Branch Area Food Pantry reports more seeking help, produce and meat donations down

Inflation in the cost of food and supply chain issues presents new problems for the Branch Area Food Pantry as the number of local hungry increase.

"Of course, it's due to the inflation and the food crisis going on," Patty Daoud, pantry manager, said. "We are hearing from the state of Michigan, with Feeding America, and down to our South Michigan Food Bank that there are definitely some food shortages."

The amount of produce and meat is down. Rescue trucks bringing the short-dated items from the stores have been drastically cut.

"I'm assuming the stores aren't ordering as much because they can't move it as fast because the food prices are so high," Daoud said. "We don't get the short-dated items here. It works its way down the chain. We get whatever we get and we pass out whatever we get."

Branch County is better off than others because of the Lakeland Correction facility horticulture program on the prison grounds.

"Next week, we're going to get 600 pounds of cabbage. We got 800 pounds of lettuce, fresh, beautiful lettuce. And so we're able to pass all that out this summer," Daoud said.

Mastronardi Maroa Farms greenhouse provides tomatoes that don't meet standards for sale, but are perfectly good.

Aunt Millies Bakery sent loaves of bread that looked different when they came out of the baking pans, but was perfectly good to eat.

"They couldn't sell it, so we got 20 skids of bread," she said.

That saved the Food Pantry money since it usually pays 85 cents a load for bread to hand out to clients.

There are 600 families or persons served by the pantry. Each is allowed to shop there once a month. Daoud said the Food Pantry gets more requests for help each week as inflation rises.

"We used to serve about 150 a week because we have them on assigned weeks now" to receive food at the Tuesday store opening. "Now we're getting at least 30 new applications every week," she said. "We might have to add another day to accommodate everybody."

"We see an uptick in emergency boxes. That's for people who are in a food crisis. We have an emergency line. They call, and they say, 'I don't have any food in my house", Daoud said. "We come on our off days and supply them. We try to accommodate everybody."

With donations of time, money, and food, "we have so many great resources in Branch County that help us out when things are looking dire. I can't complain, we're doing well, and people are getting fed," she said.

But more donations can only help. 

This article originally appeared on The Daily Reporter: Branch Area Food Pantry reports more seeking help