Summer doldrums leave cupboards awfully bare at Utah's food banks

Although temperatures outside remain hot and frightful, Utah emergency food pantries would like to light a holiday season fire under donors.

Summer doldrums have put area food banks in a supply slump, which operations managers say can be raised before temperatures cool if folks will decide now to donate early and often.

The spirit of giving comes around as automatically as the annual spirit of getting, said Phillip Arena, director of development for the Salt Lake City Mission. "But it's the the giving season all year, just like the need for emergency food is year-round."

Setting an example is a company that knows something about the importance of having daily bread: Subway Restaurants in Utah donated 300,000 unbaked loaves of sandwich bread to the Mission Friday. The donated bread will be used for the Mission's annual Thanksgiving dinners at the Energy Solutions Arena and the Christian Center. The donation will also help provide prepared meals for local families in need.

Robert Sherwood, Subway of Utah board chairman, said the donation is one small way the company can be part of what he considers the "truly remarkable service" provided by the state's food pantries.

Area food banks reported earlier this month that donations totaled 250,000 pounds, low even for the slow summer months.

Amberlie Phillips, Utah Food Bank Services development director, said such a sizable and much-appreciated donation as Subway is providing helps fill empty cupboard space. She noted, however, that the combined efforts of individuals are the single most important and reliable source of donations to the more than 250 agencies and community centers that distribute food to the poor.

U.S. Census and local community service agencies report that 10 percent of Utahns — including one in eight Utah children — live in poverty. Last year, the food bank network distributed 18 million pounds of food, or roughly 9 million meals, according to the food bank network.

Boxed and canned items are in short supply, and a study of the capacity and accessibility of emergency food services released Wednesday found that storage space, including shelving, refrigerators, and freezers, is lacking as well. The study also found that more of the poor or "food insecure" people would access emergency food programs if they were available or were located closer to where the people live.

Food banks are attempting to address that need by going mobile with trucked-in pantries. Emergency food was made available this past week for the first time in Montezuma Creek and Monument Valley in San Juan County — one of the nation's poorest areas, with a 31 percent poverty level, and one of the state's largest counties, at 7,800 square miles.

More information, including how to arrange a food drive, is available through Utah Food Bank Services at 978-2452 or at www.utahfoodbank.org.

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E-mail: jthalman@desnews.com