Business is booming at the Banks-Jackson Emergency Food Bank in Commerce. That is never a good thing.
So many people have come to the food bank that its shelves are nearly bare.
“It’s the lowest I can remember, and I’ve been here 14 years,” remarked Christa Shumake, manager.
The slack economy has dealt a double-whammy to the food bank. More people are out of work - and food - so they appeal to the food bank, and donations of both food and money are also down, for the same reasons.
And, said Shumake, August is always the food bank’s worst month.
Located on Georgia Avenue in a building provided by First Commerce Bank, the food bank supplies the short-term emergency food needs of people referred by a local church or by the Jackson or Banks Departments of Family and Children Services. Recipients typically get a one-week supply of food.
“We’re having so many families come in,” said Shumake. “We’ve been having more than 100 a month.”
The food comes from a number of sources. Food Lion in Jefferson and Quality Foods in Commerce, for example, donate leftover perishable items. Pizza Hut and Taco Bell at Banks Crossing provide pizzas, which are frozen, and Longhorn’s donates baked potatoes, which are frozen.
Those donations are also down, but they remain a crucial part of the food bank’s supplies.
Other groups hold food drives, and the food bank uses donations from individuals and churches to buy food from the Food Bank of Northeast Georgia in Athens.
Donations of cash have also fallen off, due to the economy, according to Shumake.
“I had a couple in here Monday, they were so hungry I warmed them a pizza, and they stood here and ate it,” she recalled. “They hadn’t had anything all day. He was out of work and she couldn’t find work.”
A lot of the recently unemployed are in the construction business, which has been devastated by the mortgage crisis.
Shelves aren’t bare, but the food bank’s inventory is critically low, Shumake said. Stocks of rice, macaroni and cheese, soup, peanut butter, canned fruits and vegetables are crucial to meeting the nutritional needs of families, as are dried beans, grits and oatmeal, and instant mashed potatoes. Those items are purchased by the pound from the regional food bank at a steeply discounted price.
The food bank is open from 9:30 to 1:30 Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
