THELEAVEN.ORG | VOL. 44, NO. 11 | OCTOBER 21, 2022
LEAVEN PHOTO BY JILL RAGAR ESFELD
Food pantry volunteers are busy stocking shelves before clients come to shop. Here, Church of the Ascension, Overland Park, parishioner Nancy Shomburg makes sure there are plenty of canned vegetables for clients to choose from.
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FEED THE NEED
By Jill Ragar Esfeld jill.esfeld@theleaven.org
O LEAVEN PHOTO BY JILL RAGAR ESFELD
Volunteer Christy Mauro (right), a parishioner of Holy Spirit Church in Overland Park, helps a client at the food pantry make a nutritious food choice.
VERLAND PARK — It doesn’t take a math genius to figure out the problem with Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas food pantries. Donations are down and demand is up. At Hope Distribution Center in Kansas City, Kansas, where food donations are sorted and distributed to pantries, logistics and distribution manager Michael Gonzales doesn’t see the odds improving without a serious increase in supply. “From last year’s numbers,” he said, “we’re about 10 percent down from our parish donations, and the grocery store pickups have decreased by 37 percent. “In August we saw a 51 percent increase in households that came to our pantries.” Many issues contribute to the imbalance — the rising cost of groceries, supply chain challenges and an economy on the brink of a recession. Food Banks such as Harvesters that help furnish product are feeling the pain, too. “Five thousand dollars used to get us 20 weeks worth of milk and eggs for our clients,” said Gonzales. “Now it’s cut down to maybe seven or eight weeks.
How to give online • Go online to: catholiccharitiesks.org and click on the “Get Involved” tab. • A drop-down menu will appear; click on “Food Drives.” • Scroll down the page until you see “How You Can Help,” then “Shop from our Amazon Wishlist.” • Click the “Amazon Wishlist” tab. The Amazon website lists foods by greatest needs. Fill your shopping cart, check out and choose the Hope Distribution Center for delivery.
“And we are definitely hurting for produce. Harvesters used to have 12 pages of items you could purchase or get free. “Now they’re down to one or two pages.” Camille Pickhinke, director of community engagement for Catholic Charities, sees nutritious food as a critical priority for people in crisis. “The way we serve a majority of people is through our food pantries,” she said. “We can help stabilize people with that basic human need.” >> See “CAN’T” on page 6