By Jenny Neyman
Photo by Jenny Neyman, Redoubt Reporter. Jeff Belluonini, Brook Belluomini and Mya Renken pack Thanksgiving food boxes at the Kenai Peninsula Food Bank on Friday.
Redoubt Reporter
Picture being in charge of a Thanksgiving dinner for a large group of friends and family.
At the store, when buying a turkey and all the fixings, sticker shock leads to creativity in finding lower-cost ingredients. Or putting back items altogether. Picking up perishables involves estimating how much freezer space is left at home.
When dinner rolls around, made with a pared-down budget and limited perishables, worries persist about whether there will be enough to feed everyone, especially when unexpected guests arrive.
Now picture going through that every day. That’s what it’s like to be the Kenai Peninsula Food Bank, trying to meet an increasing need for services out of the same facilities that have not expanded in more than 10 years.
The Kenai Peninsula Food Bank is one of the bedrock social-service programs on the peninsula, touching more than 10,000 residents in the various programs it operates. The food bank supplies around 60 other agencies that provide food to their participants, including senior centers, kids’ programs, churches and veterans organizations. It gives out food boxes to senior citizens and low-income residents in need, serves lunch in its Fireweed Diner soup kitchen Monday through Friday, and provides occasional special services, like holiday food boxes and birthday bags for kids.
In 1999, the food bank took in 762,149 pounds of food. In 2008, more than one million pounds of food were received and redistributed. Need has grown dramatically over the past 12 years, with a particular spike recently. Since last year, the food bank’s client base increased by 40 percent. That’s 40 percent more people seeking services who’ve never needed the food bank before, on top of all the returning clients.
Linda Swarner, food bank executive director, doesn’t expect that trend to reverse or even slow down anytime soon as a downturn in the economy continues to ripple through Alaska.
“I would expect it to be increasing as people have to seek other employment and until there are more higher-paying jobs in our area. And then we get people who move down from Anchorage because they think it’s a better life down here,” Swarner said.
Part of the importance of the food bank is its support of other service agencies, but that’s also part of its challenge. When agencies lose
Photo by Jenny Neyman, Redoubt Reporter. Austin Daly, from the Kenai Rotary Interact Club, hands a can of food to Victoria Silk while they and (from left) Brenna Belluomini, Brook Belluomini, Jeff Belluomini and Joy Wannamaker pack Thanksgiving food boxes at the Kenai Peninsula Food Bank on Friday.
funding or get less donations or support as the economy is pinched, they look for ways to reduce their budgets, and one of the ways to do that is to utilize the food bank’s services more.
“The Boys and Girls Club lost a lot of their funding. When they lose funding then they go and say, ‘How can I cut costs?’ They come to the food bank wanting more food products for their snacks. So their poundage has increased,” Swarner said. “Or the senior centers might not get as many donations, so they come and see us because they want to be able to stretch their dollars, so it’s a ripple effect.”
But the food bank doesn’t have anywhere else to ripple those costs. It tries to make up the difference. To make matters worse, securing more food supplies is getting more challenging, Swarner said. Food drives and donations from individuals and businesses are down this year, probably due to the economy. The Food Bank of Alaska in Anchorage is sending less food to the peninsula because the demand for food in Anchorage is increasing. And retail stores, which are typically the largest source of food donations, have less to give because manufacturers are producing less in an effort to cut costs.
“They’re getting less food because manufacturers are producing less food. When we’re saying how much they’ve donated, they cut back on production,” Swarner said.
There is some light on the horizon in helping meet increasing demand, and that’s in increasing the food bank’s facility capacity, Swarner said.
In 2008, a U.S. Farm Bill was passed that provides more funding for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s commodity food program. That makes more food available that the peninsula food bank could access, but it would need more room to store it, which it currently doesn’t have.
“They are acquiring more protein-laden foods, such as chickens, hams and lots of pork products, but we need a place to store them to distribute them,” Swarner said. “We don’t pay for that food, and they don’t give us any funds to store it or distribute it or anything. It comes out of our operating budget. We get it, but we could get more.”
The food bank routinely has to turn down perishable donations or commodity supplies because they don’t have refrigeration space to store them.
“When we place an order and USDA receives bonus items we want to say, ‘Yes, we have room.’ They had blueberries that we had to turn down because we didn’t have room, we have turkeys (in the freezer) for the holidays,” Swarner said. “I’ve been at the food bank almost seven years now, and we’re seeing more perishables coming in. The shelf life isn’t as long for some of the stuff. We get more leaf lettuce than head lettuce, and we’re getting less of the dry goods. With cooler space the shelf life isn’t as long, but if you have no cold storage for it then you really have to get it out to whoever comes that day. It would be nice to store it until the next day, too.”
The food bank is undertaking a building campaign for $791,000 to expand its facility, especially its cold-storage capabilities. Its current freezer is 23 by 12-feet, which fills up fast. The one they’d like to install is 26 by 19 feet, with the ability to put up racks to hold pallets on upper shelves, to fit in even more food.
“We definitely need a larger and expanded and more energy-efficient freezer and cooler space. We don’t have any availability for perishable items right now, and our electrical, if we plug in anything, like another refrigerator, the circuits break,” Swarner said.
The Building to Nourish campaign is organized in four directives. “Growing the Base,” estimated at $170,000, includes a new heating system, accessible restroom, storage supply area, upgraded electrical system, repairs to the building’s foundation and a new septic field. “Growing the Menu,” at $410,000, includes the larger, energy-efficient freezer and cooler and expanded sorting area. “Growing the Service,” at $123,000, includes additions of a secure storage area, vestibule and waiting area, canopy and screening walls to improve access for visiting clients. “Growing within,” at $88,000, includes relocating the forklift pallet rack, display shelving and work tables, and adding a new sink and food scale.
The food bank has secured a matching grant for $395,000 from the Rasmuson Foundation, and so needs to raise $395,000 in donations, counting from Dec. 1, 2008, through spring 2010. The bank wants to break ground on the expansion July 1, 2010, Swarner said.
“It’s not a sexy campaign, it’s the bread and butter,” Swarner said. “We start out with the foundation of grains and build on to beans and go on up and finish with chocolate.”
But even the “chocolate” of the expansion isn’t extravagant, Swarner said. It’s not about a flat-screen TV for an employee break room or a heated employee parking garage.
“It’s an artic entry on the front of the building so when the wind blows the doors don’t fly open,” Swarner said.
It’s an extra sink so employees and volunteers can clean and sanitize without having to haul buckets. It’s upgrades to lower the cost of utility bills. It’s forklift access to the freezer so people don’t have to unload frozen goods by hand at night. In the end, it all boils down to being able to store more food and serve more people with it, Swarner said.
“We’re not expecting any expansion to increase the utility bills because it’s going to be more energy efficient. We don’t need to add any new employees, we’re just expanding what we already have. This is going to allow us to be able to acquire more food,” Swarner said.
For more information on the Building to Nourish Campaign, or to make a donation, visit kpfoodbank.org/btn.
