Editor’s note: This story is part of a continuing series on how the economy is impacting Medina County.

By HANNAH SCHAEFER
Staff Writer

The formula for the problem Medina County’s food pantries face is simple.

“We’re helping more people. We’re getting less donations, and costs are going up,” said Susan Bunner of Brunswick, who volunteers at the St. Paul’s Episcopal Church Free Farmers Market food pantry in Medina.

The Medina County Hunger Task Force is a nonprofit coalition of a dozen food pantries scattered throughout the county. Each year in March, the group runs the Feed-a-Family Month food drive, which is the top source each year for food and cash for the all-volunteer pantries.

Brunswick resident Greg Adams (top) gets a sack of potatoes Thursday from Henry Bracker at the Brunswick United Methodist Church food pantry. County food pantries are dealing with a difficult problem — how to feed more people with less food. Factor in the higher cost of food and the pantries are in “crisis” mode. (Andrew Dolph | Staff Photographer)

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The 12 pantries served about 36,500 people last year. In 2002, they served 20,000 people.

“The need is dramatically increasing, and the amount of food we’re raising is really in crisis right now,” said Julie King, director of United Way of Medina County.

The pantry coalition’s Feed-A-Family Month fundraiser brought in 25,000 pounds of food in March, King said. To compare, the annual fundraiser brought in 38,000 pounds of food last year. In 2002, 70,000 pounds of food were donated to the coalition, which served about 16,500 fewer people that year.

“In the past, after the food drive was over, pantries were pretty well stocked for a good five or six months. Now, they’re not,” said Debbie Kubena-Yatsko, head of the hunger task force. “They probably end up with one or two months’ worth. That puts the burden on the individual pantries to keep their shelves stocked.”

Kubena-Yatsko pointed out the weakening economy and increased prices on essential items like gasoline and food as a major factor in the decrease in donations.

“I do think it makes people think twice,” she said. “When they go into a grocery store to do their own family’s shopping, and it’s already more than they’re used to paying, the idea of buying food to donate is difficult.”

But when county residents hold back on donations, it’s up to the volunteers who operate food pantries in their spare time to drum up the extra food and cash needed to keep their shelves stocked.

“We don’t give out less food, we just run out faster,” Bunner said.

Bunner’s husband, Paul, noted they will have to ask the congregation of their church to give more to the pantry to keep it operating. He said the pantry is taking cost-cutting but time-consuming measures — like taking free potatoes from the Akron-Canton Regional Food Bank rather than buying better-quality potatoes at a grocery store — to make their dollars go further.

“When we used to get potatoes from the food bank, sometimes, you’d stick your hand in the bag and come up with something you didn’t want — it was smelly,” Paul Bunner said. “We started buying them ourselves, but then we went back to getting them from the food bank because they’re free. Our volunteers would go through it and separate the good from the bad.”

But free potatoes won’t be enough to sustain food pantries, and Kubena-Yatsko added that to the thousands of people served by county food pantries, donations are essential.

“Food is a basic, basic need,” she said. “If it’s not met, nothing else is going to be maintained.”

Schaefer may be reached at 330-721-4048 or hschaefer@ohio.net.

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The Numbers

Hunger in Medina County:

20,000 — number of people served by county Food Pantry Coalition in 2002.

36,500 — number of people served by coalition in 2007.

70,000 pounds — Amount of food donated during the coalition’s Feed-a-Family Month in 2002.

25,000 pounds — Amount of food donated during 2008’s Feed-a-Family Month, causing the coalition to say food supply is “in crisis.”

No. 3 — Food pantries’ spot on the United Way’s list of top requests from its “211 — the first call for help” line in 2007.

48 percent — Increase in calls to 211 from 2006 to 2007.

1,500 — number of county children living in poverty.

27 percent — increase in county children using free lunch programs from 2002 to 2007.

11 percent — increase in county school enrollment during same period.

23 percent — percentage of those in county eligible for food stamps who don’t use the program.

Source: United Way of Medina County

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How to help

Call an area pantry to find out how you can help:

Brunswick area

Brunswick Food Pantry, 330-225-4966.

Brunswick United Methodist Church Food Pantry, 330-225-3179

Medina area

Community Services Center, 330-725-4690

St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, 330-725-4968

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church Free Farmers Market, 330-725-4131

Holy Martyrs St. Vincent DePaul Society, 330-635-4989

Medina United Methodist Church, 330-725-4943

Wadsworth

Salvation Army of Wadsworth, 330-335-2327

Townships and villages

Lodi Good Samaritans, 330-948-1834

Black River-Medina Church of the Brethren, 330-725-6044

Our Lady Help of Christians Catholic Church of Litchfield, 330-722-1180

St. Paul’s Lutheran Church of Sharon Center, 330-239-1340

What pantries need

Canned tuna and chicken; cereal; peanut butter and jelly; canned vegetables and fruits; canned soups; macaroni and cheese; pasta, rice and instant potatoes; spaghetti sauce; canned stew and chili; Manwich sauce; toilet paper; personal hygiene items.

What they don’t

Expired or opened food; ramen noodles; alcoholic beverages; food with poor nutritional value, like pickles.

Donations

Mail monetary donations to the Coalition of Medina County Food Pantries, P.O. Box 1155, Medina, 44258. All proceeds go to buy food.

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