Increasing need has made food pantries even more essential, reports the Wisconsin Rapids Tribune:
‘It takes a lot to live in this life right now’
From WisconsinRapidsTribune.com
The need for food at local pantries doesn’t end after turkey leftovers are gone and Christmas trees hit the curbside.
“Let’s put it this way — we have a lot of traffic; we have a lot of people coming through the pantry right now,” said Judy Steele, treasurer and volunteer at the South Wood Emergency Pantry Shelf, a Wisconsin Rapids-based pantry.
Through May, the pantry received 574 requests for this year, an increase of more than 10 percent from the first five months of 2009, Steele said.
“My feeling is it’s just because of the economy and people being without employment and just not having enough,” Steele said. “There’s a lot of expenses to meet in this world, just to do the things that have to be done.
“It takes a lot to live in this life right now.”