Cash or cans?

Food is flying off the shelves at food pantries across the country. Instead of the clients being people on food stamps, it's people newly unemployed and living in their own homes. I'm a member of a large Lutheran church with three campuses, and we support (I think) an exceptionally well run "choice" Food Pantry with very capable staff. Our church, UALC, heard the appeal in November and December.

"Through November and Thanksgiving services, enough food was donated to carry the local LSS Food Pantry through much of February: donations of 1,549 bags of food, cash and gift cards were valued at $30,935." UALC Cornerstone, January 11-17, 2009

Last year LSS of Central Ohio food pantries served 148,546 people. I'm guessing that is "visits" and not actual people, because when I've volunteered, I see the same people over and over. Most of that is a 3 day supply of emergency food for people with documentation and in the computerized system, but "over-nights" are at the discretion of the manager until the client can get into the social service system.

Is it better to give cash/checks or food stuffs? Here's my opinion. The manager/director can buy much more food for your dollar than you can. However, that food is cheap because of federal funding--so you're paying for it either way. Churches, clubs and immigrant societies have always had a community food basket for the poor, elderly and unemployed. Compared to the volunteer spirit that goes back to the roots of this country, the government is a newcomer as a food donor. The present food stamp program began during Johnson’s Great Society in the 1960s and was expanded during the Carter years, and every administration since, including the Republicans. It's political suicide to cut it and it began as welfare to farmers.

According to the Cato Institute, “The largest portion of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s budget consists of food subsidies, not farm subsidies. Food subsidies will cost taxpayers $55 billion in fiscal 2007 and account for 61 percent of the USDA’s budget. The largest food subsidy programs are food stamps; the school breakfast and lunch programs; and the women, infants, and children (WIC) program. The federal government as a whole has about 26 food and nutrition programs operated by six different agencies.“ When I serve at the food pantry I see brands and companies I've never heard of; I suspect they serve only charities with government surplus, or outright purchase. In Columbus we have a huge warehouse, Mid-Ohio Food Bank, that serves only the food pantries and they're asking for funding to enlarge it. MOFB's stocks are down. Supermarkets are more efficient and waste (donate) less, there are more odd-lot type discounters to buy up near due date and over stocks, and health regulations have cut down on what can be donated. Which means more of your tax dollar for food subsidies.

The biggest distributor of these programs is "faith based and community" initiatives like our Lutheran church. So any food pantry, whether they are supported by your church or a community cooperative, is really tax supported via the USDA (it was also involved in housing programs in rural areas which contributed to our melt-down). Which brings me to my point--purchasing your donation at the local level.

For every can of soup or package of pasta I buy locally whether at Marc's or Meijer's, I am helping a stock boy or produce lady keep their jobs. They in turn can meet their rent payments, put gas in their used auto, and eat a meal out occasionally at McDonald's. This allows the bulk gasoline driver to keep his truck on the road, the landlord of the apartment building to avoid foreclosure, and the feedlot owner in Kansas to ship spent, older cows to slaughter in Iowa where the butchers and packers will pay their rent, fill their gas tanks and maybe donate to their local food pantry to help the unemployed who planted too much corn for ethanol due to Al Gore's environmental hysteria which helped contribute to food shortages world wide.

I'm a pensioner. Every time I go to the grocery store, I pick up a few cans of soup, a package of pasta, a jar of jelly, or some canned meat and drop it off on Sunday in the food box at church--amounts to about $10 a week--and you know the prices, that doesn't buy a lot. I've read every label and compared every price, and I know the money is circulating right here in Columbus to help the people who aren't lining up on Champion Avenue.