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State cuts funding for Pasco Food Bank
By RYAN DAVIS © St. Petersburg Times, published April 5, 2001 LAND O'LAKES -- State money that Pasco Food Bank has used the last two years to truck tons of food to the area is gone. The director of the growing agency said he thinks he can make sure the food doesn't disappear as well. The unexpected hit cuts especially deep because it comes during a year when director Ken Buck is looking to grow his distribution by one-third, he said. In order to grow, he needs food to give to agencies that distribute it. "You can't just say, 'Sorry, I don't have anything for you this month,' " Buck said. The food bank supplied 1.5-million pounds of food last year to more than 100 Pasco and Hernando county food pantries and suppliers who give the food to people who couldn't afford it otherwise, Buck said. He expects to supply 2-million pounds this year. But he will have to do it without $10,000 he had expected to receive from the state. That money would allow him to truck 360,000 pounds of food to the area, he said. The plan to get that money died last week in the state Senate. Over the past two years the state has given $125,000 and $200,000, respectively, to the Florida Association of Food Banks, a 14-agency group -- including Pasco Food Bank -- that serves all 67 counties. This year the food banks were asking for $220,000. The Pasco bank's cut would have been $10,000, Buck said. None of the money will go to the Association or Pasco. Nearly all of the food bank money has been tentatively awarded to south Florida. The Pasco bank's budget this year is about $375,000, Buck said. It is largely funded by payments from its agencies and its thrift store, but it also receives money from the United Way and the county. The food bank will step up fundraising or alter its plans for a larger warehouse to counter the loss, he said.
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From today's Pasco Times |
