New Year Brings Disrupted Food Supply

Volunteer Bruce Higgins and I missed Biden’s Inauguration. Instead, we picked up 980 pounds of donated fresh produce.

By Maureen McNair
​I had been concerned about a difficult food supply system coming for the new year since early December. Pantry volunteers saw me hoarding pallets of dry goods. Even though I am really still new at understanding the complexities food supply systems, it turns out my concern had merit. Our pantry went from distributing between 40 - 50 pounds of food to every head of household every Saturday to distributing maybe 15 - 20 pounds of food to every head of household on Saturdays. Several things converged to create issues for us with access to bulk food. Some suppliers closed some days to celebrate the winter holidays. Then US President #45 delayed signing the funding bill Congress passed in December. So, funds to food banks lapsed. The farm to family program lapsed. Covid-19 infections closed a supplier. Another supplier had trucking problems.

So, I have been redoubling efforts to get food for the over 170 heads of household we serve every week. With about four people living in each household, we are still feeding about 700 people a week. 
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One of the other things I did to help families was to find supplies to put into 200 hygiene bags. I got a donation of over 1,000 rolls of toilet paper, 200 big bottles of hand sanitizer, and paid a couple hundred dollars for bottles of hand lotion and tubes of toothpaste. All those items are things every household can use. Giving them out for free still helps families save funds for other expenses such as utilities, medicine, and clothes. A thousand thanks to our many volunteers who packed those hygiene bags.

I think the food supply system might turn around in the next few weeks. But, I am not sure. Stay tuned. I’ll let you know how the story plays out! 

​#firstuusd #thisishowwedochurch #foodpantry