By Dianne Anderson

Sticker shock at the grocery store is a real thing for local food activist and tasty free meals connoisseur Connie Jones, who knows firsthand what the shopping experience is like for people subsisting on limited incomes.

She said it is especially hard for families with hungry growing kids.

“You wonder how people survive. They have children in elementary and high school, you wonder how they make it,” said Jones, retired executive director of the Southwest Community Center.

This Thanksgiving, dinner will be served in the tradition of her great-grandmother Annie Mae Tripp, who started the original food pantry over 40 years ago. In 2019, she handed the reins of her historic Southwest Community Center to the Community Action Partnership of Orange County, where she now serves on the board representing the low income community.

At Southwest, the community comes out for bags of USDA food with a meat item, frozen or canned protein, but she said there is not as much produce available. They are missing that extra bag of fresh fruit, vegetables, and milk.

Last year and earlier this year, she told seniors to get down to the center on Monday and Wednesday to take advantage of the offerings, but things are different now. The need is greater, and it’s not unusual for seniors to skip their prescription pills every other day just to afford basic needs.

“At that time, they had a little bit of food stamps and some organizations were still passing out food because they had extra COVID money. Now the COVID money is not there, and [less] food stamps. It’s really tough for people on a truly fixed income.”

Orange County Food Bank Director Mark Lowry encourages the community to come in, and get help with their budget shortfall by getting creative through the holidays.

“It’s called taking the path of least resistance,” he said.

He tells the community to use OC-CAP’s other money-saving programs, like energy assistance, and with the money they save, buy turkeys or toys this holiday season. A box of groceries from his food bank is about a $70 value.

“Let us give you a box of food or let us pay for your utility bill, and the money that you would have spent on food or utilities, you could buy a turkey. It’s a financial shell game,” he said.

Like most other years, the food bank has some turkeys for distribution, but even their money set aside for turkeys doesn’t go as far as needed now that the food stamps are so dramatically cut from this time last year in Orange County alone.

“$30 million less per month to feed their family. Per month,” he said. “The Orange County Food Bank gives away about 30 million pounds of food per year, but this year is the second worst year in the 44-year history of the food bank — the first being during COVID.”

This year, he said chicken and pork loin from the USDA is available, and that many people don’t eat turkey for Thanksgiving. But, he adds, no amount of turkeys would be enough because the demand is so great and food banks most often have to buy their turkeys, which even at reduced cost is still expensive.

“We committed to $100,000 worth of turkeys, but that’s all the money we had to buy turkeys. It’s not as many as you think. If it’s 10,000 at $10 a piece, we can blow through that in one busy day,” he said.

Record inflation is taking a toll, but also in April of this year, food stamps were reduced. There are 300,000 families in Orange County now on CalFresh that are receiving dramatically less food help.

He said another recent hit happened October 1 when the three-year moratorium on the repayment of student loans came due.

“People had to start repaying student loans. I read that the average student loan in America is $450 starting six weeks ago,” he said.

To help fill the gap, he said during the holidays dozens of food drives are going on at schools and churches, also allowing those who have to give to those who do not. The community is invited to drop off turkeys, and canned goods.

If there is a happy side to the situation, he said that local givers do show up regularly at their facility with bags of food to redistribute, which helps make a difference for struggling families.

“This is one of the better times to share their good fortune, to show [how] they are thankful to support donating food or money to their local food bank or charity organization,” he said.

For more information on food distribution times at Southwest Community Center, see https://www.facebook.com/swcc.santa.ana/
or call (714) 547-4073

For help with CAPOC Utilities and other food bank giveaways, see https://capoc.org/