Today, as on any Thanksgiving, there will be cooking chaos and calming chats, turkey platters and turkey bowls, family fun and TV football.
And amid the bounty for which we set aside a national holiday to give thanks there is this non sequitur -- Americans who don't have enough to eat.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s annual report “Household Food Security in the United States” found that 14.3 percent of American households -- 17.5 million households or about 1 in 7 -- were “food insecure” at some point during 2013, meaning all household members did not have access at all times to enough food for an active, healthy lifestyle.
Today, some 46.5 million Americans seek assistance from 200 food banks that are part of the Feeding America nationwide network.
“It‘s a pernicious problem,” said Lisa A. Scales, chief executive officer of the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, a Feeding America member that serves 360,000 people a year in 11 southwestern Pennsylvania counties. “Hunger is a hidden issue -- we see people every day who are hungry but we don't identify them as hungry. I know the economy is recovering but for many people we serve, they’re still struggling to feed themselves and their families.”
A third of the households that the food bank serves has someone working full time, she said. Still, they’re falling short. “They are turning at a great rate to seeking food assistance.”
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On a recent Saturday morning, the sun is brilliant but the air is biting with temperatures in the mid-20s. Still, well over 100 people are patiently lined up outside Founders Hall Middle School in McKeesport for one of the food bank's 17 monthly Produce to People distributions.
The first person got there at 6 a.m. -- four hours before the 10 a.m. start -- to receive onions, carrots, canned diced tomatoes, winter squash, pie pumpkins and apples, among other produce.
By the end of the three-hour distribution, 770 families each received 40 to 50 pounds of food, averaging about $60. Simultaneously, another 553 families were served at a Produce to People distribution on the North Side.
Staffed by 60 volunteers ranging from teenagers to seniors, the McKeesport distribution is as efficient as it is friendly.
“Let’s make it nice, easy, friendly and fast,” Ehrrin M. Keenan, special distributions manager, tells the volunteers before they start.
They do just that. Human kindness and decency are on display everywhere -- from the smiles volunteers distribute with sweet potatoes to the wishes of “Have a good Thanksgiving” they offer with dried cherries.
"They have big caring hearts to be doing this for us,” said Elisa McDonnell, 28, of McKeesport, one of the recipients.
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The USDA report found that 6.8 million households, or more than a third of food insecure households, had “very low food security.” That means that at times during the year food intake by household members was reduced because they lacked money or other resources for food. According to the study:
• Ninety-eight percent reported the food they bought did not last and they did not have money to buy more.
• Ninety-four percent reported they could not afford to eat balanced meals.
• Forty-five percent reported having lost weight because they did not have enough money for food.
Average food insecurity varied greatly by state for the years 2011-13, from an estimated high of 21.2 percent of households in Arkansas to a low of 8.7 percent in North Dakota. In Pennsylvania, the estimated average was 11.9 percent of households.
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Arrows point the way to the North Hills Community Outreach food pantry through serpentine hallways on the second floor of Allegheny General Hospital, Suburban Campus in Bellevue. Clients wait patiently until their numbers are called.
When it’s their turn they enter a tiny room where volunteers help them fill blue plastic bags with apples, yellow and red bell peppers, limes, potatoes, lettuce, frozen hamburgers, chicken, sausage and baked goods. Brandi S. Rukovena, food pantry coordinator, hands out $10 KDKA food vouchers and another for turkeys from a local grocer. From an adjacent room clients receive soup, sauce, macaroni, cereal, apple sauce, among other items.
“It’s just been wonderful,” says a 77-year-old woman from Avalon as a volunteer pushes a supermarket cart filled with her food. “It supplements food stamps. It’s been a godsend for us.”
Linda Chizmar, 50, of Bellevue, says that until she started coming to the food pantry she was forced to skip meals -- despite having diabetes.
“I wound up in the hospital 12 times because of that. I got yelled at by my doctor. This is helping me out a lot. I can eat three times a day like I‘m supposed to and I can eat healthier, too.”
Kathy Trautman, 55, of Brighton Heights puts it succinctly: “Either I come here and eat or I don’t come and don’t eat.”
She’s been coming to the pantry for about two years since becoming medically disabled after saving her brother’s life by giving him a liver transplant.
She used to work -- in the food industry and department stores -- but can’t anymore. Her income is $480 a month. “I hate looking for a handout, but I never planned on being disabled.”
A volunteer helps her get beef patties, sausage links and produce. She picks a pumpkin pie for dessert and then collects non-perishables.
Earlier in the day she seemed lethargic and downcast, but now she’s energized and upbeat.
“I’ll go home and eat!” she says, smiling as if she had won a lottery.
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Among those who receive food assistance nationally are 7 million seniors and 12 million children, according to “Hunger in America,” a report on charitable food distribution in the United States in 2013.
By race, 43 percent of all clients identify as white, 26 percent identify as black, 20 percent identify as Latino and 11 percent identify as “other.”
Most clients report having to choose between paying for food and paying for utilities, transportation, medical care or housing at some point during the year, the study said.
The Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank provides assistance to an average of 110,000 people each month -- and an average of 125,000 in summer months primarily because of the absence of free school meals. There has been a 14 percent increase in the average number of individuals it assisted during the first nine months this year compared to the same period in 2013. During that same time frame, there was a 21 percent increase in the average number of new households served.
If all of that seems like a lot of people, consider this: Only a third of the people in the region who are eligible for help have sought assistance from the food bank.
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A Pine woman reads Danielle Steele’s “Echoes” as she sits in the meeting room at the North Hills Community Outreach headquarters in Hampton, waiting to enter the food pantry in a building that resembles a small general store. The woman, 76, who asks not to be identified, is here for her 48-year-old daughter, a single mother with three children, ages 19, 17 and 16,
“They eat non-stop,” she says, laughing. Her daughter works as a medical assistant but doesn’t earn enough money to make ends meet.
“This helps with the groceries. There are so many expenses with children that age. Without this, it would be difficult. We’re not all blessed with wonderful jobs and money. People don’t want to do this but have to.”
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Is America destined to forever have a hunger problem?
“I really do think we can solve hunger,” said Ms. Scales of the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank doesn’t think so. “I truly believe we can come together as a community with government to provide enough food assistance. There’s enough food out there and we just need to come together to ensure people get the nutritious food they need.”
In particular, food banks are hoping to tap into the 6 billion to 9 billion pounds of food that go to waste annually left on the ground of farms.
“We have a very generous community, a community that has stepped up time and time again,” she said. “I see how we’re making a difference in people’s lives.”
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Toward the end of each month, money runs short for Ramona Holmes, 50. With seven people to feed -- herself, her son and five grandchildren between ages 2 and 11 -- Ms. Holmes visits the food pantry at Union Baptist Church in Swissvale twice a month, carpooling with young women from her neighborhood.
Ms. Holmes has used the pantry since last year when she was laid off from a data entry job at UPMC. She asked that those who support the food bank “continue to donate because...it does help so we don’t have to worry about where the next meal is coming from to feed the children”
She hopes to one day be able to help others who are food insecure.
“I’m still looking for employment. I didn’t expect to get laid off. I expected to retire from there.”
First Published: November 27, 2014, 5:00 a.m.
Updated: November 27, 2014, 5:41 a.m.