A booming population of hungry, homeless and poor is draining emergency food sources around the state, and food bank managers asked for help Thursday to replenish the shelves.
At a press conference inside the Utah Food Bank's echoing warehouse of stacked empty pallets, food assistance agencies in Salt Lake County spoke of a 22 percent increase in the number of low-income people they have fed this year compared to a year ago."The food shortage is a statewide problem. We're hearing from every area of the state," said Richard Winters, executive director of the Community Services Council, which operates the food bank.
"We need the help of the public. We almost need to beg people to help us."
Winter's said the Food Bank is primarily stocked by the Boy Scouts of America annual food drive, grocery stores, food brokerages and corporate food drives.
Issuing a plea to feed the hungry is not new for emergency food agencies. Winters said donations during the "giving season" of November through December usually last year-round. This year, however, supplies are so low that agencies don't have enough to last until the holidays.
"The demand is not being met with a corresponding supply," Winters said.
Officials couldn't single out reasons for this year's growth in the population of poor and hungry in the state. Asked if any studies have been conducted to find the cause, Winters said, "We are too busy trying to take care of them."
He said he was told 15 percent of the state's low-income population are economically worse off now than five years ago.
Virginia Walton, supervisor of the emergency food supply at the Northwest Community Center in Salt Lake City, said the "poorest of the poor" are coming to her pantry and she has had to close the door early when food runs out.
"It breaks my heart when a family shows up and we don't have the food to put together a decent food box," she said.
A single mother with three children, Isabell Montoya raised the concern of feeding her family three square meals a day as she spread out a small sample from a local food pantry that was supposed to feed a family of four for three days.
The Food Bank's warehouse was less than one-quarter full Thursday, and the food consisted mainly of peaches, green beans and cereal.