Inquirer, 2 groups launch food drive

With the demand for emergency food in the region up 31 percent over last year, two hunger relief agencies - Philabundance and the Food Bank of South Jersey - joined The Inquirer yesterday to launch a food drive.

The increased need for food comes at a time when food supplies are down 26 percent over last year, said Bill Clark, Philabundance executive director.

Inquirer publisher Brian P. Tierney said in a statement that "our region is hurting and we want to help." The food drive is a "meaningful way for our locally owned company to give back to the community that has supported us for so many years," he said.

Tierney and Clark joined Valerie Traore, CEO of the Food Bank of South Jersey for the food drive kick-off. The Inquirer has teamed with the two organizations to raise 180,000 pounds of food in 180 days. The initiative marks the 180th anniversary of The Inquirer, the third-oldest surviving daily newspaper in the nation, founded in 1829.

"What some people are now calling the Great Recession is bad and getting worse," Clark said yesterday. "We have many, many new faces at our food cupboards."

The 31 percent increase in need locally reflects national statistics, Philabundance research shows.

The agency, the largest hunger-relief agency in the region, asked a sampling of its 600 local food cupboards - at churches, community centers, and other sites - whether more new clients were looking for food.

To receive food, people typically must answer questions about their economic backgrounds, and each cupboard has different standards and requirements.

It's not just the newly unemployed, but people with reduced hours who are now clamoring for emergency food, Clark said.

Complicating matters is the fact that the food industry, which ordinarily donates food to relief agencies, is itself suffering and less able to augment supplies, Clark said.

"So we must rely on food drives to help," he added.

Traore agreed, characterizing hunger and poverty as "big monsters" that challenge her and her colleagues every day.

"There are 87,000 food-insecure people in South Jersey," she said, referring to residents with a lack of access to enough nutritious food for an active, healthy life.

"Thirty-six thousand of those are children, and 8,700 are seniors, whose golden years are not so golden. For so many people, job loss, disability, divorce - all can take a family from the middle class to poverty."

For food banks, which have been around for about 25 years, there have never been times as desperate as these, Clark said.

Though food drives are important, he said, the biggest aid available to combat hunger is the food-stamp program.

"Food-stamp money dwarfs all cumulative effects of all U.S. food banks," he said. "Hunger is not a problem charities can solve alone."

Clark added that he was buoyed by President Obama's desire to expand the food-stamp program.

Before President Obama was elected, Congress battled for a year and a half on a farm bill passed in 2008 that secured an increase in food-stamp funding of $5 billion over five years. (The total cost of the program in 2008 was $37.7 billion.)

In his first month in office, however, Obama added $20 billion to the food-stamp program to be spent over the next two years, according to Rachel Meeks, food-stamp campaign manager at the Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger.

Yesterday, standing amid 1,000 pounds of collected food, Tierney, The Inquirer's publisher, said the first editorial The Inquirer ever published promised the paper would "stand up for the small guy."

He added, "We are still carrying on that tradition."

Starting yesterday, people could begin dropping off food donations at the Inquirer building, as well as at the paper's Montgomery County printing plant and its Cherry Hill and Trevose offices.

Philabundance will also have drop-off locations at its sites at Galloway Street and Berks Street. People can drop off food for the Food Bank of South Jersey at its Pennsauken location.

The newspaper is also asking residents to bring food to the city's St. Patrick's Day parade on March 15. It will also collect food with the Phillies during the team's annual Paint the Town Red Week celebration during the seven days preceding opening day on April 5.

The food bank list of preferred donations includes, among many other options, canned tuna, peanut butter in plastic containers, canned pasta, fruit and vegetable juices, infant formula, rice, and pasta.

What is the goal of the drive?

180,000 pounds in 180 days for Philabundance and the Food Bank of South Jersey. The drive began yesterday and ends in early September

What are the preferred foods?

Top 12 food drive items

1. Canned / shelf stable tuna

2. Creamy peanut butter (plastic containers only)

3. Canned chili

4. Canned pasta, beef ravioli

5. 100% fruit or vegetable juice (shelf stable, cans or plastic bottles only)

6. Jelly (plastic containers only)

7. Canned beef stew

8. Macaroni and cheese

9. Canned pork and beans/baked beans

10. Canned fruit cocktail

11. Dairy (evaporated and powdered milk; puddings and custards; infant formula (plastic containers only)

12. Breads and cereals: breakfast cereals, rice, pasta, and muffin/bread mixes.

Where are the permanent food drop-off locations?

The Inquirer building, 400 N. Broad St., Philadelphia. Hours: Mon. to Sun., 24 hours a day.

Schuylkill Printing Plant, 800 River Rd., Conshohocken. Hours: Mon. to Sun., 24 hours a day.

Broad Street Community Newspapers, Cherry Hill Suite 306, 53 Haddonfield Rd., Cherry Hill. Hours: Mon. to Fri., 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Inquirer Trevose office, 2577 Interplex Dr., Core Center A, Trevose. Hours: Mon. to Fri., 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Philabundance Galloway site, 3616 S. Galloway St., Philadelphia.

215-339-0900. Hours: 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Philabundance Berks site, 302 W. Berks St., Philadelphia.

215-739-7394. Hours: 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Food Bank of South Jersey, 1501 John Tipton Blvd. Pennsauken. Hours: Mon. to Fri., 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

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