ALLENTOWN, Pa. \u2014 Summer is normally the slow season for the Allentown Area Ecumenical Food Bank. This year, the organization says new clients are up 55% as more families struggle with rising costs and reduced food assistance.<\/p>\n
At the same time, the amount of food available to help them is shrinking.<\/p>\n
For 44-year-old single father Phil Odam, accepting that help has not been easy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s embarrassing, but it\u2019s something that I got to do for, you know, survival,\u201d Odam said while volunteers filled bags with food for him and his 1-year-old daughter, Catalina.<\/p>\n
Odam said difficult circumstances have forced him to put pride aside.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe struggle gets really real,\u201d he said. \u201cYou hit hard times, so you gotta sacrifice, you know. Put your pride to the side.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Odam, receiving food at the Allentown Area Ecumenical Food Bank means he can stretch the limited money he has for other expenses.<\/p>\n
\u201cI gotta make sure she\u2019s good for the week, so I don\u2019t have to spend the money that I do have,\u201d he said of his daughter.<\/p>\n
Executive Director Anne Eagan says Odam is among a growing number of people seeking help. She said higher food and gas prices, along with reductions in SNAP benefits, are putting additional pressure on households that were already struggling.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were just squeaking by, and now they are not able to make ends meet,\u201d Eagan said.<\/p>\n
The increase in demand comes as food banks are also facing supply problems.<\/p>\n
At Second Harvest Food Bank, which supplies about 60% of the food distributed by Allentown Ecumenical, warehouse shelves were noticeably bare.<\/p>\n
When asked whether the warehouse should look that empty, Second Harvest\u2019s Sarah Wassel answered simply:<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, it should not.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wassel said federal cuts and delays in new state contracts have contributed to the shortage. Private donations from area warehouses have helped, but she said there is still not enough food to fully supply the roughly 200 food banks, soup kitchens and shelters that depend on Second Harvest.<\/p>\n
Asked when she expects the shelves to be replenished, Wassel said there is no clear timeline.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have a day or time,\u201d she said. \u201cI wish that I could have a magic wand and make it fixed, but this is what we have.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Odam and Catalina, this week\u2019s food is secured. What happens next week remains uncertain.<\/p>\n
Odam said his daughter is what keeps him focused on finding a way forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe don\u2019t judge me,\u201d he said. \u201cShe looks at me like I\u2019m her savior, and I got to keep on being her savior and take care of her.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Allentown Area Ecumenical Food Bank is open five days a week. Second Harvest says private donations continue to play an important role in helping fill gaps in the regional food supply.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALLENTOWN, Pa. \u2014 Summer is normally the slow season for the Allentown Area Ecumenical Food Bank. This year,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271491,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,5705,5706,7301,81883,16165,114300,5767],"class_list":["post-271490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-charity","tag-food-bank","tag-food-insecurity","tag-rising-costs","tag-second-harvest","tag-single-father","tag-snap-benefits"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}