Join our Campaign
- Newsroom | Press Shop ¦ Permalink | Share
Changing Face of Local Food Pantries
Jun 1, 06:03 PM
New Britain Herald
PLAINVILLE — Not long ago the Plainville Community Food Pantry only served the working poor, the disabled and elderly living on a fixed income.
Now with the state in recession, the pantry has become a lifeline for the middle class as well.
According to Susie Woerz, executive director of the nonprofit organization, demands have never been greater. People who used to be donors have become clients.
“Everybody is feeling the pinch,” she said. “A couple of years ago we were seeing maybe 100 families, and at some point those families would get back on their feet and leave the program. Now most of these families aren’t leaving.”
Woerz is also seeing angrier clients. With more people out of work, families resources are becoming stretched to the limit.
Friday, U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy, D-5th District, toured the center with Woerz to view how the pantry is coping with an increased demand for help during times of high food prices.
Murphy said he is seeing reports from food pantries across the country of an increase in demands of 15 to 20 percent.
“Times will get worse before they get better,” he warned. “Families are getting squeezed to the breaking point. Their budgets have no room to sustain a hit in their overtime hours; paychecks don’t go as far as they used to.”
According to the Department of Labor, in April food prices made the biggest jump in 18 years. At the same time, workers’ average weekly earnings, adjusted for inflation, dropped for the seventh straight month. Congress recently overrode the President’s veto of the Farm Bill, which included an increase in funding for The Emergency Food Assistance Program which is expected to benefit the food pantry.
The congressman also met with the board of the steering committee for the New Britain Food Security Collaborative to find out how hard times were hitting the city. The group has been working for a year and a half to help address the problem of hunger in New Britain. Its goal is to create a central food pantry in the city’s north end to coordinate the efforts of other smaller locations in the city.
Barbara Kirejczyk of the steering committee said announcement of the location of a permanent, 900 square-foot facility, will be made in two weeks. A walk-in medical clinic is being considered as part of the facility.
Kirejczyk cited a recent survey by the Connecticut Food Policy Council which ranked New Britain 168 out of 169 communities in terms of food security.
“Now all we need are the funds,” said Brendan Conry, another steering committee member.
Regular donations to nonprofits in the state have fallen off. Charities such as the Salvation Army and United Way attribute the slump to the rise in energy prices, and the recession.
With the cut in funding, food pantries are looking for ways to improve their methods.
Similar organizations from other towns, including Middletown and New Britain, have visited the Plainville pantry to learn its methods. Woerz says a book about how to run a food pantry is in the works and its profits will go on to the pantry.
The Plainville Human Relations Council started the food pantry program in Plainville during the late 1960s, then the Conference of Churches took over the program. In the mid-‘90s the pantry separated from the conference so it could establish its own identity.
In 1999, the pantry moved out of cramped quarters in Linden Street School and built a 5,000 square-foot building on South Canal Street to serve a larger client base in Plainville.
According to the Community Foundation of Greater New Britain, which helps fund the pantry, client choice makes the center unique. Rather than doling out a bag of food or an armful of clothes, clients receive confidential appointments to “shop” from the pantry’s warehouse. In addition to groceries, the pantry stocks clothing, sheets, books and other items.
Woerz said client choice encourages people to become self-sufficient.
“We ask the person what brought him here and how we can help him or her the best way we can,” she said.
Woerz said the pantry doesn’t set guidelines.
“We go case by case; aid is based on income and expenses,” she said. “Someone on a fixed income may have to choose between paying the rent, or buying food, medicine or clothing. They may need our help with food so they can pay their rent and buy their medication.”
Woerz said the pantry’s operating costs are $500,000 a year.
The congressman vowed to press for an economic stimulus package that will include money for agencies such as the New Britain Food Pantry.
“This facility helps us make the case in Washington [for funds for the New Britain Food Pantry],” he said. “They got it right in [the movie] ‘Field of Dreams.’ It not only applies to baseball. If you build it, they will come.”
