Funding shortfall forces food bank to cut hours

At a meeting last week, the Fauquier Community Action Committee board decided to cut by half the hours of operation for the food bank it operates on E. Shirley Avenue in Warrenton.

The reduction officially began Tuesday. Unofficially, Roland Serrano and Laura Robinson, the food bank’s two full-time employees, volunteered their time to keep the facility operating on its normal schedule at least through the rest of this week.

The self-sustaining thrift store at the same location will not be affected by the cutback.

“Apparently what’s happened is that with this federal budget...tie-up, we got only 80 percent of the money we were promised in the first quarter of our fiscal year, July 1 through Sept. 30,” said FCAC Public Information Specialist Jean Lowe.

“And, so far, we are not assured of getting any of the money we were promised for the second quarter from the state,” which gets that money from federal sources, she said.

In the first quarter, the food bank asked for reimbursement of about $167,000. About the same amount is needed for the second quarter.

It is all “pass through” money, Lowe said. The federal government gives money to the state, which distribute funds to local offices of the Department of Social Services, which, in turn, directs money to agencies like FCAC.

“No one has any money to pass through,” Lowe said.

Lowe is “right on target,” said Jan Selbo, director of the local Department of Social Services. “The big hangup this year is that Congress has not passed a budget. It is operating on continuing resolutions.”

The commonwealth’s Department of Social Services unable to promise any further funds until Congress takes action, she said. “It is the uncertainty that is really the issue. I think everyone expects Congress will do something sometime, but who knows? It’s not money in the bank.”

“We are getting good support from the local grocery stores,” Lowe said, and while food supply is a constant challenge, that’s not what’s driving the reduction in service.

“We don’t have enough money to pay the salaries, or insurance or the gasoline in the truck, rent. And we are giving people much less food than we did two years ago because we just haven’t had it,” she said.

While grocery stores, growers and the Fauquier Education Farm, among others, have been generous with food contributions, the food bank also has to buy food through the Department of Agriculture and through the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank. And rent is high, even while partially paid by profits from the thrift store

The number of people who depend on the food bank has grown tremendously, Lowe said.

In September, the food bank served 2008 people from 614 different households. That included 681 children.

A total of 38 volunteers put in 672 hours making the operation run smoothly.

Despite the impressive size of the last-named figure, the food bank cannot run solely on volunteer labor, Lowe said.

Perhaps it could “if we were a small group...” she said. “We are being supplied and have to pick up from six different food stores daily. Then we have to stock the shelves, and we have to have people there to do it. And the record-keeping requirements are very stringent when you get help from the government; you have to document what you have done.”

Even worse than losing the hours, Lowe lamented, the two full-time employees will lose their health insurance.

“They are so busy now,” Lowe said. “How will they serve that many people if they are only open half the time, when they have to spend so much of their time going to the donors and picking up the food?”

For those who depend on the food bank, there aren’t many other good options.

There are other food-distribution groups, “but we have been open every day, Mondays through Fridays, and a lot of people really depend on us,” Lowe said. “I don’t know what they will do. It is really frightening.

“Right now,” she concluded, “we are facing a catastrophe.”

The food bank needs about $150,000 to stay open with full hours for the remainder of 2011. That money will have to come from nonprofit, business and individual donations.

Fauquier Women Club has already made a contribution, and a fundraising letter is circulating.

“I don’t have the experience...of fundraising, and I don’t quite know how to go about it,” Serrano said. “I’m asking for help from everybody. We have a lot of people depending on us.

“We are certainly willing to do our part if the community will help us with the rest,” he said.

If you would like to donate, call Lowe at (540) 905-9055 or email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  . Drop by the food bank, or go to FCAC’s office at 50 Sullivan St.