A Year of Struggle at a Food Bank

Will volunteer organizations be able to keep up with the record numbers of needy people seeking handouts? (NYT)

Requests for emergency food assistance are up by 30 percent over last year and food banks, food pantries and soup kitchens are seeing big increases in the number of people needing help.

Pari Blackman, the director of the GAP Food Bank in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., says she is seeing 40 to 50 new families per week and won’t be able to keep up with the growing demand much longer.

The New York Times spent over a year visiting the GAP Food Bank interviewing food bank volunteers and families in need, to see how they are coping with the economic downturn. Many of the needy families are newcomers who have worked steadily for years but now find themselves unemployed and unable to make ends meet.

In 15 years of running the Food Bank, Blackman says she has never had to turn a person away but worries if the numbers keep growing, she will have to close the line when supplies run out and send people home empty-handed.

CHANNEL: New York Times

Length: 7:37

By Monica Almeida & Erik Olsen

VIEW: http://video.nytimes.com/video/2009/07/29/us/1247463625625/a-year-of-struggle-at-a-food-bank.html

SEE ALSO:

“Stimulus Law Bolsters Food Bank Offerings”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/30/us/30foodbank.html