WNC foodbanks struggling with supply chain issues

Food pantries across the nation are struggling to fill their shelves with meat and other products and Highlands Food Pantry is in the same boat.

Last Tuesday, the pantry had fully stocked shelves, but its meat freezers were bare.

International Friendship Center executive director T.J. Smith said they receive a delivery from MANNA FoodBank every two weeks, which is why the shelves were stocked that day.

“We order on a two week cycle, that historically has been working OK,” Smith said. “But right now, there is a nationwide shortage of all kinds of commodity goods like basic canned goods.”

A lot of the commodities, according to Smith, are being utilized for international aid. That, along with supply issues has caused a perfect storm of a shortage.

“I think everybody has noticed in every grocery store that there is a supply chain issue,” Smith said. “Things are not moving by a truck, plane, boat, or anything with the same efficiency and pace that we saw pre-COVID. I think a lot of the things we are facing in the world right now are just a delay. The first thing we saw a delay of was toilet paper, but that is evolving now into meat shortages.”

Most food banks are at the bottom of the food chain when it comes to charitable donations, Smith said.

“Those places that historically would have a surplus, for example, meat surpluses, chicken factories, they are selling when they can sell,” Smith said. “They are not necessarily required to sell us food or donate food.”

Highlands Food Pantry executive director Bonnie Dayton said she was ordering 400 to 500 pounds of chicken at a time.

“It has come to a screeching halt,” Dayton said. “We have had to purchase chicken through Bryson’s recently. We are also receiving gift cards because we aren’t getting that usual delivery of meat.”

With everybody being out of meat, Smith said they are trying to identify as many different sources as they can.

“We go to Bryson’s, Walmart, a local meat processing center in Rabun Gap,” Smith said. “For that reason, donations of meat are great, but also regular cash donations are good. We are trying to identify different sources to get things, because everybody is out. There’s no surplus. There’s no extra. The other thing with chicken is the Avian flu going around.”

Though stock is short, on average, Dayton said, the pantry is getting 30 new clients a month.

“It has been steady since we have expanded the hours,” Dayton said. “I think November was our highest month with 36 or 37 new clients coming in. With more people, we have less food.”

Though it may look bad with shelves being empty, Smith said it is their job to clear the shelves.

“Our shelves may look rough, but we do not hoard any food,” Smith said. “Our job is to clear these shelves every two weeks and that is what we try to do. The issue now is trying to restock them.”

Along with general food items, Smith said they are also in need of feminine hygiene products and anything for babies.

“Those products are not covered by WIC or SNAP,” Smith said. “What we do is basically subsidize families’ grocery bills. Those are the higher dollar items that aren’t covered by other state or federal programs.”

Kara Irani, spokesperson for MANNA Foodbank said last week that the food supply chain issues continue to be a problem across the nation.

“We are the largest food sourcing arm for Western North Carolina,” Irani said. “So, we really take this very seriously and it is one of the reasons why we have built a strong relationship with so many wholesale food companies and large retailers both here in North Carolina and the southeast region. So, we can find these supplies across the region.”

Hands down, Irani said meat is the hardest product to find.

“This is happening with all of our foodbank partners across the country,” Irani said. “It is a challenge that we don’t really know where the light at the end of the tunnel is. We are having to take it a week at a time. Early on, freight costs were spiking, a lack of drivers had driven a lot of supply chain issues, especially around food, but now, the avian flu has really started to affect poultry. So, that has caused a real problem for us. It takes a long time for livestock to build back up, so we are looking at this as a long term problem.”

Across the different MANNA FoodBanks, Irani said they have seen increasing numbers since COVID began.

“We serve the 16 counties in Western North Carolina, including the Qualla Boundary and we were serving an average of 67-70,000 people a month,” Irani said. “Since the pandemic, we are still serving over 100,000 people every single month. As of March, we were serving 116,000 individual people through our partner networks and our markets. We are still seeing a very high number of people turning to our partners and us for emergency food supplies. That indicates to us that this is a very long haul. The supply chain challenges paired with the demand are really keeping us on our toes. Normally, we depend on donations, but we are having to buy more food than we ever have before.”

With measures passed during the pandemic to help families with free meals set to expire, Irani said they are worried that more families will need food assistance.

One of the important measures set to expire soon is the series of waivers issued by the United States Department of Agriculture that enabled school districts throughout the country to provide free meals to all students since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Those waivers are set to end at the end of June if Congress doesn’t take any further action.

“There was a 25 percent increase and extension to SNAP benefits during the pandemic, but that also lapsed at the end of April,” Irani said. “In our region, the majority of people who utilize the SNAP benefits program are families with children. So, between that, the lapsing of the child tax credit payments and the then compounded with the child nutrition waivers ending in June, we know that families are going to really be struggling. It also creates a stigma situation for children. The universal school meals have been so important in removing the stigma from accessing food if you are in a food insecure household. That is one of our main concerns, because that stigma really does prevent people from reaching out when they need help. We are really hoping that congress takes action on extending the child nutrition waivers and allowing the USDA to have more authority over how they align federal dollars to support those programs. Mostly, so that kids can eat without the stigma of needing food. When you are offering this program to all kids at schools, it really does level the playing field for everyone. Families are not required to apply for the free meal program, they don’t have to prove if they are eligible. That can be a really hard process for families. So, we are already bracing for the fact that we are going to have many more families come to us.”

For those in need of food assistance, you can call the MANNA FoodBanks food helpline at 1-800-820-1109.

For those interested in donating to the Highlands Food Pantry, you can write a check made out to The HIghlands Food Pantry.

- By Christopher Lugo