Hungry for Donations
Hunger & Health Co. sees increase in service demands

By Scott Nicholson

Editor’s Note: A United Front is a biweekly focus on the local agencies affiliated with the High Country United Way (HCUW). Over the next year, The Mountain Times will attempt to feature every agency in due time. We encourage readers to consider supporting the United Way’s annual fundraising goal.

The clients of the Hunger & Health Coalition are feeling the bite of a sour economy.

The Boone-based hunger-fighting agency has seen demand for services increase while supplies and donations decrease, with regional food banks drying up.

“Like everyone else, we’ve had a huge increase in the amount of people who need service and a decrease in the amount of food we’re able to get,” said coalition director Compton Fortuna. “That’s a bad combination.”

One of its main food-bank suppliers in Bristol, Va. closed its doors completely because of financial hardship, and the coalition has lost four pallets of food a week that had been delivered from there. The remaining food banks are seeing fewer donations as large corporations tighten their belts.

Despite a successful food drive in November and December, the new year has led to a 25 percent increase in the number of local clients as more people lose their jobs and struggle to make ends meet. In September, the coalition stopped serving out-of-county residents.

“We hear everyone who is coming in has either had their hours cut back from full time to part time or they’re searching for a job but they’re in a pretty tough spot,” Fortuna said.

The Hunger Coalition has been giving out an average of 31 food boxes a day, with a peak of 36 one day last week, and more than 100 people are using the emergency food pantry every day.

“That’s five boxes a day more than at the same time last year, when we were also serving Avery County,” Fortuna said. “An average of 23 children a day are being fed through the pantry.”

The pantry is a walk-in area where people can go “shopping” and get goods that are a little more perishable than the food in the cartons, which is typically dry goods and canned goods.

The coalition has several food drives coming up, including the annual postal-worker food drive in May, in which people leave donations at their mail boxes. In February, there’s the “Scouting for Food” program through the Boy Scouts of America and Mast General Store’s “Be A Sweetheart” campaign, in which candy sales inspire company food donations.

“Monetary donations are down,” Fortuna said. “We can also buy wholesale from food distributors, but we need to place a large order.”

Fortuna said dry goods, such as cereal or grains, are always welcome, as is canned meat, canned vegetables “and just about everything.” The coalition also accepts perishable items like milk, eggs, cheese and frozen food.

The free pharmacy is also under pressure, seeing more new clients who can’t afford medication. The coalition gets most of its donations as samples from physicians and recently received a grant of $1,200 from Rumple Presbyterian Church, but Fortuna said physician samples are dwindling.

As if there weren’t enough challenges, the van used to pick up donated deliveries from stores and restaurants needs to be replaced, and the coalition is hoping to receive a tax-deductible donation of a suitable vehicle.

“Our van was on its last legs, and I think the last leg just broke,” Fortuna said. “We’re struggling to find a vehicle to pick up food from grocery stores every day.”

In December, the agency served more than 1,400 clients, nearly a third of them under 17, and it distributed 1,771 meals.

In addition to donations of food, the coalition accepts PayPal donations online at www.hungercoalition.com.