By Joy Winheim | Executive Director
How much do you grocery shop? Do you pick up what you need with nothing extra? Do you cut coupons to maximize your dollars? Do you shop with no worries about how much your food costs? That's a question we ask ourselves as we go to our local food bank to "stock" our food pantry.
Food prices in the US are rising. Food Stamp benefits are decreasing. Our local food bank now services two counties with hundreds on non-profits organizations and churches battling for the perfect time slot. Its a crap shoot. Sometimes we are able to get a time when they have just stocked their shelves. Sometimes, we get a time when they barely have a can of food on the shelf.
Our food costs may seem minimal compared to how you shop. We pay a mere .18 cents per pound for often expired canned goods, juices and cereals. According to the USDA, expired foods can be distributed for up to twelve months depending on the type of food it is. We can average about 1,000 ro 1,200 pounds of food per shopping trip - which is all that fits in our van. Two days later - our pantry is empty. 1,000 pounds of food doesn't last like it used to.
In 2013 - Francis House distrubuted over $33,000 worth of food and hygiene items. It is a great accomplishment and we are proud to be able to provide this service to our community. Especially as budgets are reduced and costs are increased.
We can't do it without your help. Without your continued support. We thank you. We applaud you. We need you.
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
