Helping neighbors in need

A surge in demand at Montana food banks is alarming because there is uncertainty that the demand can be met over the next year and because it reflects the true nature of Montana’s economic malaise.

The state’s official September unemployment rate of 7.4 percent does not accurately reflect what people are experiencing. It does not account for the self-employed who are out of work or those who have given up looking for work. Nor it does not account for the underemployed or Montana’s low average per capita income.

Food banks across the state get a good picture of the 318,000 Montanans who live at less than 185 percent of the federal poverty level, which amounts to an annual household income of about $37,000 for a family of four.

People living under that level are the folks most likely to find themselves at a food bank.

The Missoula-based Montana Food Bank Network reports that the volume of food distributed so far this year — about 6.3 million pounds — is nearly triple the volume distributed just four years ago. The number of visits to the network’s partner food banks — about 717,000 so far — is more than double the visits in 2006.

Montana food banks used to serve mostly single people, but now they are serving families with children, the working poor and people who used to have good-paying jobs but are now unemployed.

That’s why Montana food banks deserve renewed public and private support — the estimated 154,000 clients they have helped this year alone amounts to more than one in 10 people in Montana.

The Montana Food Bank Network faces a dilemma in that it received $2.2 million from the Legislature in the last biennium, and about $1.7 million of that was one-time federal stimulus money, all of it entirely directed toward purchasing and distributing food. The network is going to be hard pressed to come up with that kind of funding again for the next two years, but the Legislature needs to make every effort to do so.

This is the most basic of “safety net” expenditures that can be made, and it is important to recognize that Montana food banks have long relied on private donations for food and money. State support for food banks should not be considered a permanent entitlement venture because demand at food banks can be expected to decline when the economy improves.

In the meantime, there needs to be a double-down effort for private donations of food and money. Many churches and community groups have long conducted successful and generous food drives. Now is the time to broaden the base, a time for individuals and organizations that haven’t previously supported food banks to get in the game.

Montana’s economy and unemployment picture are not likely to improve substantially in the months to come, and neither are demands on food banks.