With demand up, subsidies down, food pantry is struggling

Through July, Libby Food Pantry has served 2,440 individuals who needed some food to help get by, the largest number ever. What is more, the pantry has had to do that with no federal funds.

The Emergency Food and Shelter Program, a branch of FEMA, has given dwindling support to Lincoln County in recent years. As recently as 2008, the program had given more than $8,000 to Libby. This shrank during the next few years, and by 2011, the program gave $6,032 to the pantry in April, several months later than usual.

This year, the paperwork got gummed up in Washington, D.C., and Kathy Lauer, head volunteer at Libby Food Pantry, said it was possible Libby might not see a dime in 2012.

The picture Lauer paints is a bleak one.

“The number of people getting food at the pantry is growing because there are no jobs,” she said. “Nobody has any money.”

Lauer said that the number of families coming in also had risen, perhaps a result of expiring unemployment benefits.

There may be a solution.

Beginning last Saturday,Town Pump will again start its annual food bank fundraising campaign.

The 11th “Be a friend in deed, helping those in need,” fundraising campaign has Town Pump allocating $450,000 in matching funds statewide. Locally, for every dollar raised up to $4,000, the company will match funds.

The funds, which may be donated at Town Pump, Lucky Logger and Lucky Lil’s Casinos, will make up all the funds for the pantry for the year, and without the federal funds, it becomes a real possibility that the pantry will run out of money and subsequently food.

The hundreds of individuals who rely on the pantry for adequate sustenance might be left without, making this year’s fundraising particularly important for the volunteer-based Libby Food Pantry.

“Bigger families are coming in, and we don’t have money,” Lauer said. “It’s become dire.”