Thanks to the good readers (and freebie-lovers) who donated canned goods for the San Antonio Food Bank at the Current’s Almost-Free Movie Night last week. Hurricane Ike has stretched the Food Bank’s resources — already taxed by an imploding economy — thinner than the skin on Jane Fonda’s face. The organization, which serves 16 counties, has seen a 67-percent customer increase since last year, bringing the total of otherwise-empty stomachs served weekly into the 35,000-40,000 range. “And that’s normal business for us,” says SAFB volunteer coordinator Johanna Tesch. Although most of their Ike relief efforts have wrapped up, SAFB is still distributing food boxes to up to 2,000 evacuees a week.
Food drives are down in general, adds Tesch, but that loose dollar in your pocket will feed more folks than a can of creamed corn, anyway. “Cash donations are good, because we can purchase more within our system; for every dollar we can buy 13 pounds of food,” she says. “Sometimes people are leery about giving dollars because they don’t see where it’s going, but it goes so much farther.” Sun Harvest won’t have the scannable donation tickets again till the holidays, but visit safoodbank.org for donation and volunteer info.
