Food Bank Buys Goods as Gifts Lag

For the first time in almost 20 years, the Mid-Ohio Food Bank, in Columbus,

is having to buy goods that it once received free from General Mills, Kellogg, and other national food suppliers. The companies have cut their donations of cereal just when the poor economy is pushing up demand for the food bank’s services.

“In all the years I’ve been here, we’ve never, ever had to buy cereal,” says Matt Habash, who has been the food bank’s executive director for 17 years. The organization supplies food to a network of 480 food pantries, soup kitchens, and shelters in 20 counties. So far this year, the food bank has purchased five truckloads of cereal costing $60,000 to cover the shortfall of donated goods.

The tight economy has prompted national companies, which provide 66 percent of the food bank’s inventory, to hold on to goods they might otherwise have donated and instead look for new markets in which to sell them.

Food donations to the food bank are down 28 percent compared with the same period last year, according to the Mid-Ohio Food Bank. It found that in July contributions began to plummet, Mr. Habash says. After September 11, that trend continued. The recession has hurt the food bank’s inventory at a time when it needs the food most, Mr. Habash says.

“We’re seeing a decline in inventory while the requests for help are increasing,” he says. “In general, the demand for services or the requests for help are up 10 percent this year over last year.” The average number of people who seek help from the organization’s network in a given month rose by almost 7,000, to 70,000, between January 1 and September 30, according to a survey of 365 groups in the food bank’s network.

‘Scary Part’

While the recession has contributed to the increased demand, Mr. Habash pointed to the 1996 overhaul of the federal welfare system as a larger culprit. The law has moved many people off Ohio’s public rolls and into jobs, but many still are unable to make ends meet, he says.

“I’ve seen more and more people that are working [and] playing by all the rules having to access food pantries and soup kitchens to survive,” he says. “That’s the scary part.” The Mid-Ohio Food Bank’s study showed that 46 percent of the people helped by its network are working.

One bright spot is that the number of responses to a fund-raising letter the food bank sent out in early November is slightly higher compared with last year’s returns, Mr. Habash says. “The good news is people are still giving.”

However, the amount of the average donation is down by about $20 from $71 last year, says Evelyn Behm, the organization’s associate director. Ms. Behm expected the average to climb in December, when contributions of four figures usually roll in, but she isn’t sure how much the volatile economy will affect donors who usually give large gifts.

To encourage donors to give extra, the food bank mailed its end-of-year solicitation a few weeks early and added references to the recession and the aftermath of September 11 to make it a stronger appeal, Mr. Habash says.

In another step aimed at ensuring that the organization has enough support during the winter months, the food bank plans to start its annual food drive, Operation Feed, in late January instead of mid-March. The food drive, which is done in partnership with the United Way of Central Ohio, in Columbus, will have a larger promotional effort than it did last year, and the food bank is working with the American Institute of Architects to hold a “CANstruction” competition, in which local architecture companies build elaborate structures out of cans of food.