Elderly and disabled people are a large part of those seeking help from food pantries

From The Times-Picayune in New Orleans:

Across the country, food banks are reporting a 50 percent increase since 2006 in the number of people they're feeding, a trend that is mirrored in Louisiana, say those in charge of local food pantries.

The steep increase means that thousands of households in the state must choose between buying food and paying utility, housing and medical bills, according to a study released this month by the Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans, which supplies food banks and soup kitchens in 23 south Louisiana parishes.

Despite recent signs of recovery in the economy, food shelves are not feeling much relief. "Every month, we have more people," said Tina Hanley, secretary for the St. Anthony Mission of St. Clement of Rome, a large Catholic parish in Metairie that started a food shelf last year.

For years, research has concluded that Louisiana's youngest children often lack the food they need to thrive. Data released last year by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which finances the federal food stamp program, showed that Louisiana had the highest rate of hunger for children 5 and younger. And 40 percent of the households who seek help at Louisiana food shelves have children.

But last week's Second Harvest report also found that elderly and disabled people make up a large share of those seeking help from food pantries, along with an increasing number of unemployed adults.

Typically, in a recession, food charities suffer as people with tight budgets cut back on giving. On top of that, Second Harvest was hit with a 90 percent, $4.5 million-dollar cut in state funding this year.

During economic downturns the food-stamp program, which is run by the state but financed by the federal government, expands to help to address growing needs. The numbers of those enrolled in Louisiana and across the nation have risen to record levels. But some struggling families may have slightly too much monthly income to qualify for food stamps.

And, even with food stamps, many families still come up short, according to the Second Harvest report.

Because of rising grocery costs and outdated federal-benefit formulas, families are having a tough time stretching their food stamps to last an entire month. And although Louisiana is among the top states in the nation for enrolling eligible households in the food-stamp program, state data show that fewer than half of eligible families in New Orleans receive the help, compared with roughly three-quarters of eligible families statewide.

Plus, the food-stamp formula assumes that each family will spend 30 percent of its net income for food. For instance, a family of three that has $600 in eligible income could receive $526 in food stamps, but then its expected 30 percent contribution -- $180 -- is subtracted, resulting in a benefits card loaded with $346 each month.

But when money is tight and bills are high, families may not be able to put 30 percent of their limited cash toward groceries. In the New Orleans area, the Second Harvest report found, nearly 60 percent of the most needy families said that they'd had to choose between paying food and utility bills, while nearly 50 percent made choices between food and medical care and 40 percent faced choices between groceries and paying a mortgage or rent.

In eastern New Orleans, the Just the Right Attitude Food Bank has seen an increase in people ages 35 to 55 whose longtime jobs have been cut back or eliminated, said Debra South-Jones, who has run the pantry for 11 years and now provides at least some food to 5,000 households each month. Others with jobs can't buy sufficient groceries and also keep up with sky-high rent and staggering utility bills. "They're just not making it," she said.

Hanley said that since her Metairie food bank opened six months ago, she's seen an increase in people suffering from layoffs, primarily in the construction and fast-food industries, she said.

And grandparents who used to get some groceries once in a while from Just the Right Attitude now visit regularly because they're feeding grandchildren while parents work extra jobs, she said.

Still, some newcomers are reluctant to take the help, South-Jones said, recalling how one laid-off man told her he felt sheepish about taking a box from her. "I feel like I'm taking from someone else," he said.

At Greater Macedonia Baptist Church in Port Sulphur, food-shelf coordinator Diedra Davis said she could feed more households if she had more perishable items, which are in high demand. Right after the Second Harvest truck arrives each month, about 80 families flock to the church on Thursdays to get bread, fresh meat and fresh produce but at that point -- three weeks after delivery -- her freezer and refrigerator are mostly empty, she said. So this Thursday she filled food boxes for about 20 families with what she had on hand: bags of dried beans, rice and cartons of extended-shelf-life milk.

Nationally, Feeding America agencies report that 19 percent of the families they help have at least one elderly member. But in south Louisiana, Second Harvest reports that 30 percent of its families included an elderly person. Researchers studying hunger have found that elderly people are much less likely to apply for, and receive, food stamps.

The federal agriculture department recently allowed the state Department of Social Services to verify applications over the phone instead of the previously required face-to-face interviews, said Trey Williams, spokesman for DSS, which administers the food-stamp program. Williams noted that this summer DSS plans to further streamline the application process with online applications and a one-stop Call Center.

Part of the increased need for New Orleans food pantries is the result of dispersed families, said South-Jones, who notes that many of her regular elderly visitors once were fed regularly by their children. So in recent years, she's begun giving all senior citizens two clamshell containers at lunchtime: one for lunch and one for dinner.

"A lot of their children didn't come back after Katrina," she said.