There are almost always a few kids in line at the Fort Bragg Food Bank. Unlike the adults, they never appear glum. They don”t look uneasily around for someone they may not want to see. Some jump in with joy. Others have parents who don”t allow playing in the close quarters of the food line shelter.
Kids are the most likely to want their pictures in the paper, although mom, dad or Uncle Joe doesn”t always go along.
“Seeing children go hungry is heartbreaking,” said Nancy Severy, executive director of the Fort Bragg Food Bank.
“It”s absolutely necessary that in the effort to bring adequate nutrition to all our kids we don”t hold them hostage to our judgment of the shortcomings (real or imagined) of the adults who care for them,” she said. “Thankfully, this is an area in which our community is in full agreement.”
Poverty in Fort Bragg
National studies and Fort Bragg Unified School District statistics show the poverty level in Fort Bragg is at record levels. Seventy percent of FBUSD students ages 3 to 18 qualify for free or reduced cost lunches.
The Mendocino Coast Children”s Fund Weekend Nutrition Project is a key effort. The project helps hungry kids during weekends away from school by giving the oldest kid in families a large grocery bag of food to take home on Friday.
Baskets of food are assembled at the Redwood Coast Senior Center and distributed there and through Fort Bragg schools to bolster the pantry for weekend meals for children and families suffering the pangs of poverty.
“The Fort Bragg School District brought this concern to us because they have no funds for weekend feeding and were receiving heartbreaking reports of kids worried about where the next meal was coming from and of kids asking for food for younger brothers and sisters not of school age,” said Gloria Liner, volunteer executive director of the Mendocino Coast Children”s Fund.
“Often these children are living with grandparents and other relatives who are raising the children of family members who can no longer function as parents,” she said.
After a screening process designed to protect confidentiality as well as fight hunger, the oldest child of a family is given a bag including food staples, shelf-stable milk and fresh produce designed to last the weekend. Also included are toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, shampoo and personal hygiene items.
“Lack of hygiene creates dental problems that are very expensive and lead to health problem that have lifetime consequences,” said Liner.
“Lack of hygiene also creates social isolation and causes children to stop attending school.”
When Liner initiated the Friday Family Food Pantry (formerly the Kids Weekend Backpack Program), she brought together several local organizations in a cooperative effort.
“The Food Bank”s role has been to use our transport capacity and our connections with the Redwood Empire Food Bank in Santa Rosa to acquire and transport food (paid for with funds raised by MCCF) for the Friday Food Pantry,” Severy said.
“As we already have a regular weekly truck route to the Redwood Empire Food Bank, we were readily able to help in this way. The food we obtain there is at a lower cost than most alternative sources available to MCCF on a regular basis.”
The Food Bank also has a special program for families with children that functions during periods when the schools are on holiday breaks (including summer vacation).
As in the Children”s Fund weekend feeding program, the Food Bank summer program is motivated by the concern that children who benefit from subsidized breakfasts and lunches through the schools might not be getting adequate nutrition when these meals are not available. The Food Bank has received a little funding for several years through the Emergency Food and Shelter Program to purchase food.
“We distribute to families with children during school breaks in addition to the normal weekly food distribution from the Food Bank. These bags are not large, but they are a supplement welcomed by our clients,” Severy said.
More than two dozen government agencies, faith-based groups and nonprofits are working together on several efforts designed to solve the growing problem of hunger among the youth of Fort Bragg.
“The Children”s Fund has always been very supportive of the Food Bank”s mission in general, and particularly in regard to feeding children,” Severy said. “Gloria Liner of MCCF has generously included the Food Bank in some of their fundraising efforts, in recognition of the important role the Food Bank plays in supplying emergency food to families with children. We are a grateful beneficiary of her efforts on behalf of feeding children in our community.”
Food insecurity
According to data released last week by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 17 percent of Americans — more than 50 million people — live in households that are “food insecure,” a term that means a family sometimes runs out of money to buy food.
The biggest surge in food insecurity since the agency established the measure in 1995 occurred between 2007 and 2008, at the start of the economic downturn, according to a recent Newsweek report.
Both nationally and locally, the numbers haven”t continued to skyrocket in 2009 and 2010 — but they haven”t returned to precrash levels either.
Newsweek”s report documented how trends in eating — both of the most expensive and cheapest, least nutritious foods — had followed the widening gap between rich and poor in America.
Among the poorest families, mean household income has held relatively steady between $10,000 and $13,000 for the past two decades (in inflation-adjusted dollars). However, among the wealthiest families, income has jumped 20 percent to $170,800 over the same period, according to census data.
As good food has moved from taken for granted to status symbol, a childhood obesity trend, especially among the lowest income people, has emerged.
Adam Drewnowski, an epidemiologist at the University of Washington, has extensively documented how Americans” food choices correlate to social class. He argues that the most nutritious diet — lots of fruits and vegetables, lean meats, fish and grains — is beyond the reach of the poorest Americans, and it is economic elitism for nutritionists to uphold it as an ideal without broadly addressing issues of affordability.
Season of Sharing
This series supports the Advocate-News” and The Mendocino Beacon”s annual Season of Sharing fund drive for the Food Bank. The goal is to give the Food Bank money it can use locally year-round, not just during the holidays.
Last year, $21,890.29 was donated, which brought the total raised since our first fund drive in 1995 to $185,890.
The nonprofit Community Foundation of Mendocino County administers the Season of Sharing free of charge as a courtesy to the newspapers. Every cent taken in by the newspapers goes to the Food Bank.
Checks should be made out to the Community Foundation of Mendocino County (CFMC), and mailed to the newspaper at P.O. Box 1188, Fort Bragg, 95437, or dropped off at 450 N. Franklin St. If you have any questions, call us at 964-5642.
The fundraiser runs through Dec. 31. Donors” names are printed each week, unless they ask to remain anonymous.
As of Tuesday, donations total $6,675. This week we thank J.R. Harrison, Florence Simonson and Linda Perry, Janice and Stephen Walker, Michael and Ruth Dell”Ara, Marianne McGee, Ron and Susan Munson, Bronwyn and Robert Rhoades, George Egling, Myra and Joseph Figueiredo, Sharon Hansen, Barbara Barkowich, Jewels Marcus, Deborah A. Smith, Alice Einhorn, the Trinity Lutheran Church Hope Circle, Miriam Davis and Peter Keat, and one anonymous donor.
