Soup kitchen needy surge in Boston

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, depleted food pantries and soup kitchens in Boston are struggling to meet the needs of a rapidly increasing number of hunger-stricken residents.

In the wake of a widening recession, food pantries and soup kitchens across Boston reported a sharp increase in people seeking food assistance over the past year, according to a survey released Oct. 28 by the Greater Boston Food Bank.

More than 90 percent of the 163 local pantries and soup kitchens that responded to the survey reported an increase in need. They also reported a 53 percent decrease in donations, which could cause some organizations to turn food-deprived people away during the holiday season.

In addition to the regular visitors who normally frequent food pantries and soup kitchens, volunteers reported seeing a flood of new faces seeking meals.

With the economy still reeling, conditions in food pantries are bound to get worse, St. Francis House for Shelter and Rehabilitation spokeswoman Elizabeth Lund said, a problem compounded by higher food prices, which remain elevated despite the threat of overall deflation from a weak economy.

‘The economy has made the cost of food and fuel skyrocket,’ she said.

St. Francis House receives a substantial part of its food from the Greater Boston Food Bank, which serves a network of 600 hunger-relief agencies in 190 communities in eastern Massachusetts, according to the press release.

‘Resources are stretched thin, and we’re struggling,’ she said.

The amount of meals St. Francis House provides on a daily basis has increased 20 percent over the past few months, Lund said.

‘People here have been actively soliciting donations from different food vendors,’ she said. ‘That’s how we’ve been getting by.’

Greater Boston Food Bank spokeswoman Stacy Wong said prices of wholesale, frozen turkeys that the bank purchases for Thanksgiving have risen tremendously, which could leave many without turkeys on this holiday season.

‘We are paying 38 percent more for turkey this year than last,’ she said.

Students can be an extremely valuable asset in the fight against hunger, said Kate Vacanti, a volunteer coordinator at Project Bread, a Massachusetts-based organization that offers programs and activities to assist people in need of food.

‘Students can conduct food drives, plan events to fundraiser or organize teams to participate in our Walk for Hunger,’ she said.

Boston University Dining Services held a Holiday Food Drive and accepted non-perishable food item, which will be donated to more than 200 families in the greater Boston area, according to the Dining Services website.

School of Management junior Brian Focarile said his desire to help those less fortunate around the holidays gave him the idea to collect ‘Turkey Points’ from Star Market to obtain free turkeys to donate. Anyone who purchased $25 of Kraft products at Star Market received a coupon for $10 off a turkey.

‘I collected enough points from all of my friends and floor mates to get four turkeys and all of the trimmings, which I then brought to local soup kitchens,’ he said. ‘It made me realize how much good could be done with so little.’