The huge increases in clients served that ShareNet has seen over the past few years is not peculiar to us. Overall, the trend is reflected in state and national numbers, with food insecurity at an all-time high.
In the fall, state food banks reported record numbers of clients. There were almost 2 million visits to food banks statewide in fall, an increase of more than 59,000 compared to fall 2010. One in five American households are food insecure, and it is believed that the problem is underreported. At the same time, emergency food providers reported 16 million fewer pounds donated in 2011 as compared to 2010. The emergency food provision system is under more demand than ever, with nearly a million individuals in Washington per month receiving food assistance through the Basic Food Program, a 20.6 percent increase from 2009 to 2010, which includes SNAP (formerly known as food stamps).
SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) is one of the cornerstones of the anti-hunger safety net, providing more than 46 million low-income Americans with benefits. The average SNAP-recipient household has a gross monthly income of $711. Nearly 80 percent of SNAP households include a child, senior or person with a disability. Since 2008, SNAP participation in Washington has increased from 533,198 to 1,088,193. SNAP is constantly under threat, with proposals afloat to cap or reduce its funding or impose prohibitive requirements.
The National School Breakfast and Lunch Program and the Summer Feeding Program served a corresponding number, nearly a million children in Washington. It is these federal programs that ShareNet augments with Food to Grow On, our program serving food-insecure schoolchildren with weekend take-home food.
CSFP (Commodity Supplemental Food Program) is another federal program ShareNet participates in, providing nutritional packages to seniors older than 60, infants and children up to age 6, pregnant and breastfeeding women, and women up to one-year postpartum. Some 97 percent of the recipients of this program are seniors considered very low-income. ShareNet distributes CSFP food locally, an augmentation of our regular distribution to this same demographic.
Depending on how you read this, it could sound like there’s a lot of help out there. Guess what? There is, and still it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the problem. We are fortunate in this country to have programs like those described here and food banks, which maintain a narrow margin against sustained malnutrition and community instability (including crime) and erosion.
Even in a challenging atmosphere, ShareNet can celebrate both the heartfelt work of its volunteers and staff and the surrounding community, which came together to support us in the biggest way ever in 2011, in the time of most need and most threatened cutbacks.
When I was asked to account for our most successful fundraiser to date (see Neighbor Aid donors list in this same issue), I said I believe that the fragile nature of many people’s daily lives is more obvious in our community than ever. Poor people are always visible if you’re paying attention, but never more so than now.
At ShareNet, we work daily with people in the worst crisis of their lives, or a crisis that no longer seems like one point in time but a sustained continuum. We can’t help them all, but your support means we get to help many of them turn things around.
— Mark Ince is executive director of ShareNet. Contact him at sharenetdirector@centurytel.net
