With unemployment still rising, families who have never relied on a food bank before are becoming regular visitors.
In Kansas City, the demand for a few sacks of groceries has become so urgent that metro food pantries are considered among the hardest hit in the nation, according to this release.
In the Kansas City area there's been an approximate 40 percent average increase in demand at food banks in the last year, says Ellen Feldhausen, director of communications for Harvesters.
Feldhausen's organization collects and distributes food, working with more than 500 metro agencies including food pantries, soup kitchens, churches, residential facilities and daycare centers.
"Just the rate for the month of June alone, that was up 66 percent from June 2008," Feldhausen says. "What we're hearing from our agencies is that there's a significant increase of people coming in needing emergency food assistance, many of whom are walking into a soup kitchen for the very first time. Unemployment is a huge factor in that. Many people have been unemployed so long they're just seeing their benefits exhausted. Then another factor is people who still have jobs but who've had to have wage cuts and furloughs. More than half the people we're serving live in a household with one working adult."
Coincidentally, this is Hunger Action Month. Visit the Harvester's Web site for information on how to help someone and give what you can.
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