiday centered around food. Food banks all over the country are struggling to assist their clients.
Loaves & Fishes ordered 1,700 turkeys in August, months ahead of Thanksgiving out of an abundance of caution. The turkeys arrived a day late because there weren’t enough workers to process the order, and the pantry is still worried they might run out.
The food pantry usually gives out around 5,000 turkeys during the holidays.
“Due to supply chain issues we are limited in the number that we could purchase this year at the same time that our numbers are starting to go back up,” Bruce said.
Loaves & Fishes have been distributing the turkeys they have at food shares and pantries since Wednesday. Families who need food can register to pick up a turkey and a food box on Monday and Wednesday of the week of Thanksgiving. Turkeys, Thanksgiving food boxes, as well as groceries for the week are available at the pantry’s food share sites each day Thanksgiving week, but require a referral.
“We’ve been averaging over 600 turkeys a day, so that’s why we’re putting out a plea for more help,” Postel said. “We’ve had supply issues since the pandemic began, and nobody could have anticipated the amount of food that we were going to need.”
People can drop off turkeys at their warehouse located at 648 Griffith Road, Suite B in Charlotte 28217.
“This is our busiest time of year. This is an entire holiday that just revolves around food,” Postel said. “It’s our hope right up to the Thanksgiving holiday that we have enough turkeys and all the holiday fixings to make sure that everyone who’s in need is fed this holiday season.”
‘Food is love’
Doris Miller’s great-grandkids arrived in Charlotte from California on Wednesday.
She used to come to Loaves & Fishes food pantries in the 90s, when her kids were younger and she needed the help. As they grew up, she stopped coming.
But recently, she hurt herself at work and her finances have taken a hit.
“I was thinking about not doing Thanksgiving,” she said.
On Friday, volunteers loaded her turkey and box up in her sedan’s trunk, and she let out a deep breath.
“Anytime that we’re out at one of our mobile operations, you see the relief on people’s faces ... You see tears of joy, you see smiles,” Postel said. “Food is love. Food is hope. And that’s what we want to provide for everybody.”
Now, Miller is planning to make sure her great-grandkids’ bellies are full of their favorites Thursday — dressing and macaroni and cheese.
“This box means a lot,” she said.
This story was originally published November 22, 2021 at 10:34 AM.
