Financial donations to help purchase food pantry items have picked up at the Community Services of Venango County agency in the past few weeks.
That uptick comes at a time when the need for food and health-related household items is also ramping up because of the coronavirus pandemic, school closings, business shutdowns and more.
“We are busy and I expect that will grow,” said Mary Jeanne Gavin, executive director of the long-time non-profit agency based in Oil City.
“People understand there are problems and they have been so generous,” Gavin said. “We received about 70-plus donations in the last two weeks with most of them being new contributions. About 60 percent of them wanted us to use the money to buy food with the rest of them telling us to use it where we saw the needs. Without them, we’d be having problems,” Gavin added.
Clientele is changing
Gavin said the agency is now experiencing an increase in older adults asking for food assistance.
“More of them are 55 years old or older. It is so odd – everything is upside down in the data right now,” she said.
There has not been a recent surge in requests from families with children to receive food items from the agency’s food banks in Oil City and Rocky Grove. Gavin attributes that to an increase in the federal SNAP, or food stamp, programs as a result of unemployment growth across the U.S.
There is a change, too, in what recipients getting bags of food are telling Community Services staff members.
“We noticed two weeks ago that the employment issues seemed to be okay. But now, it seems very few people are working and the number who do still have their jobs is very low,” said Gavin. “We are seeing more and more people out of work.”
Meanwhile, the number of food bank patrons who say they are homeless has dramatically changed.
“We have zero homeless, at least in what they are telling us. I don’t know if we have ever had a month when someone did say they were homeless,” said Gavin, who earlier attributed that to “people during this (pandemic) time don’t want to be homeless, they don’t want to be alone and they seek shelter.”
As economic woes increase, Community Services is seeing an increase in new families that need to tap a food pantry.
“We have had about 50 new families in just four weeks and that’s a lot,” said Gavin. “We expect that to continue to rise as the employment numbers continue to drop. We will not let anybody go hungry.”
In dealing with the increased demand, Community Services has upped what it can provide at its food banks.”We are giving out double now. If a family usually gets a bag, now they get two bags and we allow them to come back weekly if needed,” said Gavin. “In addition, because people were expressing this need, we are collecting hygiene bags and cleaning bags with cleansers, disinfectants, paper towels as well as hand soaps, toothpaste. People just don’t buy those things when they have other needs to be met.”
‘We want to be a relief’
As Community Services staff members distribute food items, there are conversations during the exchange, said Gavin.
While the requests for services, especially food items, have increased, there is a “certain slowing down now,” said Gavin.
“I think people are settling into this new normal and they are meeting their needs more,” she said. “But, a lot of people are getting unemployment now and, at first, you think that will handle your needs. But maybe in a month, that may not be enough to cover these families. I don’t know what will happen four weeks from now but I would guess we will see more people unemployed and they will see their needs are not being met. That’s my perception.”
“What I want people to know is that we want to help with that whole mindset of being afraid, living in fear,” she said. “We can get you covered.”
Contributions welcomed
Community Services relies on financial contributions to purchase food and related items.
While the agency is currently not accepting direct donations of food items, area residents may buy detergents, personal hygiene and sanitizing supplies and deliver them to the food pantries at 203 Center St. in Oil City and 39 Parker Ave. in Rocky Grove.
The agency is also purchasing lightweight carts to allow recipients to take groceries home.
“I’m not worried about our food pantries today. We are stocked. But, it takes time to get deliveries in and we are always trying to get ahead of it,” said Gavin. “This makes you rethink about how you do things in the future and we are talking about that, especially about our emergency aid programs. We are looking into the future and deciding how we will move forward.”
