Ruben Sanchez: Demands grow
for El Paso food bank during holiday season
By Ruben Sanchez \ Guest columnist
12.23.12
elpasotimes.com
During the holiday season, many of us find ourselves busy with celebrations, end-of-year deadlines at work, and holiday shopping.
For myself, this holds especially true as we are preparing to move the food bank to a new facility and struggling to meet the rising food demand.
On top of that, we are one month away from becoming an independent food bank and taking over the El Paso, Culberson and Hudspeth county portion of the West Texas Food Bank service area.
Due to all these demands, I rarely find myself in my office, but rather, working on the new building or out in the community. The other day, however, I had the chance to chat with a lady who received our holiday appeal letter. She wanted to verify the statistics concerning childhood hunger.
The letter, in a nutshell, stated that more than 135,000 children experience hunger.
"So, is that a national number?"
No.
"The number of children in Texas without food?"
Again, no. That is just in our community. In fact, more than two out of three children in El Paso County's four largest school districts go to school hungry every day.
I also explained that the U.S. Census data tell us there are more than 229,000 individuals suffering from food insecurity in El Paso County. That means nearly a third of our county's population has no food, or very limited food, on any given day.
"But how, with food stamps, do people go hungry?" she asked me, "Don't food stamps
cover what they need?"
Well, food stamps do help, but on average, it provides about $3 to $4 per person per day.
"Oh my!" she said, "You cannot live off of that!"
The truth is that even with food stamps, most families cannot afford food for the entire month.
Additionally, with the economic climate, many families' situations have changed over the past few years. Underemployment is so common -- working adults may have been laid off and had to take a lower-paying job, or one of the two adults in a household lost their job and the total income then decreased by more than 50 percent.
How many of the middle-class could really afford all of their expenses if their income suddenly decreased by 50 percent? The reality is that many middle-class Americans are just one paycheck away from going hungry.
While the problem of hunger is tough to see, it exists. Hunger and malnutrition are prominent in our community, and have significant consequences.
Inadequately nourished children are apt to have learning problems and more illnesses. Adults who are hungry are less productive, making it difficult to find and keep a job or care for children; malnourished elderly persons are less able to prevent illness.
Her response after a moment of silence: "How can I help?"
I wish I could get that type of reaction each time I explain this pressing issue. With the amount of people in need in our area, our food bank should be distributing about 18 million pounds of food annually -- but we are only around 6 million pounds each year.
While this is a huge challenge, it is feasible. With the generosity of companies, frequent donors, and yes, wonderful people who call to find out if our statistics are true -- just to find themselves called to action -- we can alleviate hunger in El Paso through community partnership.
What we need: Cash donations, food drives, and volunteers are always appreciated, especially during this holiday season.
Ruben Sanchez is executive director of El Pasoans Fighting Hunger. He may be reached at 595-1060 or
info@epfhfb.org
Copyright 2012 El Paso Times. All rights reserved.
