Hunger hits close to home

When people think of hunger, it usually involves a TV commercial with poor, starving children with flies buzzing around them and a D-list celebrity petitioning for your "one dollar a day" contribution. Perhaps the last place one thinks of is our local neighborhoods here in Salem.

U.S. Department of Agriculture reported late last month that Oregon's hunger rate is currently at 5.5 percent and is among the highest in the nation. According to Mark Edwards, an Oregon State University sociologist and expert on hunger issues, that percentage translates to 78,000 Oregon households that have skipped meals, eaten smaller portions and worried about making their food dollar stretch to the end of the month.

This effect is also seen by organizers of Salem's Union Gospel Mission.

"We saw a downturn in the number of people seeking help this past summer, but the numbers are sharply increasing every day as the weather turns colder and wetter. Typically we will see more families coming to us for meals towards the end of the month as their resources run out," said Reverend Connie Lain, director of development at the mission.

Edwards is concerned that things will only get worse.

"In 2007, the Oregon Food Bank saw its first significant increase in demand for food boxes in several years," Edwards said. "Several economic indicators show that the economy took a downturn in early 2007, which may have been especially hard on Oregon households.”

The 5.5 percent rate does not take into account the more serious economic downturn in 2008.

"I anticipate that the percentage of those experiencing hunger will go up even more next year given what our economy has experienced in 2008," Edwards said.

Lain says that local food banks are sending less food due to shrinking resources.

"It looks like the need will become even more critical in the months ahead. We have substantially less food coming to us from Marion Polk Food Share than we have had available in the past.

"Hunger has been and will continue to be a primary issue in our community until some of the labor trends and the meth epidemic are successfully addressed," Lain said.