Food Shortage Hits Manchester Food Bank

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• New Hampshire Food Bank

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The Food Bank is a huge 18,000-square foot warehouse in Manchester that sends basic goods to food pantries and soup kitchens all over the state. This morning, Kevin Nicoli with the Parish of the Transfiguration, a Catholic charity in Manchester, is walking down the aisles, looking for supplies.

CUT: “We’ve noticed quite an increase lately…people in need. And with the food bank, it’s hurting. There’s a lot less on the shelves, the shelves are really empty, they’re really hurting.”

The Food Bank’s Executive Director, Melanie Gosselin says, the demand for staple foods like tuna, bread and canned vegetables has practically doubled over the last year.

CUT: "We have agencies in shopping currently that, unfortunately, there's not a lot of good product to be received. In terms of food, it's a lot of sugary drinks and lot of household items, hair color, and that kind of stuff...that isn't going to put food in peoples' bellies."

Gosselin says the fall and spring floods had lasting effects. People who lost homes and even jobs faced severe financial strains - resulting in a huge jump in those people needing food assistance. Rising gas prices have also put pressure on all families of limited means.

Debbie Urella runs the Salvation Army Food Pantry in Goffstown – another of the Food Bank’s clients.

CUT: “It’s awful. They give me…ten cases of chickens. Now that’s to last me about three to four months. And you figure ten chickens per case. So I ended up with a hundred chickens to do me for four months.”

Urella says she could easily give away three times that amount. In the past, her food pantry normally helped around 100 families a month; but after last May’s flooding, that number more than tripled and it has stayed high. Among Urella’s clients is a single mother of three, struggling to make ends meet. Disabled and on public assistance, Sandy Lavalliere says she spends a lot more time going from place to place to good food for her family.

CUT: “Everything has been cut back so much; you’re just getting enough to last…very shorter time than normal. It’s very hard, especially when you have children, and you want to make sure they’re getting fed properly and stuff. You know, at times you take stuff you don’t even like because you gotta have that meal”

The Food Bank’s Melanie Gosselin says as the need has gone up, she's seen a substantial drop in supply. She says the companies that manufacture food and deliver it to grocery stores have become a lot more efficient – which results in roughly half as much excess items.

CUT: “There’s been a lot of changes in the grocery industry; manufacturers are tightening up what they manufacture in terms of product lines. Typically, they would let a shift run a whole product line, where now, they go by their orders and quotas, then shut down lines. So a lot of that…we’re not seeing that overrun product.”

Another part of the problem is dwindling federal funds for surplus foods. Randy Emerson is program director at Community Action Program Belknap-Merrimack Counties, which distributes USDA commodities to local agencies.

CUT: “Through the Emergency Food Assistance Program, we provide a variety of commodities, including meats, canned foods, soups, vegetables and pastas. And what we’re seeing this year is fewer bonus surplus commodities being purchased by the Dept. of Agriculture being provided to the state. So we’re seeing fewer commodities at a time when we’re seeing an increased demand at the local food pantry and soup kitchen level.”

Local officials are watching the situation carefully.
Manchester’s Welfare Commissioner Paul Martineau says, while his office is not currently impacted, this breakdown of the charitable system could wind up hitting the wallets of people who never even use the Food Bank.

CUT: “From our standpoint, obviously there’s a trickle effect. If the needs aren’t getting met at the federal and state levels, then obviously it’s going to impact the local welfare offices. It could impact our budget. You don’t want to run into a deficit…because then it falls on the taxpayers to have to make up the difference.

There is one bright spot, however. Melanie Gosselin says the Food Bank recently received a 17,000 dollar grant from the Share Our Strength national anti-hunger organization – in response to an urgent request.

And she says they’ve launched a “virtual food drive” online.

CUT: “We’re kind of challenging folks to start “food fights” within their company or within their family to try to see who can generate the most funds in order for us to bring food into the Food Bank.”

Gosselin says with 80,000 people at or below the poverty line in New Hampshire, the Food Bank needs at least 8 tractor-trailer loads of food per month in order to serve everyone in need. Right now, it is taking in only three.

For NHPR News, I’m Debra Daigle in Manchester