Feed Local Families Through Food Share

Have you ever been hungry?

Not "hungry" as in "Oh, I just had a three-course lunch and I'm already hungry again!"

I mean, hungry as in you haven't had anything at all to eat in days. Or your mom's not home because she works two jobs and the only thing in your cabinets is a box of cake mix, so you eat that. Or you want to feed your children but it's the end of the month and you have no money to buy even a jar of peanut butter.

I was astonished--and saddened--to learn years ago from Sarah-Jennifer

Thompson, founder of Sidney's Safe! Foundation in Florence that this was a big problem in our area. People in our own backyards--especially children--were going to bed hungry everyday.

Statistics back up the stories:

• 19.2% of Alabama's population is "food insecure," which means one or more people in the household were hungry over the course of the year because of the inability to buy food.
• 25.2% of families in Alabama struggle to afford necessities (the most basic being food), ranking our state as the 2nd highest in food hardship in the nation.
• The food insecurity rate in the seven north Alabama counties served by Bank Independent ranges from 12.9% (Limestone County) to 16.6% (Colbert County).
• 80% of households in north Alabama who seek assistance use their entire food stamp allocation by the third week of the month.

Sarah-Jennifer told us about the child who resorted to eating powdered cake mix because it was the only thing in the cabinet. She explained that weekends, holidays and summer vacation months are when children are most at risk for hunger. This makes a sad sort of sense and highlights the importance of subsidized school meal programs.

Why a summer food drive?

That's why Bank Independent's Food Share takes place in early May. We've learned from Sidney's Safe, the Committee on Church Cooperation in Decatur, and other food distribution organizations in the counties we serve that food banks benefit greatly from the community's spirit of giving over the holidays. But those overflowing shelves are nearly empty by the end of May, when so many schoolchildren need the most help.