Study finds growing demand for food bank

EDINBURG — More than half of the 162,000 people who receive assistance each year from the Food Bank of the Rio Grande Valley are children, a local hunger study conducted as part of a national survey of food banks found.

The study’s findings released Wednesday showed that more Valley families than ever are struggling to put food on the table as the country recovers from a deep recession.

The study relied heavily on individual surveys with patrons of pantries, kitchens and shelters that get their supply from the food bank, said Tracy Hughes, a member of the board of directors at the food bank who helped conduct the surveys. Each individual family she interviewed — from a retired veteran who couldn’t stretch his paycheck to feed his family to a grandmother who was trying to provide for her children and grandchildren — had its own defining characteristics.

But all showed a growing need for emergency food assistance in the Valley.

Although none of the parents surveyed by Hughes reported going without food themselves to feed their children, they said they would have been forced to do so without access to the food bank.

"One thing I found out throughout this whole process: They’re going to do whatever it takes to feed their family," she said. "It was very humbling to me to listen to the stories."

The Valley’s study was released on the heels of a national report by Feeding America that noted a 50 percent increase in children served by food banks since 2006.

Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization, comprises a network of more than 200 food banks. It provides food to 37 million people in the U.S. each year, up from 25 million in 2006.

In the Valley, about 22,000 people receive emergency food assistance in any given week, said Terri Drefke, the Valley food bank’s executive director. A historical comparison is not available since previous studies included the Laredo area, which now has its own food bank.

But the figure is lower than Drefke expected it to be. The Valley food bank has had a dramatic increase this year in middle-class families who once donated to the food bank but now are requesting food from it.

The agency’s annual food drives and corporate giving have yielded lower returns amid the recession, she said. Only government assistance from the federal Farm Bill and other sources has prevented a serious food shortage.

The Hidalgo County government will sponsor a monthly canned food drive and quarterly cash donation drive to assist the food bank, said County Commissioner Oscar Garza.

Some school children in the county leave classes on Friday knowing they will have little to eat until Monday, he said.

"It’s a sad situation but it’s true," Garza said. "Our goal is to make sure those kids don’t go hungry."