The new faces of people who need help

Food banks are seeing working people they've not seen in past years.

By Times Staff Writer
Published December 18, 2007

NEW PORT RICHEY - One recent morning, Heather Pannell, a young, married mother from Holiday with a pink shirt and a ponytail, walked into Volunteer Way on Congress Street. She had her 9-month-old son, Trenton, in her arms, and her 4-year-old daughter, Madison, clinging to her thigh. This was her first time at the food bank.

"I just lost my job," she said. "Last week. Lennar Homes. I was a permit coordinator."

The economy hasn't been great of late. Higher gas prices, higher housing costs, higher insurance bills, the slumping construction industry and real estate market - what all that means for food banks, food pantries and soup kitchens is this: Supply is down, need is up.

What's most striking, though, to the people who run the Volunteer Way and other food banks around the Tampa Bay area, is who's in their lines.

"I think the face of hunger has changed just in the last six months, and dramatically," said Lester Cypher, the CEO of the Volunteer Way. "There are some people who come here who have two jobs.

America's Second Harvest, the country's largest hunger relief group, doesn't have specific statistics, but spokesman Ross Fraser talks to folks who work at food banks all over.

"People are showing up that they've never seen before," Fraser said last week.

It's true around Tampa Bay, from RCS Food Bank in Clearwater to the Daystar Life Center in St. Petersburg to the Suncoast Harvest Food Bank in Land O'Lakes.

"The new people," said Cypher, the CEO, "are your neighbors."

Like Heather Pannell.

She could see her job fading at Lennar. So she's been looking for work for months.

She got her black sack of food. Her daughter got a stuffed animal, a dog.

She put the kids in their car seats in the back of her blue Hyundai and drove off.

Times news researcher Angie Drobnic Holan contributed to this report.

Fast facts

How to help

The Volunteer Way is at 7820 Congress St., New Port Richey, and can be contacted at (727) 815-0433 or thevolunteerway.org. The Suncoast Harvest Food Bank is at 5829 Ehren Cutoff Rd., Land O'Lakes, and can be contacted at (813) 929-0200 or suncoastharvest.org. The United Way of Pasco County can be contacted at (727) 845-3030 or unitedwaypasco.org. Pasco County Community Services can be contacted at (727) 834-3297.

[Last modified December 18, 2007, 02:08:30]