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Storing Up For Winter

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By YVETTE C. HAMMETT, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 3, 2007

Updated: 10/01/2007 06:11 pm

TAMPA - Food insecurity - it's a term that means not knowing where your next meal will come from or whether you will have the money to pay for it.

Each week, volunteers at St. Stephen Catholic Church in Valrico distribute donated food to 30 or 40 people who struggle with food insecurity. Between those weekly visits, the church volunteers 'shop' at America's Second Harvest of Tampa Bay, loading boxes with crackers, canned meat, cookies and fruit. On a good day, they might get Smithfield hams or Tropicana fruit juice.

'We see a lot of single mothers with kids and a lot of unemployed,' said St. Stephen volunteer Garciela Langan.

The staff from the Drug Abuse Comprehensive Coordinating Office in Tampa also visits the food bank regularly, loading up on chow mein noodles, children's vitamins, Stove Top stuffing and Juicy Juice. The agency offers medical treatment for people who abuse drugs and alcohol.

'The mothers that come in, they have no food and no place to live,' Alton Shedrick, manager of the outreach program, said. 'We come in here and load up every three or four months.'

Some groups visit weekly.

Mark Southerland, resource development director for the Second Harvest food bank, said more than 40,000 people in Hillsborough County struggle with food insecurity. That's more than 10 percent of the population, and 25 percent of those in such dire straits are children, he said. An additional 20 percent are elderly. America's Second Harvest of Tampa Bay provides for many of them through its warehouse west of Brandon, living up to the agency's motto, 'Feeding the hungry today, ending hunger tomorrow.'

As the busy fall holiday season gears up, the number of outstretched hands increases exponentially. America's Second Harvest will turn to the community for volunteer help and donations that will feed the needy in 10 counties.

'The need goes up incrementally every year,' Southerland said. 'The needs in the community are way up.' America's Second Harvest distributes 11 million pounds of food a year to anti-hunger organizations in the 10-county area, Southerland said. The need is double that.

Some people barely make enough money to feed their families, Southerland said. Add to that the housing crisis and rising fuel costs, and that creates more need, he said.

'It's a convergence of things that make their safety net a little less secure,' he said.

Some agencies visit daily.

Before they get there, truckloads of donated items must be sorted and shelved.

This takes lots of volunteers.

One recent day, volunteers from Grace Lutheran Church in Carrollwood and from Operation Helping Hands, an offshoot of MacDill Air Force Base's Military Officers Association of America, sorted canned goods, boxed items, miscellaneous candy and drinks.

'This is part of our Works of Grace outreach program,' said Roz Kulik, who coordinates the outreach for Grace Lutheran. 'We had a neighborhood food drive and collected over a ton of food during our Christmas in July, and this is our third time here.'

Middle schoolers from the Academy of the Lakes in Land O' Lakes also shuffled in, after a briefing from volunteer coordinator Willene Hayward on how to separate items and check expiration dates.

'This is my favorite thing here,' 13-year-old Ben Lachicotte said as he busied himself sorting boxes. In school, the students learned that the food bank gets food from a number of food growers, brokers, wholesalers and distributors.

Joey Jargo, also 13, said the school has service days four times a year.

'We've learned that the food in here goes to help a lot of people who need food, so it's a good thing to do.'

Food bank President Conway Jensen said America's Second Harvest will need about 2,000 turkeys this Thanksgiving, in addition to all its other needs.

'People can start donating now, and we can keep them in our freezer.'

Other items in short supply are canned vegetables and protein foods, such as canned meats and peanut butter.

Reporter Yvette C. Hammett can be reached at (813) 657-4532 or yhammet@tampatrib.com.

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