Pantry survey shows 1 in 5 clients raising grandkids

The annual client survey at Loaves & Fishes, Mecklenburg County’s food pantry system, shows one-fifth of the people it surveyed are older Charlotteans who need help getting groceries because they are raising their grandchildren.

Results of the annual survey were released Wednesday in conjunction with a mass delivery of Thanksgiving turkeys to the agency’s food pantries throughout Mecklenburg County.

A total of 775 households participated in the survey, said Loaves & Fishes Executive Director Beverly Howard. One-third of those surveyed had some college education, and 14.4 percent were college graduates, she added.

Among the survey revelations is that 70.9 percent of the households go without eating when they run out of food.

Respondents indicated that the groceries they receive from pantries gave them extra money to use for things like rent (43.9 percent), electric and/or gas bills (30.7 percent), medicine (19.3 percent) or to pay for other things that allow them to keep jobs or look for work.

“Thanksgiving is the one holiday that is all about the meal. If you don’t have food to share with your family, you don’t have Thanksgiving,” Howard said in a statement. “To make sure all the families coming to Loaves & Fishes have something to carve for their Thanksgiving day meal, we provide families of three or more a turkey and families of one or two with a whole chicken.”

Loaves & Fishes is a nonprofit emergency food pantry program that provides a week’s worth of nutritionally balanced groceries, at no cost, to individuals and families who are experiencing a crisis. The agency operates a network of 20 pantries located throughout Mecklenburg County.

To see the entire survey or for more information about Loaves & Fishes, see www.loavesandfishes.org or call 704-523-4333.

This story was originally published November 18, 2015 at 12:12 PM with the headline "Pantry survey shows 1 in 5 clients raising grandkids."