It Takes a Hamlet to Feed the Hungry

By Jessica Shepherd

Homer is known as “the cosmic hamlet by the sea” or, alternately, as “a quaint little drinking village with a fishing problem.” While these epitaphs capitalize on Homer’s charm, behind the facade of a small, idyllic fishing town, Homer has a hunger problem.

Each Monday, starting at 9:00 am, dozens of Homer Community Food Pantry volunteers pull into the parking lot at the Homer United Methodist Church and begin pulling boxes of donated and purchased produce from a walk-in freezer, hauling milk crates of canned and dry goods down the stairs from the storage area, and setting up tables in long rows. For the next three hours, they sort and arrange, breaking briefly for a shared meal prepared in the church kitchen. At noon, they throw open the doors to welcome the hungry.

By this time, a line has formed. Regulars visit among themselves, with those who come early aware that the variety diminishes quickly once the limited items are gone. In all, as many as 170 households come through each Monday to fill a bag or box, up from an average of 140 families just a year ago.

Some enjoy the camaraderie of a Monday afternoon among friends, spending precious dollars for a taxi and their one opportunity to socialize each week. Others hunch their shoulders and endure the wait, undoubtedly wishing they could be anywhere but here. Each has a story that led them here – job loss, a spouse taken by cancer, or grandkids to raise.

I weave through them, greeting those I know, as I carry donated clothing items, books, or camping supplies to add to a pile of free goods they can select from. The camping supplies go fast because, in addition to hunger, Homer has a homeless problem.

I know most of these folks, too. Outside of the Pantry, I see them on the street hitching a ride, or clustered near the library under the shelter of spruce trees in the rain. When I don’t see them for a while, I worry.

This is what compassion looks like. The volunteers who work all week long to pick up soon to expire milk, bruised or overstocked fruit, past their best-if-used-by frozen meat, and last week’s bakery goods from the grocery stores. Imperfect, but perfectly usable. Then there are the donations, like Two Sisters Bakery, which delivers 100 loaves of bread each Monday so we can hand them out in brown paper bags while they’re still warm. And the fishermen, cattlemen, gardeners, farmers, and restaurants, too numerous to name, who drop off fish, burger, potatoes, carrots, lettuce, and tomatoes. The local schools hold canned food drives, and the restaurants, breweries, Porcupine Theater, and bars host fundraisers. And where would we be without the donors who write checks to feed the poor? Or the potters who make bowls for our annual Empty Bowl fundraiser, and the kitchens who provide so many wonderful soups to fill those bowls? Every donation is crucial.

There’s more. Each Monday and Thursday, a group of delightful volunteers work in the church kitchen (thank God for the United Methodist Church) to prepare sandwiches, soups, bread pudding, mini pizzas, wraps, and ready-to-eat dinners that stock the Free Fridge outside the church. Every morning, and again in the late afternoon, the fridge is filled with good, wholesome food. Throughout the day, taxis and cars pull up, and people arrive on foot as the fridge slowly empties. The need never diminishes.

A small survey conducted on Monday of this week by Homer Food Pantry Volunteers indicated that the clients who participated in the survey receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, but this month, the benefits were delayed, reduced, or both. All confirmed that assistance, especially in the form of food, was quite important to them.

By any economic metric, the United States is among the wealthiest nations on Earth. In terms of food, America produces or imports, on average, 4,000 calories per person per day – double the daily caloric requirement, based on USDA data.

And yet, 42 million Americans receive SNAP benefits, including 66,471 Alaskans. Amid the yo-yo of directives during the six-week government shutdown coming from the Trump administration and Federal judges, a hold on SNAP benefits beginning the first of November put 12% of American families at risk of hunger and showed us what lack of compassion looks like on a massive scale. Why? Because the administration wants to further reduce aid by eliminating supplemental healthcare benefits for millions of Americans.

To qualify for SNAP, recipients must have less than $3,000 in the bank and an income that does not exceed 130% of the federal poverty level. For perspective, a family of four in Homer with one adult working a full-time job at $16 an hour as a baker, hotel housekeeper, or fisheries technician (based on current job postings), grossing $2,560 a month, and paying $1,400 in rent and utilities (well below the $1,900 average for a two-bedroom rental according to Zillow), would qualify for $945 in SNAP benefits a month. For some perspective, our household of two spends, on average, $1,200 a month on food, despite a large garden and a freezer full of salmon. Couple a 25% inflation rate on food since January of 2020 with child care costs that can run $1,600 a month per child, and it’s no wonder Homer has a difficult time attracting and keeping entry-level employees.

Food banks across the country are doing their best to meet the widening gap, but it’s an uphill battle. Already contending with a $500 million cut by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, another $1 billion cut to schools and food banks to purchase food from local farmers, and the influx of thousands of displaced Federal workers, and you have a disaster in the making with hunger as a political tool.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. Senator Josh Hawley, R., Missouri, wrote in a guest essay in the New York Times,

“America is a great and wealthy nation, and our most important wealth is our generosity of spirit. We help those in need. We provide for the widow and the orphan. Love of neighbor is part of who we are. The Scripture’s injunction to “remember the poor” is a principal Americans have lived by. It’s time Congress does the same.”