Learning new tactics to fight hunger

Food pantries see spike in need here

Friday, April 24, 2009

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by JAY FRIESS Donna Bailey, a food safety educator with the University of Maryland's Cooperative Extension Service, encouraged hunger charities to keep track of the freshness dates on their packaged foods at Wednesday's conference at the fairgrounds. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

The national economic slump has been blunted here in Southern Maryland, but the region and its food banks are still feeling the pinch from a stalled residential construction market and readjusting mortgages.

On Wednesday nearly 70 representatives from more than 15 of the region's 40 food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters gathered at the St. Mary's County Fairgrounds in Leonardtown to arm themselves with new tactics for fighting the region's resurgent hunger problem at the first Southern Maryland Hunger Conference.

"We're obviously in tough economic times," said Dick Myers, who attended the meeting as the regional representative for Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.). Myers noted that the region's economic growth in the last few decades has masked its hunger and homelessness problems. "It seems Southern Maryland is a victim of its own success."

Jane Kostenko, food supplement nutrition educator for the University of Maryland's Cooperative Extension Service, said the recent downturn has resulted in levels of job loss and housing foreclosure that she has never seen.

"Certainly, in my lifetime, that just hasn't happened before," Kostenko said.

In addition to getting an education on the state's food grant programs, the audience also learned of an organization that distributes deer meat from hunters to food pantries and heard presentations on how to preserve and manage their food stocks.

"Maryland is home to three of the wealthiest counties in the nation … but with food and energy prices continuing to rise, it can be extremely difficult to live in poverty and struggle against hunger in the state" said Pamela Evans of the Maryland Department of Human Resources' Department of Grants Management.

Evans and Rhonda Foreman explained that their office offers grants for food, matching grants for equipment and distributions of bulk commodities to keep local food banks stocked. They encouraged local organizations to apply for grants and join the office's grant review committees.

Regional pantries may have a shortage of food, but the region does not have a shortage of deer. Steve White, local program coordinator for Farmers and Hunters for the Hungry said his local chapter oversaw the butcher and distribution of 485 deer (24,000 pounds) harvested and donated by hunters and farmers last season.

"I would like to get to 500 to 600 very easily," White said, noting that the only thing stopping him is money and partners. White paid local deer processors $26,000 to clean and package last season's harvest. — each deer costs $55. White said he only has one processing partner in St. Mary's and none in Prince George's. "The more butchers I can get, the more meat I can get," White said.

White noted that deer meat is both plentiful and healthy. To underscore his point, the conference organizers served venison chili for lunch.

After lunch, the focus of the conference shifted to efficiency and safety. Donna Bailey, an educator with the Cooperative Extension, implored food bank operators to pay attention to freshness dates on donated foods and educate their clients to do so as well.

Bailey wore a green monster puppet on her right hand to illustrate harmful bacteria and explained that canned and boxed foods have often already endured an extended shelf life by the time they are donated.

"What people give away are things they have not used themselves," Bailey said. She advocated rewriting the freshness dates on packaged foods with a large marker. "Tell [your clients] to mark their cans."

Bailey said she has heard stories of people getting sick from 2-year-old cake mix and others enduring the bitter taste of 4-year-old coffee. She also warned that acidic foods, such as tomatoes, can deteriorate faster, since the acids will eat away at the can.

"If you can't find a date on it, I'd be very leery about giving it out," Bailey said. "Nothing lasts forever."

Bailey was followed by her colleague Lorraine Harley, who underscored the dangers of food-borne illness, especially for those who prepare food in soup kitchens.

"We can't behave like we did when we grew up," Harley said, explaining that bacteria have become more prevalent and resistant in recent years. "We've used antibiotics so much that [the bacteria] are just dancing and laughing at us. … Now, we've got too much out there that can run us down."

Harley encouraged food handlers to thoroughly wash their hands; never use ice in drinks that has been used to cool food; never leave unheated or uncooled food out for more than two hours; and always thaw meat in the refrigerator or microwave instead of at room temperature.

Wednesday's event was organized by Brenda DiCarlo, director of the Southern Maryland Food Bank in Hughesville. DiCarlo said that the success of this year's event makes it likely that there will be a conference next year.

jfriess@somdnews.com