Big Bend Sentinel- Area food pantries grapple with limited resources, increasing demand

Area food pantries grapple with limited resources, increasing demand
September 1st, 2011 under Community » Top Stories
By EMILY JO CURETON

FAR WEST TEXAS – “This is God’s work,” an elderly woman sighs as she peers into a plastic bag. It’s stuffed with ordinary kitchen staples like beans, rice, tomatoes, tortillas, pickled this and that, canned fruit and frozen chicken.

The Jeff Davis County Food Pantry is flooded with a heavenly type of light early Saturday morning, but the task at hand is entirely human. Half a dozen cheerful volunteers bustle around to get provisions organized before the rush hits. By 9, a steady stream of people file in and soon the place is buzzing with neighborly chitchat.

A volunteer at the Jeff Davis County Food Pantry distributes school lunch fixings for children at the monthly distribution on Saturday. (staff photo by EMILY JO CURETON)
The pantry regularly serves 170 families in Jeff Davis County and 30 families in Valentine, according to Executive Director Tex Harrison.

“We call it supplemental food because this is not a total diet by any means,” she said.

The food comes from both local donations and from the West Texas Food Bank (WTFB) Alpine branch.

“We are emergency food. We are there for people down on their luck. I’ve been told again and again why people come in – job loss, a terrible illness, divorce or death. Any of those things could happen to anyone on this planet,” WTFB spokesperson Paige Phelps said.

A study released last week by Feeding America shows that in Presidio County a staggering 44 percent of children and 27 percent of the total population doesn’t have access to healthy meals on a regular basis, which the USDA calls ‘food security’.

A total 16 percent of the Brewster County population is food insecure, including 26 percent of children. The numbers are similar in Jeff Davis County, where a projected 14 percent of people are food insecure, and 27 percent of children.

The national average for child food insecurity is 23 percent and in the WTFB service area that number is 35 percent, which means at least 1 out of every 3 kids here aren’t getting the nutrition they need to ensure proper development, mental and physical health, or peace of mind.

“These numbers that came out are horrible, but not that surprisingly,” Phelps said.

WTFB serves 22 counties or roughly 1/6 of Texas by area. The Alpine branch covers five of those counties, operating monthly distributions in Alpine, Presidio and Balmorhea. Individually run outfits serve Candelaria, Valentine, Marfa and Fort Davis. These pantries utilize local donations and buy WTFB supplies, (usually 40-lb boxes, which run between $27 and $30 a pop).

WTFB regularly serves 400 people monthly in Presidio and 80 people in Balmorhea. They occasionally do distributions in Fort Davis too, though this has been put on hold because of insufficient food and funds. Feeding Presidio alone can cost upwards of $10,000 a month.

The Redeemer Lutheran Church of Alpine packages monthly food bags for delivery to Candelaria the second Saturday of every month, which Frank Covington and Dr. Jim Luecke deliver when they are also distributing medical supplies.

In Marfa, Genevieve Bassham has been organizing the food pantry since 1997.

“A lot of the people that come to get the food – they are working people, but all the expenses are so high, all the essentials, like light, gas, everything that we need. Especially for the elderly, they are on a fixed income. Some only get $360 a month, What can you do for only $360 a month?” Bassham asked.

Every month Bassham distributes roughly ninety boxes to 380 people. She regularly chips in for the expenses from her own income, though she’s hoping to do more fundraising for the non-profit entity responsible for the pantry, Salivuda Inc..

“I don’t drink or smoke or anything like that, so I have a little extra left to do my duty,” she says.

All the food pantry requires from people is a short form verifying residency, household size and income. The minimum income depends on the number of mouths to feed, but if a household’s monthly net is under $3,000, chances are, the family qualifies.

“You just need to be hungry,” Bassham said of her screening process.

Most pantries distribute the pre-measured WTFB boxes, but in Fort Davis they have started using a store model, where people can pick and choose what they actually want to eat.

This week in Jeff Davis County there were bags and bags of chicken thanks to an $11,000 donation from an area rancher, which was matched by WTFB in Odessa.

But for the most part meat and veggies are increasingly hard to come by. Statewide droughts and floods have taken their toll on crops and livestock. In turn, people’s willingness and ability to donate surplus to the food banks has dropped off.

Organizers are driving farther to get much needed greens and protein, making the high cost of gas yet another factor. More and more often, local pantries have little besides canned goods to offer, or as was the case in Fort Davis on Saturday, a whole rack of salad dressing without a single green leafy thing in sight.

“Our job really is to feed people. That’s our main goal. But as we get stronger I think you’ll see more and more programs added,” Phelps said.

WTFB would like to implement a program called Food to Kids, which would send youngsters home from school for the weekend with healthy snacks.

It’s been successfully supported in Odessa and El Paso, where local churches and donors adopted the schools. Phelps projected it would cost $14,000 a year to adopt a school the size of Marfa Elementary.

The Jeff Davis County Pantry tried a similar program, but ever since the school cafeteria closed its doors they decided to focus limited funds on providing sandwich fixings for weekday lunches, which volunteer Katherine Fleming doles out on Saturday. She’s been helping out her neighbors for over three years.

“Friends of mine started to utilize the service so I came with them one Saturday and have been coming back ever since,” she says.

A dollar doesn’t go as far as it used to – a can of soda, a game of pool, this newspaper. But through the food bank system, $1 equals four meals for someone in need – someone who could easily be your neighbor, or yourself.

Area food distribution schedule:

Alpine: 9 – 11 am, 1st Saturday of the month, contact Food Pantry of Alpine, Greb Schwab at 432-386-3400.

Marfa: 4:15 – 6 pm, 3rd Thursday of every month , 1402 San Antonio St., delivery available, contact Genevieve Bassham at Saluvida, Inc., 432-729-4572.

Presidio: The next distribution is Sunday, September 17 at the Fire Station, contact David Sullivan with West Texas Food Bank, 432-837-1580.

Fort Davis: 9 – 11am, 2nd and 4th Saturday’s from January through October,

1st and 3rd Saturday’s from November through December, 609 Compromise Street, delivery available, contact Tex Harrison at 432-426-3886.

Balmorhea: The next distribution is Saturday, Sept. 9, usually happens on the 2nd Saturday of the month, contact David Sullivan with West Texas Food Bank, 432-837-1580

Candelaria: 2nd Saturday of every month, delivery available, contact the Redeemer Lutheran Church of Alpine at 432-837-5428

Valentine: 9 – 11am, 2nd and 4th Saturday’s from January through October, 1st and 3rd Saturday’s from November through December, delivery available, contact Tex Harrison at 432-426-3886.