By Duane Hilton
The BYU community had a big part in helping a local food bank meet an increase in the demand for its services.
The BYU campus donated 17,360 pounds of food and about $16,000 to Community Action Services from the annual food drive, said Laurie Wilson, professor and director of internships. The surrounding community donated an additional 109,000 pounds of food to bring the total to 126,000 pounds.
All the money and food from the drive went to Community Action, which is partnered with the United Way, Wilson said.
Community Action was running very low on food before the food drive, said Jim Thomas, director of Community Action Services. About three quarters of the shelves were empty.
'If hadn''t come in, we would have been out in December,' Thomas said.
Troy Simpson, adviser for the Student Alumni Association, said there was a big difference from the mostly bare shelves he saw a few weeks ago at Community Action compared to what the shelves looked like when the food drive ended.
'On our last drop off, you could visibly see a difference,' Simpson said. 'There was visibly more food in the pantry.'
Thomas said a reason for the recent shortage is more families are coming into Community Action for assistance than usual.
Twenty percent more families came in during the summer of 2005 than the previous summer. Lately, there have been about 150 families a day coming in for assistance, Thomas said. Usually, about 80 a day come in.
Last Wednesday, 187 families came in, which was the highest number of families to come in a single day in 40 years, he said.
The reasons people need help are varied, Thomas said.
'Just people having high bills would probably be the main reason,' he said.
The money donated by the BYU community will also help generate a lot of food for the families going through hard times, Thomas said.
The money is used to maintain the trucks Community Action uses to pickup and drop off food, Thomas said, and every dollar donated generates about 17 pounds of food.
Thomas said he wanted BYU to know he is very grateful for the donations, but the food bank always needs more donations because that is where all its food comes from.
The Alpine, Nebo and Provo school districts are currently doing food drives that will supply more food for Community Action, Thomas said.
'We have enough to last through January,' he said. 'But it won''t last forever.'
Anyone who would like to volunteer at Community Action Services can call Jim Thomas 801-592-7832.