Food pantries in diocese navigate rising costs

Increasing prices at the grocery store mean more people are seeking assistance from the pantries

Atrip to the grocery store is all it takes to see how inflation is impacting individuals and families in this current economy.

Rising food costs limit how far a dollar can go, which means more people are seeking assistance for food.

Several food pantries throughout the diocese have experienced firsthand the increase in food prices and how that affects their increase in clients.

Ladies of Charity, Knoxville

The Ladies of Charity food pantry, located in Knoxville on Baxter Avenue, is open Tuesday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

“Anyone can come in and get help with food,” said Susan Unbehaun, executive director of Ladies of Charity. “We do not exclude anyone from getting help at our pantry.”

Mostly, the clients are employed people in need of extra food. Six percent of the clients are homeless, while another 20 percent of clients receive government assistance from SNAP.

The Ladies of Charity food pantry saw an increase of clients by 23 percent from 2021 to 2022.

“We’re at 8,100 clients versus 6,600 [in 2021]. That’s distinct clients; that’s one or more times that they come in,” Mrs. Unbehaun said.

Monetary donations to the food pantry have also been affected.

“I would say prior to the fourth quarter (last year) our monetary donations are down, but I’m going to tell you during the fourth quarter, where most of the donations hit with food donations and food drives and things, have really gone over the top this year. I’m going to say that we have had such good support on those items.

“I looked in our current year over last year’s food costs, and it’s up 77 percent. We haven’t changed our food package. We pre-pack our food, and then we use food rescue and donations in addition to what we pack normally,” Mrs. Unbehaun explained.

“Some of the things that we’ve had a harder time filling is the dairy products and the butter and eggs; those kind of come and go a little more infrequently than we’d like to have,” she continued.

However, consistent food donations to the pantry have helped retain the service that people have come to know at Ladies of Charity.

“Our cost per client has actually dropped $1.39 due to our food donations. So even though the food costs went up that much this year, our cost per person actually dropped with very little change in service,” Mrs. Unbehaun said.

St. Anthony Bread, Mountain City

St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Mountain City opens its food pantry, St. Anthony Bread, the first and third Thursdays of every month.

The food pantry, which is older than the church building, has existed for more than 25 years and serves anyone in need in Johnson County.

“It really is something that the community relies on,” said Leni Smith, director of St. Anthony Bread. “We’re the same hours and days for years, so the community is very reliant on it, and we are so happy to be able to do it, have the resources to be able to offer this to people.”

Ms. Smith noted that the food pantry has seen a 41 percent increase in clients over the past year.

“We’re averaging right now about 650 families/households a month, and so on a monthly basis that’s about 1,450 individuals that comprise those families,” she said. “Some were helped many times, some were only helped once or twice.”

In 2022, the food pantry served 2,749 individuals, as compared to 1,934 individuals in 2021.

The number of households served steadily increased throughout 2022, with 474 households served in January and 635 served in December.

Last year’s high was 720 households served in November.

“It’s a lot of families; it’s a lot of people,” Ms. Smith said. “There’s a lot of need in Johnson County; we’re one of the poorer counties in Tennessee.”

The need has increased because of inflation and rising food costs, which affects the food pantry in a couple of different ways.

“If you look at it from just the

By Gabrielle Nolan

food pantry standpoint, we are affected by rising costs and groceries and other items, just like everyone else is,” Ms. Smith said.

“And then there’s the end where some of our families who were just managing to get along before the prices were so skyrocketed in the grocery store,” she continued. “We have more families that need us now. They can’t make their money go as far as it used to, so they are needing to come to us for some help.”

The St. Anthony Bread food pan-

Food pantries continued on page B2