
{"id":2929,"date":"2008-07-03T09:21:56","date_gmt":"2008-07-03T17:21:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=2929"},"modified":"2008-07-03T09:21:56","modified_gmt":"2008-07-03T17:21:56","slug":"here-today-gone-and-eaten-tomorrow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2008\/07\/03\/here-today-gone-and-eaten-tomorrow\/","title":{"rendered":"Here today, gone (and eaten) tomorrow"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>by <strong>Valarie Schwartz<\/strong><br \/>\nStaff Writer<\/em><br \/>\nWord came on Monday that shelves at local food pantries were bare. John Dorward, associate director of the Inter-Faith Council (IFC), gladly reported that its food pantry in Carrboro remains in good shape for this time of year. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m happy not to have to show you empty shelves,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said as we walked into the pantry, which contains three long aisles stocked with non-perishable items.<br \/>\nThe story was vastly different in Pittsboro, where Tina Gaines, director of the Salvation Army, said that donations were greatly needed. <!--more--><br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re still able to meet the need, but sometimes it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tough,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said, adding that the Salvation Army has had to purchase $300 to $400 worth of food during the past two months in order to meet demand.<br \/>\nApproximately 1,100 jobs were lost recently with the closing in early June of the Pilgrim\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Pride chicken processing plant in Siler City, but Gaines said that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153things started getting worse about a year ago.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\nThe pantry at Evergreen United Methodist Church just south of Manns Chapel Road in northern Chatham has seen \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a tremendous increase in the last six months,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d according to its coordinator, Diane Lassiter. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a small pantry (truly a closet, she said), which provides food from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. every Tuesday except the first week of each month. Members can receive food 12 times a year.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153People arrive as early as five, though we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t encourage it,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said.<br \/>\nLast week they served 83 people and are experiencing food shortages. In addition to donations from congregants, Harris Teeter provides them produce on Tuesdays and they buy food from the N.C. Food Bank in Durham.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The best way to help us is through financial donations,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Lassiter said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The money goes the farthest because of how inexpensively we can obtain food through the food bank, and grocery stores give us discounts too.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\nDuring this time when every dollar gets stretched, they can do more with it food-wise. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We can get a lot more food than the average person can with the dollar.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\nThe food pantries all receive support from local churches and temples, which typically see a reduction in attendance during summer months as people take vacations, thus reducing the amount of food coming into the pantries. Local grocery stores (including Trader Joe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, which Dorward said has been very helpful) contribute year-round, but as the needs of the people increase, the pantry shelves empty faster.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen an increase in client volume,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Josie Hartman, client services representative of the Community Program at the Inter-Faith Council. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153As rent, gas, food, utilities and prices go up, the more folks need help getting through.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d She has worked with volunteers and clients for a year-and-a-half, but she volunteered as a client interviewer for six or seven years before taking the job. She said that they serve as many people in a day as they can, sending up to 100 bags of groceries a day out the door.<br \/>\nChris Moran, IFC executive director, said that through May the distribution rate of food is 28 percent higher than last year.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Food is a big deal right now,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Moran said. Surveys conducted among the clients showed that only half of the 1,348 food pantry members (a number which grows every month) return every month. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If everybody came back every month, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be out of food,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Moran.<br \/>\nContact Valarie Schwartz at 923-3746 or valariekays@mac.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Valarie Schwartz Staff Writer Word came on Monday that shelves at local food pantries were bare. John Dorward, associate director of the Inter-Faith Council (IFC), gladly reported that its food pantry in Carrboro remains in good shape for this time of year. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m happy not to have to show you empty shelves,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community","category-recently"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2929\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}