By Erin Johnson
Food donation centers in Salt Lake are running low this holiday season as the need for help is steadily rising and supplies are depleting.
Kathy Scott, community development director for the Salt Lake Salvation Army, said recent layoffs in Utah and the economic downturn have raised a cry for help from many Utah residents.
Scott said food supplies, however, have not been able to keep up with demand. The Salvation Army food supply has little more than a day''s worth of food, Scott said.
'People gave so much to 9/11 that they forgot to save some to donate here,' she said.
Development Director Rod Miller of the Utah Food Bank said while the bank is still 800,000 pounds short of its goal of 1.5 million pounds of food donations during the holidays, he is still hopeful that donations will increase during the last few weeks of the food drive.
'We''re doing as good, if not a little bit better than last year. The main problem is that the need has increased because the economy is not good,' Miller said.
The food bank has seen an 11 percent increase in the number of food requests in the last year.
Josh Pederson of the Utah Information and Referral Center said he calculated a 43 percent increase in requests in October for help compared with the same time last year. As a result, many food pantrys have been closing more frequently, Pederson said.
'There''s a critical need for people to reach out and help someone in our community,' Pederson said.
In addition to Utah''s recession, Scott said Olympic opportunists flocking to Utah in hopes of finding quick, high-paying jobs have dually complicated the problems. Many of these job seekers are coming to Utah without housing arrangements or backup plans and are having a difficult time finding job placement.
Scott said this influx of homeless people has increased the numbers at the soup kitchens in the Salt Lake area. Since last month, the average number served at the soup kitchen as increased from 350 to 450.
'We expect that number to just continue going up and going up,' Scott said.