I traded e-mails with a friend, someone stuck with a long-overdue account. I told her I felt bad, thinking of her and her associate splitting a can of Tomato Soup for lunch.
“We eat Ramen Noodles,” she replied, “they’re cheaper.”
Yes, a 30 pack of genuine Ramen Noodles costs $18.99. As a result, every food drive results in mountains of noodles. At Circle Of Concern every shelf in the warehouse often had layers of noodles to the ceiling atop the green beans, pasta, cereal and everything else. Along with canned green beans and tomato soup, pantries never worried about noodle inventory. Until now…
From Circle Of Concern’s August 2019 newsletter…
Current Needs:
Dinner Helpers CRITICAL
Jelly CRITICAL
Ramen Noodles – First Time EVER on Needs List
You get the idea.
While the number of Americans – and especially Missourians – receiving food stamps has fallen dramatically, requests for pantry food remains painfully near record levels.
The good news: people are hearing about the need.
For example, a friend shared on Facebook info from a St. Louis Community College staff briefing, namely, “56% of STLCC students can’t buy enough food for three meals a day.” This summer a number of area pantries made it on the airwaves, showing pictures of empty shelves and asking for help.
As a result, I’ve heard of many employers, congregations and even groups of neighborhood kids hosting food drives.
The bad news: shelves remain mostly empty.
And, Washington plans to deeply slash food stamps and other nutrition programs in coming months and years.
Remember, decades of research proves that food stamps (officially now the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) substantially reduce hunger and improve health, especially among kids. [see www.frac.org; www.mazon.org; or www.feedingamerica.org for data and background] And, depending on the accounting method, from 90¢ to 95¢ of every dollar spent in America to fight hunger come through federal government programs.
That means a 10% reduction in federal spending against hunger can result in twice as great a need for pantry food.
Now the Trump administration has out for public comment changes to SNAP regulations which would push at least 3.1 million people (about 8% of the current 35 million) off food stamps. [ https://fns-prod.azureedge.net/sites/default/files/resource-files/29SNAPcurrPP-8.pdf ] In addition, the feds want to change the formula for benefits, resulting in $50 less a month in food funds for the typical family over the next few years.
Meanwhile, here in Missouri, the food stamp rolls keep falling faster than the national average – I think due to the almost non-functioning Call Center system which lets less than half of caller through to a person who might be able to help them. [From May 2018 to May 2019, nationwide 1.5 million Americans (4%) left food stamp rolls. During that period Missouri dropped 6.3%
Back to noodles…
Circle Of Concern and other pantries about Missouri really, really need more food immediately. Please give and encourage others to give. Even if its just a couple of boxes of Ramen Noodles.
Glenn