Demand is up for food assistance. Local soup kitchens and food pantries all report increased traffic since the beginning of the year, and some say donations are down.
Churches, a primary source of donated goods, continue to provide non-perishable items to agencies that distribute to the needy. But the growing demand is causing the need gap to widen.
Volunteers and program administrators at faith-based organizations such as Our Lady of Mercy Community Outreach, Seacoast Church’s Dream Center, Mount Moriah Missionary Baptist Church, Tricounty Family Ministries and Hillcrest Baptist Church independently confirmed that service providers have been especially challenged in recent weeks to satisfy the growing need.
Rising food prices have forced people to make hard choices and even forgo essentials, such as health care or child care in favor of food, several service providers said. Rising fuel prices have exacerbated the problem.
I can personally attest that this is true out West as well. Our food closet is being taxed to the limit. I am absolutely deluged with requests for food assistance, help with gas, rent, and PG&E;(to those not from our coast, that’s energy) bills. Our town’s shelter is crammed to overflowing, and all the aid agencies are being drained. And all in (albeit one of the poorer areas of) booming California.
Alta Cal – Your mention of PG&E;brings to mind two amusing bits of trivia. One part of my family PG&E;employed for three generations. PG&E;was sometime affectionately known as Pigs Goats & Elephants. My grandfather, who had some socialist leanings, referred to it more harshly as “Pacific Graft & Extortion.” Actually, expecially in past years when towns and cities in California were more isolated from each other than they are now, PG&E;was one of the strongest social elements in the northern two-thirds of the state. A big civic institution in places such as Placerville, Auburn, Oroville, Susanville, Dunsmuir, Ukiah, et al, as well as large palces such as Saqcramento, Stockton, San Jose, and headquarters in San Francisco. It was the biggesdt utilityy in the US, and still may be, and covered more varities of topographies and weather than any other utility in America. And there was a lot of family feeling. And, really, times were best when it was a regulated monopoly, than the mish-mash we have now.
It certainly is an icon out here.