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Reverberations from this year’s state budget stalemate are still being felt in food pantries throughout the region as they adapt to the needs of people laid off during the recession, but most feel confident they’re keeping their heads above water.“One of the problems that I’m having with the food bank is that we rely on Pennsylvania state food,” said Anne Marie McCawley, project director for the St. Vincent dePaul Kitchen and food pantry in Wilkes-Barre. “When there was that impasse when the budget wasn’t being signed, that was the problem. They couldn’t buy food to give to us, so now they’re backlogged.”

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Louise Wendt, co-director of the Mountain Top Food Bank, sets out items for patrons to sort through to fill their food bags. The food bank receives food from the state, but since the state budget impasse, many of the donations have come from local churches and grocery stores.

Fred Adams/for the times leader

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Food pantries receive the majority of their staple foods from the state Department of Agriculture, which works through the Commission on Economic Opportunity in this region. A representative from the CEO’s Weinberg Food Bank didn’t return requests for comment.

McCawley said they haven’t had staple items to hand out, like peanut butter and jelly. “We’re not getting cereal, protein … we don’t get things like tuna fish any more,” she said. “We’re drawing what we can from the soup kitchen, but it’s certainly not enough.”

The pantry is supplementing its stock by temporarily redirecting about $1,500 worth of food from the soup kitchen each month. “I would say we’re probably $4,000 worth behind,” McCawley said.

With the holiday season days away, the food shortage is causing pantries to scramble and be creative. Florence “Flossie” Pedley and Louise Wendt, who run the Mountain Top Food Bank, might have to sell their patrons on a non-traditional spread. CEO told them chickens may have to be substituted for turkeys this year. Pedley’s response: “I said, ‘Chickens for Thanksgiving? Oh!’ ”

The Back Mountain Food Pantry is hoping to come through with the traditional meal.

“We just got a nasty call yesterday that thanks to budget constraints, I cannot count on the turkeys I ordered more than a month ago,” said Mark Stull, pantry director. “I’ve got 214 families expecting a Thanksgiving dinner. I can’t disappoint them.”

Stull said he’s been able to work out a price break with a local wholesaler to replace the 120 turkeys, but the pantry must remain judicious with all its purchasing. “We’re able to take a dollar and sometimes get $1.50 worth of food for it,” he said. “We have a bigger demand coming in the front door and less supply coming in the back door.”

The Greater Pittston Food Pantry began a year ago with 25 registrants, but that has increased to 558, according to co-coordinator Peggy Burke. CEO regulations allow registrants to receive food once a month, but they choose which week to stop in. Burke said the pantry reached an all-time high two weeks ago when 66 registrants picked up food.

“I never thought I’d see the number so high, and I never thought we’d be able to accommodate it,” she said. “I don’t know how long that’s going to last … but right now we’re managing to meet the need.”

Pantries also are adapting to the changing types of people seeking food. In addition to the elderly on fixed incomes and single mothers, Burke said they’re seeing more casualties from the recession, including people who are laid off or those with jobs that simply don’t pay enough to live on.

“They walk to the pantry and use neighbors’ or relatives’ phones to reach us,” she said. “We’ve had to make adaptations for people coming in for emergency situations. People call, and they’re so desperate that I sometimes have to make special arrangements.”

The Back Mountain pantry started with 70 recipients in 2000, he said, and had double that number by 2007. “We are now, as of this year 2009 – and we’re not done with the year – 274 clients on our active rolls,” he said. “It took us less than 18 months to double again. … For us to double numbers in that short of time, it has to be that people are losing their jobs.”

The pantry receives enough food to see its patrons seven times a year: every other month and for Thanksgiving. “We don’t see our people as often as we’d like to, but we give away everything we get,” Stull said.

At St. Vincent dePaul, education is a focus and the food is accompanied by simple recipes that incorporate the items.

