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Akron-Canton agency reports distributions are 14 percent higher than in 2007
By Jim Carney
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Thursday, Aug 07, 2008
Demand for food from the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank is increasing rapidly.
The food bank released statistics Wednesday showing that for the first six months of this year, compared with the same period last year, food distributions increased by 14 percent.
At the same time, agencies that receive food are reporting an increase of 20 percent in the number of people being served.
Food distribution at the food bank increased by 7 percent in the second quarter of the year compared with the first quarter, said Dan Flowers, president and CEO of the food bank.
At the current rate of distributing food to area shelters and food cupboards, Flowers said, the agency could distribute 14 million pounds of food this year, compared with 12 million in 2007.
As a result, Flowers said this is ''a historic and unprecedented time in the history of the anti-hunger movement.''
The food bank statistics were released as U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton, D-Copley Twp., Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic and other civic leaders toured the food bank's new $6 million facility at 350 Opportunity Parkway in Akron.
The food bank is seeking to raise an additional $2 million for an operating endowment for the new building.
Brown, who was instrumental in securing $368,000 in federal funds for fiscal year 2008 for the food bank, said the need for food for Ohioans is apparent from his travels across the state.
''The question of feeding people comes up time and time again,'' he said.
In the city of Logan in Hocking County, he said, people lined up at 3 a.m. at a food center, which eventually served 2,000 people out of a county population of about 30,000.
Increasingly, Brown said, customers at food banks are people who are working.
''People who are doing everything right, working hard and playing by the rules,'' he said.
Sutton, who has volunteered at the food bank, spoke of the ''newly poor'' who are receiving help from food banks.
She said she has heard of people who ''used to be donors to the food bank and now are in need of services.''
Brown and Sutton, along with Reps. Tim Ryan, D-Niles, Ralph Regula, D-Navarre, and Steve LaTourette, R-Concord Township, supported the Farm Bill this year that provides financial support to hunger relief efforts at the food bank through USDA programs like the Emergency Food Assistance Program.
''Almost daily, the number of people seeking food assistance continues to rise,'' Flowers said.
For more on the food bank, go to http://www.akroncantonfoodbank.org.
Jim Carney can be reached at 330-996-3576 or jcarney@thebeaconjournal.com.
Demand for food from the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank is increasing rapidly.
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