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CHARITIES: Food donors in short supply
The Miami Herald 08-12-2007 Beth Feinstein-Bartl And Toluse Olorunnipa, tolorunnipa@MiamiHerald.com Donations nearly always plummet in the summer at local food pantries, leaving the needy and working poor with even more problems. John Fowler, who started going to the Broward County Cooperative Feeding Program seven years ago, said a good meal helped get him back on his feet. "Sometimes, without having food from them, I could barely make it," said Fowler, a disabled man who was homeless but now lives in an apartment in Hollywood. In the summer months, donations nearly always dwindle at food banks, and some charity feeding programs have had to cut back on portions at a time when pantries are trying to serve nearly twice as many people as they did two years ago. "You do notice that you don't get as much during the summertime as you do during the other parts of the year," Fowler said. Broward County officials are taking notice. On Monday, the county launched its Hunger Doesn't Take a Vacation campaign to persuade people to donate nonperishable food items to food banks that are a lifeline for many homeless. The county's Human Services Department has set up collection boxes in county buildings where people can drop off donations through Aug. 30. Items in high demand include canned meats, tuna, vegetables and fruit; peanut butter; jelly; soups; pasta and rice; cereal; powdered or shelf milk; dry beans; baby formula; baby food or cereal; and diapers and wipes. The summer season leaves food banks -- and families -- struggling, according to workers at faith-based pantries in South Broward. "Everything changes in the summer," said Judith Gatti, executive director of the Daily Bread Food Bank. "It's slow. But hunger never takes a break." With supplies running low, pantries often must try to stretch what they have. "Around 800,000 people live in poverty in South Florida," said Robert Peters, associate pastor at Daily Bread. "These are our neighbors." Timothy Story, a volunteer at the Open Heart food pantry at First Baptist Church of West Hollywood, said inventory there is down. He believes it will rebound -- eventually. "It's not that people don't care. It's that they are out of town," Story said. "It will pick up by Thanksgiving." The pantry behind the church at Taft Street and U.S. 441 distributes food and hygiene products on Saturdays. Requests have jumped from 15 to 50 clients a week since the program began in February. More than half are families, totaling about 170 adults and children of all faiths, said Debra Campbell, Open Heart's director. While waiting for the "more generous holiday season," volunteers are making do, packing boxes with more pasta and rice instead of canned meats, Campbell said. Other pantries are also getting by with less. "We usually try to give people enough food to last five days," said the Rev. Franklin Capron of the Church of God of Prophecy in Hollywood. "In the summer, it might have to be enough for only two or three days." The monthly food distribution from the church's social hall at 3200 N. 22nd Ave. attracts about 300 clients who come from the neighborhood and from Pembroke Pines, Miramar and Miami Lakes, Capron said. "I arrive at 5:30 in the morning and there's already 15 to 20 people in line, and we don't open until 8 a.m.,"he said. "Many of these families depend on us." The need is just as dire at the Jubilee Center of South Broward at 2020 Scott St. in Hollywood. The pantry and soup kitchen, supported by four local Episcopal churches, is open five days a week. "Summers are hard," Executive Director Tammy Morton said. "We're short right now. We're cutting back on filling bags." In West Broward, about 5,500 clients of all faiths are helped annually by W.E.C.A.R.E., a program based at the Soref Jewish Community Center in Plantation. Among the items are kosher products for observant Jews, pantry director Susan Baigelman said. The number of children who need assistance doubles in the summer. Food drives in the spring provide some relief, but stock was already dwindling in early summer, Baigelman said. Not every pantry is having problems, but for Trinity Lutheran Church in Pembroke Pines, the reason is not for lack of need. The pantry just needs more publicity. Since opening earlier this year, Trinity Lutheran's food pantry serves just five to 15 families twice a month, but more people can be accommodated, volunteer Lisa Miller said. "We could feed up to 28 families a month," Miller said. "We're new. We try to put the word out as best we can. I don't think a lot of people know we're here," she said. 
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