Pantry director McCawley said many recipients are reluctant to ask for aid.“They’re very hurt in a way that they have to ask for help, so we guide them through the system. … It’s a combination of people who’ve been laid off, but I think the majority of people who come here are the working poor, for whom coming here once a month to get food helps them stretch their budget. … Over the past year or so, we’re open an evening a week, which is very popular because people can come here after work,” she said.

At most pantries, patrons must only show identification or sign that they’re below a certain income level.

One oddity is the Al Beech West Side Food Pantry in Kingston. Numbers have gone up in recent years, according to the president of the pantry’s board, Howard Castor, but “this year we expected it to grow, and it didn’t grow that much.”

The pantry, in existence for 25 years and located at the Church of Christ Uniting on Sprague Avenue, prepares for 35 patrons each week, but rarely sees that many. The pantry also differs in that it doesn’t offer Thanksgiving meals, substituting Easter instead. Few pantries address Easter, Castor said, and “there’s so much double dipping that we stay away from Thanksgiving.”

Every pantry also noted that they receive great support in donations from their local communities. In Mountain Top, donations often come in from the regional churches and several grocery stores donate their day-old baked goods. In Pittston, scouting groups, churches and Red Hat Society members are among the donors.

Stull said his Back Mountain pantry recently received a $1,000 check from Frontier Communications after the pantry had been featured in a newspaper report.

While pantries get a lot of attention around the holidays, they actually see an increase in demand during the summer, when food stocks are lower.

“The same people who are hungry in December … those same people are hungry in June and July, when sometimes we don’t get anything,” Stull said. But, he noted, family needs can increase. “Children who are normally eligible for free or reduced lunches, well, they’re not in school.”

In response, his pantry began a food drive specifically for items that children like to eat, and it’s working out deals to receive fresh vegetables grown by volunteers at the Lands at Hillside Farms.

Pantries are also expanding their offerings. The Mountain Top pantry at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church offers children’s gloves and hats when available and the Pittston pantry is collecting items for the homeless, such as razors and winter clothing. It’s holding a winter coat giveaway on Tuesday.

Organizers see the overarching issues – the disparity of wealth, frustrations of distribution logistics, the disconcerting rise of jobs that don’t pay enough to support families – but they likewise face an unending list of details that require immediate attention.

“Something’s flawed with the system, and I don’t know what it is,” Stull said. “I know I keep my sleeves rolled up … because there’s work to be done. I can’t fix society’s problems on a large scale, but I can make a difference in this small area. … All the philosophy in the world isn’t going to put food on their tables.”

free Thanksgiving dinners

Here is a partial list of free Thanksgiving dinners being offered this year:

The First Baptist Church of Pittston invites the homeless and all those who are unable to afford a holiday meal to a free Thanksgiving dinner from 4 to 7 p.m. on Wednesday at the church on Water Street. The dinner will include turkey, all the trimmings, and dessert. Anyone who would like to attend should call the church office at 654-0283.

Forty Fort United Methodist Church, corner of Wyoming and Yeager avenues, will serve a free turkey dinner starting at noon on Thursday to anyone who may be alone, lonely or away from family and friends.

Free transportation is available for West Side residents. Reservations are necessary and can be made by calling the church office at 287-3840 between 9 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.

Club Jams, a Christian Ministry serving the City of Pittston, will serve a Thanksgiving dinner to those that have been economically hard hit beginning at noon on Thursday. Club Jam Ministry is located at 53 South Main Street.

Volunteers and contributions are still being accepted; call Cathie Hanlon at 570-236-0302.

35th Annual Naylor-Lemmond Community Thanksgiving Dinner, at noon Thursday, at Firwood United Methodist Church, Old River Rd. and Dagobert St., Wilkes-Barre. Everyone is invited free of charge. A free-will offering basket will be available. Transportation will be provided by the Luzerne County Transportation Authority. For reservations and transportation, call 823-7721.

Turkey dinners will be delivered by the Breslau Hose Company Auxiliary to anyone who is homebound and alone beginning at noon on Thursday. To make reservations, call 822-4213.

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