Appalachian food bank highlights needs of hunger

MOUNT VERNON, Ky. – Lorraine Maggard, 75, pushed a cart through a free food pantry full of bins of vegetables, beans and cereal, filling two boxes that she carried toward her car.

Struggling to get by on little more than $800 a month in Social Security, she said such "shopping" trips are vital. "If I didn't have the pantry, I don't know what I would do," said Maggard, who said a healthy diet helps control her high blood pressure and arthritis.

"After the $300 mortgage, the house and car insurance, the electric bills and all that, I had $48 left over this month — that's what I have to live on," she said, noting her food-stamp benefit recently was reduced from $74 to $47 a month.

With obesity rampant across Kentucky, it may be hard for many to imagine that hunger still exists, but food pantries remain an essential lifeline for many in the state, according to Carolyn Lindsey, director of the Christian Appalachian Project's Rockcastle County food pantry.

"The need is there. It's huge," Lindsey said.

In this Eastern Kentucky county, where the per capita income is about $15,400 a year, nearly 27 percent of residents live in poverty. The Mount Vernon food bank provides nearly 470,000 pounds of food a year to more than 2,300 families.

CAP president Guy Adams said providing food is key in distressed regions where high unemployment and low wages have led to poor nutrition and health problems. Compounding the problem: the recent food stamp benefit cut.

"Poor health is the primary long-term impact of hunger in Kentucky. It's going to increase healthcare costs," said Tamara Sandberg, director of the Kentucky Association of Food Banks. "So it's not just an ethical issue. It's an economics issue too."

Food insecurity

The food bank in Mount Vernon is just one of the programs provided by the Kentucky-based Christian Appalachian Project, which is marking its 50th anniversary of serving the needy in a 13-state Appalachian area.

Adams said poverty means that some don't get the meals they need, and others rely on cheap processed foods or dollar-menu fast food that can result in high rates of diabetes, obesity and other ailments.

"There are kids and adults in Appalachia who go to bed hungry, just like across America. But ... it's more (whether) people are getting the nutrition they need," he said.

Between 2010 and 2012, about 15.6 percent of Kentuckians were "food insecure" — unable to afford the food they need at times during the year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has found. And a recent Feeding America report said that in 2011, 750,000 Kentuckians — or nearly one in six residents — did not always know where they would find their next meal.

That ranged from 10 percent in Oldham County to more than 20 percent in rural parts of the state, including Appalachia.

It's a familiar plight to the staffers from CAP's Grateful Bread food pantry, who on a recent spring day drove out into the country to deliver food supplies to older residents who lack transportation.

Packed with boxes of food, their minivan wound through forested hillsides before pulling off next to a gray trailer amid a collection of makeshift chicken coops.

Inside, Jim and Reccie Isaacs, two 70-somethings surrounded by a jumble of medicines, canning and quilting supplies, accepted two large boxes of food. They said they scrape by on Social Security and food from Grateful Bread.

"I don't know what I'd do without them," said Jim Isaacs, wearing an oxygen tube to treat his chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Lindsey and her staff left potatoes, beans, carrots, macaroni and cereal on the kitchen table before leaving.

Difficult choices

Winston Lee Kidwell, living alone 10 miles outside of Mount Vernon after the death of her husband, said having the food delivered is important, since she doesn't drive and would have to pay others about $20 round trip to drive her to town. She said that her heating bills, too, had gone up this winter.

"With the commodity and pantry, it helps me have meals until I get a ride to the store," she said, sitting with can of Mountain Dew and a ashtray next to her easy chair before rising to hold hands with the staffers and pray in a circle. "I know God sent the help to me. It's a wonderful thing."

For such residents, being short on money for food means having to make difficult choices for other necessities.

Sandberg said nearly one-third of CAP's clients say they had to choose between buying food and paying for utilities or medicines.

Jason Bailey, director of the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, said food-stamp benefits, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, had averaged $127 a month per household until Congress allowed a special increase of $20 to $36 a month in benefits enacted in 2009 to ease the recession to expire.

In January of 2014, SNAP served 832,518 people in Kentucky. That is nearly 20 percent of all state residents.

But the bigger issue is the still-struggling economy, Bailey said. Particularly in Eastern Kentucky, he said, "the lack of jobs is even more severe and compounded by the loss of coal jobs."

All that is putting increased pressure on food programs. The number of people fed by the Kentucky Association of Food Banks, which distributes more than 40 million meals in Kentucky, increased 84 percent from 2006 to 2010, according to the group.

Rebecca Wallace, development director of God's Pantry Food Bank, which serves the eastern part of the state, said not all in need are served.

"There are still pockets where there aren't emergency food pantries," she said. "There are a lot of people out there whose cupboards are bare."

Providing healthy foods

While some food banks saw dips in giving because of the recession, many have largely kept up since, and recently, some have seen their donations increase. For example, Dare to Care, which serves 13 Kentucky and Indiana counties near Louisville, saw donations increase 15 percent since 2012.

CAP's Mount Vernon food pantry gets its food both from federal commodities program and Lexington-based supplier God's Pantry Food Bank, one of a handful of programs in Kentucky that uses a mix of food and monetary donations to supply non-profit pantries in most counties.

The pantry also gives 65 food bags to schools for children who need food on the weekends.

Lindsey and CAP officials said they try to stock as much healthy food as they can, even though they often get donations of grocery store baked goods and breads. If produce runs low, they purchase produce from local suppliers or groceries.

They may benefit from new funding for Kentucky' Farms to Food Banks program, which was given $600,000 by the state this year to help pay for surplus or blemished produce and provide them to pantries.

On a recent day, people in search of food were led through the warehouse's pallets of juice, bins of vegetables and shelves of rice, beans, cornbread and deli desserts. While people don't always pick the healthiest foods, volunteers said they steer them to it and offer lessons on how to cook healthy meals and stretch what food they do get.

"Our goal is to be a supplemental food source to get them through the month, until their paycheck comes or their food stamps kick in," Lindsey said. "It takes that stress off. They don't have to worry about how they're going to feed their kids."

Reach Chris Kenning at (502) 582-4697. Follow him at ckenning_cj.

How to help

• Founded in 1964 by a Northern Kentucky priest, the Rev. Ralph Beiting, the Christian Appalachian Project has grown into one of nation's 20-largest human services charities. It operates in Appalachian regions of 13 states, and has 160 employees and more than 1,400 volunteers.

With more than $100 million in operating funds and in-kind donations, President Guy Adams said the group provides disaster relief, food, clothing, housing, summer camps and programs for the elderly and victims of domestic violence.

To learn more, including how to donate or volunteer, visit the CAP website at www.christianapp.org

• To donate to other food banks, visit Dare to Care at www.daretocare.org, which serves the Louisville area, or God's Pantry Food Bank www.godspantry.org, which serves eastern Kentucky.