San Benito Food Pantry volunteer Jesse Garcia is shown Tuesday stocking shelves with cans of soda. (Staff photo by Michael Rodriguez)
By MICHAEL RODRIGUEZ
Managing Editor
editor@sbnewspaper.com
Jose Angel Molano, Shirley Stevens, Belinda Moreno, and Lidia Garcia of the San Benito Food Pantry are pictured Tuesday organizing their stock. (Staff photo by Michael Rodriguez)
Growth is often considered synonymous with progress, but for the San Benito Food Pantry, a 269 percent increase of families lining up for a free meal is a sign of growing economic hardship.
Every Wednesday morning, the pantry, an agency of the Rio Grande Valley Food Bank and a nonprofit organization operated by volunteers, gives away free food to those who meet the criteria. A family of four, for instance, averaging an annual household income of $40,000 qualifies. Claire Roewe, manager, said such requirements are lenient to more accurately meet people’s needs.
“We have well-dressed young men coming in tears because they’ve never been on food stamps, on welfare or on anything,” Roewe said. “They’ve simply woken up one morning and lost their job, and they don’t have money to feed their babies and don’t even know how to apply for food stamps. A few months ago, they were making it. They had a family, they had a house… I don’t think anyone understands how many people are losing their homes, their apartments or their jobs.”
Helping feed people in similar circumstances has been the pantry’s mission for nearly 20 years, but lately they’re often overwhelmed by the ever-increasing demands of a community hungry for work.
The proof is in the numbers.
In August 2008, the pantry served 558 families, 1,201 adults and 926 children. Those numbers skyrocketed in 2009 to 827 families, 1,792 adults and 1,306 children; in 2010, it was 966 families, 2,047 adults and 1,588 children; and this year, it again climbed to 1,501 families, 3,239 adults and 2,488 children. This accounts for a 269 percent increase in people served within a three-year span.
It’s not as though the business community and others haven’t assisted the pantry in the past, however. Retail shopping and grocery stores in San Benito donate to the pantry on a yearly basis, either monetarily or otherwise, and local schools, churches, the police and fire departments often hold canned food drives. In fact, some of the pantry’s own clients pitch in every now and then.
But for an organization just able to maintain its monthly operations, which currently exceed $2,500 and stands to increase with the growing demand, more help is not only welcome – it’s needed.
“If everybody in San Benito gave $10, even $5, we’d be set,” Roewe said. “We’re barely making (monthly costs), and we haven’t received CDBG monies in three years.”
Besides filing grant applications, Roewe and San Benito Food Pantry President Lidia Garcia said they’ve also recruited the assistance of James Flores, who now serves as the organization’s public relations officer. Flores has since helped bridge a gap between the pantry’s old school style of soliciting and a more modern approach. For instance, Flores said he often receives donations on the strength of the pantry’s Facebook account. Also, a benefit concert is in the works featuring a popular local band, which may generate interest among the community’s youth. In short, the pantry is changing the way it does business by remaining open to more innovation ideas
Roewe presented one such idea by issuing a challenge to the city’s leaders.
“I want the San Benito City Commissioners to run the food pantry one Wednesday, to do the intake, do the applications, make the sacks, make out the numbers, and meet your constituents one at a time,” Roewe said before asserting that the pantry is a private organization with no political affiliations.
Garcia, meanwhile, is pleading to the community in the form of a letter to the editor published in today’s edition of the News. “At present time our funds are very limited,” Garcia penned. “Donations from the community are urgently needed.”
For more information on how to donate to the pantry, call Roewe at (956) 399-2869 or Garcia at (956) 399-1659.
To see this story in print, pick up a copy of the Sept. 14 edition of the San Benito News. Or view our E-Edition by clicking here.
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