While the local economy continues showing few signs of recovery, food banks in the area are reflecting both local and national trends: Many people are struggling to get enough to eat.
In a report released by the U.S. Agriculture Department last Monday, the number of households that reported struggling to buy enough food in 2008 jumped 31 percent over the previous year, indicating that 49 million Americans lack dependable access to adequate food — the largest number since the government has been keeping track. Notable in the report, there was a sharp increase in food scarcity among families with children.
While the report lags a year behind (2009 figures won’t be available until this time next year), it shows a troubling trend regarding hunger in America. Unfortunately, next year’s numbers are bound to be worse: Unemployment was at 6.2 percent last year at this time last year, compared to 10.2 this October.
Although the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that Archuleta County has a much lower unemployment rate than the rest of the country — 6.2 percent for September — that figure is most likely misleading.
In fact, according Erlinda Gonzalez, director of the Archuleta County Department of Human Services, “I just told the Board of County Commissioners that I can tell how our economy is doing based on how much in food stamps we’re issuing.”
If Gonzalez is correct, the numbers are troubling. According to DHS reports, $93,170 in food assistance was doled out in October, compared to $52,352 the same month last year — an increase of 77 percent.
However, it is not only food assistance applications that have increased. “We’re seeing more requests for rental and mortgage assistance,” Gonzalez said.
Likewise, Gonzalez said that applications for the Low Income Energy Assistance Program (LEAP), a program that assists with heating bills during the winter months (up to $900 for a heating season), have increased more than 30 percent this year, adding, “Staff is saying that they’re having a difficult time keeping up with applications.”
As the cornucopia (a symbol of abundance) greets us this week for Thanksgiving, it is increasingly a reminder of scarcity for many local residents and Americans alike. In fact, officials with organizations involved in feeding the hungry say that the number of people seeking help over the past few months is up an average of 30 percent from the same time last year. According to a recent survey of food banks by Feeding America, a food-bank network, those numbers have increased to the breaking point when it comes to local food banks. Local food banks report a larger stress, in fact.
“We’re seeing a dramatic increase from last year,” said Pastor Don Ford of the First United Methodist Church, head of one of three local food banks in Pagosa Springs. “We’re just about double from the same time last year.” Ford said that his church has handed out over 800 food boxes this year, compared to about 400 food boxes the same time last year.
Father Carlos Alvarez of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church (which administers another local food bank) squared with Ford’s assertion, saying, “That’s about the pace we’re at so far this year.”
Alvarez added that many of the people his organization are seeing are among the working poor — people who have a job but don’t qualify for food assistance.
“The chronically poor have food assistance,” he said, “We’re seeing a lot of people who, for whatever reason, have to decide between a mortgage or rent payment and feeding their family. We’re seeing a lot of people we’d call the working poor, or single parents, who are just having a difficult time paying their bills.”
The USDA’s report noted that recent research by the agency had found that most families in which food is scarce contain at least one adult with a full-time job, suggesting that the problem lies at least partly in wages and not just an absence of work.
Gonzalez said that, while that was that was true in 2008, DHS is seeing a new trend.
“At the very beginning of the economic meltdown, we saw an increase in numbers of the working poor, but now we’re seeing a rising number of families with no income,” she said.
“The construction industry is a big factor in what we see,” Gonzalez said, adding, “They tend to work from job-to-job and don’t qualify for unemployment.”
In fact, many local contractors don’t contribute into the unemployment system, while some might make “under the table” payments — skirting taxes and the requirement of unemployment contributions. Furthermore, subcontractors rarely accrue six months or more of continued employment (due to the nature of their work), making them ineligible for benefits.
“That’s the population we’re neglecting,” Gonzalez said. “That, and the fact that the wages we’re paying, in our community, is not a livable wage.”
“Also, we need more affordable housing,” she added, “for the wages we’re paying in this community.”
Providing small comfort, Ford emphasized that, “Nobody in Archuleta County should go hungry. All they need to do is come and ask and they will get food.”
jim@pagosasun.com
