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TOOELE -- The Tooele County Food Bank had to close its doors for a day last week. It was that short on food. The Utah Food Bank's massive freezer is almost empty. Normally in August, it's filled to the brim.
These are signs of a bigger problem: a strain on food pantries that stretches across the country.
"It's very frustrating. It's a little bit frightening," Utah Food Bank chief marketing officer Ginette Bott said Wednesday.
July and August are the slowest months of the year for food donations. This year, though, Bott said, government programs that normally allow organizations like the Utah Food Bank to order discounted goods to help compensate during the slow times have underestimated the need and are short themselves.
Demand has been soaring. Sandoval said the food bank used to help 30 families per day. In the past year, the number has jumped to 75. There are more than 3,600 open case files.
"We're very low and we can't go out and find - without purchasing, just like you do your groceries - food to help those in need in Utah," Bott said. "It's sad to think of the families who are going to pantries that are dependent on help."
The trickle-down is already being felt in homes across the Wasatch Front. In Tooele County, Judith Lee Langley was told by a worker Wednesday at the food bank there that there was no milk - only the powdered kind. Elderly and strapped with medical bills, she turned to the pantry to cut her food costs.
"If you see one or two doctors a month, that's pretty much your grocery allowance," Langley said. The Tooele County Food Bank, for the first time in its history, closed its doors Aug. 3 because workers could not supply the kind of food to families that would make for nutritious meals.
"When you're doing three meals per day for at least one week, the food goes rather quickly," director Lori Sandoval said.
Demand has been soaring. Sandoval said the food bank used to help 30 families per day. In the past year, the number has jumped to 75. There are more than 3,600 open case files.
Because of the national shortage, recent shipments from the Utah Food Bank have shrunk. Only weeks ago, the Tooele County Food Bank was getting 6 to 8 pallets of food per week. Recently, it has slipped to 3 to 4 pallets per week. The size of the pallets have also been slashed in half.
"What they brought was not enough to make a nutritional food box," Sandoval said of last week's shipment. It consisted of ice cream, diet pepsi, "salvaged" or slightly damaged goods, as well as USDA products. A prime staple in this week's shipment was pet food.
"What we've had to do is look at all of our agencies, compare the inventory we have, reduce the amount that goes to everyone, so that each of the agencies gets something," Bott said. "It isn't nearly enough and not the normal distribution they're used to seeing - but we have to be sure we get something to all those agencies." Local and regional food banks are doing what they can to compensate.
The Tooele County Food Bank is pleading to whoever will listen to make donations now. Would-be donors are asked to call that food bank's reception line at 435-843-4780 or visit its web page for more information on how to help.
The Utah Food Bank is also encouraging people to donate to its facility at 3150 S. 900 W. during normal operating hours.
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