Food bank inventory runs low
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TweetThe Haines Salvation Army is hoping to boost food pantry donations for residents in need. It is seeing high demands with few donations despite grocery stores’ efforts to donate food.
“At our end of the month Food Bank we’re serving about 40 families now of various sizes, and we’re doing in between 10 and 20 families throughout the month, which is quite an increase from last year,” said Lt. Kevin Woods.
“Now going into summer I’m a little worried. Shelves are extremely low, we’re mighty thin for a whole year.”
He said individual donations are low, including the school food drive, which produced fewer food items than in the previous year.
“We’re able to purchase food at a discounted rate, but that can only happen with an increase of (cash) donations,” Woods said. A government grant that helped out last year with food purchases is unlikely to be awarded again, he said.
Woods said in April, Salvation Army had given away 537 bags of food so far this year, not including 150 special bags for holidays. It gave about 800 bags in all of 2016.
The Salvation Army, located at Fifth and Union Street, opens its food bank on the last Thursday of each month. Most of the food is USDA commodities as part of the Emergency Food Assistance Program.
About 15 percent of Alaskans are considered “food insecure,” according to the Food Bank of Alaska, on trend with the national average. About 20 percent of Alaskan children are food insecure.
“We are definitely doing more with less. The number of people we are serving has increased from last year,” Woods said. “But we will continue to do whatever we can to help those in need in the community.”
The Salvation Army also operates a store, open for summer hours 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday on Union Street.
