Food for Lane County

Holding on to hope

Emergency food pantries in Lane County are seeing more and more faces, especially new faces, at their doors these days. Many are among the "newly poor," working

families who have recently lost jobs and are turning to food pantries for help for the first time. A Junction City mother of three counts herself among that number. She asked that we not use her name.

"My husband was laid off from his construction job in October," she said. "One day it was here, and one day it was gone. He has a lot of experience, but there are a lot of people looking for work right now, so his job prospects don't look good, at least not until the economy gets better." Her own job as a teacher's aide for the Junction City School District ends in June. In Junction City, like so many school districts around Oregon, budget cuts mean staff cuts next year. "Knowing that my job isn't going to be here in June, I just don't know. I feel anxious about how things are going to go for us. It scares me because I've never had to deal with anything like this before."

For groceries, her family did the best they could for as long as they could, buying beans and pasta and trying to make it last.

"It just wasn't working. It got so bad we decided we needed some help. A friend urged me to go to the pantry. I applied for food stamps after that."

The groceries she gets from Junction City Local Aid, one of 25 area pantries that receives food from FOOD for Lane County, provide some of the staples her family needs, including flour, beans, pasta and bread. She uses food stamps to purchase a few groceries she can't get at the pantry.

Jeni Yost runs one of two emergency food pantries operated by Catholic Community Services. The Eugene location where Yost works is open for four hours three days a week and serves between 100 and 150 people a day with a paid staff of two and four volunteers.

"I see 30 new people every day we're open," said Yost. "And on the days we're closed we give them a hug and a can of chili, we tell them to please come back when we're open and we send them on their way. It's all we can do."

"Until you've been here and talked to the people, you don't really know who they are or what it's like," said Yost. "You may know it here," she said, pointing to her head, "but you don't know it here," she said, pointing to her heart. The Springfield mother of 5 first came to the pantry to get a food box in October 2006. She was a senior care giver and was looking for supplemental income. The pantry had a job opening, and she came back the next day with her application. She started working there 10 hours a week and is now a full-time employee.

"Right now we have an abundance of food, thanks to FOOD for Lane County," said Yost. "We're doing good stuff. I just want to make sure that people who need us know that we're here and that people who are in a position to support FOOD for Lane County do so in any way they can."

Back in Junction City, our mother is holding on to the hope that things will turn around for her family.

"I'm looking for a good counselor for me because it's something I think I can benefit from," she said. "It's just too much to take on."

"I try to shelter my girls. No child should have to worry about this. I don't want them to worry about being taken care of, because I will always take care of them. And my husband is a good provider when he can provide. We do our best, but they know what's going on."