The people working the front line of feeding Marylanders who are hungry say the demand is growing.
That could be seen at one program in Baltimore County where people staked out their place in line Tuesday morning, hours in advance of the doors opening.
A cold rain was falling, so people marked their places in line with folding chairs and shopping carts, then waited in their cars for the food pantry at Loch Raven United Methodist Church to open.
“If you don’t get here at a certain time, you’re waiting down there at the end of the parking lot,” said Alvin Wallace.
He’s been coming to the food pantry for about a year. Wallace said in recent months, more people have been lining up.
“You can tell the regulars, you know,” Wallace said. “But it has really changed. The word of mouth has gotten out. You see people come. Some come on a regular basis. Every time there’s always somebody new.”
While Wallace and others waited for the food pantry to open, George Winkfield, the pastor at Loch Raven United Methodist, was unloading food he had picked up from the Maryland Food Bank.
Winkfield said, “So we have chicken. These are actually really good. They’re like ten pounds. We have collard greens, which is good. They had those this morning. They had blueberries.”
Winkfield has seen the numbers grow of people needing the food pantry’s help.
“We’ve really noticed over the last five, six months, that it’s been much busier than it had been before, and we’re just happy to do what we can, but there are a lot of people who have a lot of needs,” Winkfield said.
One reason for that, Winkfield said, is that SNAP benefits, previously known as food stamps, were cut earlier this year. Congress allowed an emergency increase established during the COVID pandemic to expire.
“But also things are just much more expensive than they used to be in the grocery store,” Winkfield said. “Even though things are kind of going down now, you still go in the grocery store, 10, 20, 30 percent higher than it was. Gas is going down a little bit but it’s still really high as well.”
Once the doors opened people came inside and picked items from individual shelves with stuff like canned fruit, soup and pancake mix. Then comes the main event, the meat table. Volunteer Joann Munden laid out the options for Regina Myers.
“Today we have wings,” Munden said. “Or we have chicken legs. Everyone can have a pound of bacon.”
Myers is a regular at the pantry.
“And I love it,” Myers said. “Everybody’s generous. They always have different types of food for everyone, which is a good thing. It helps real good because I’m on a fixed income and a lot of things that I can’t afford I get it here.”
The Maryland Food Bank estimates that around one in three families in the state risk living with food insecurity, which according to the United States Department of Agriculture means not having consistent access to the food every person in a family needs for an active, healthy life.
Pastor Winkfield said the food pantry offers insight into what’s really going on in the community.
“I really feel it does more for us in many ways than it does for the people that we help because, often times, people really don’t have the opportunity to really meet people and connect with people who have food insecurity, and they’re just like any other person,” Winkfield said.
You can find a food pantry by going to the Maryland Food Bank’s website, mdfoodbank.org.
