St. Stephen's & the Vine Episcopal Church's food pantry in Ferguson serves about 60 people a week, but it might have to scale back if the pantry does not get more funding to keep the shelves stocked.
The north St. Louis County emergency food pantry is open from 10 a.m. until noon every Tuesday and Saturday. Pantry workers said this year has been a struggle for the pantry financially because the rise in food prices and unemployment has pushed more working-class families and unhoused people through their pantry's door.
"There's all kinds of ways people are being squeezed," said Teresa Danieley, who leads St. Stephen's.
Across the nation, decades-old food pantries are facing uncertainties and have either shut down or paused services until they could raise enough money to reopen. To help put more food on the table for those in need, St. Stephen's created a GoFundMe account with a goal of $2,000.
Danieley said a combination of small and large donations will help quickly replenish the shelves. A donation of $50 would keep canned goods on the shelf for two weeks and $400 will keep the food pantry running for an entire week. Volunteer pantry shoppers, who make grocery store runs, say the pantry's weekly grocery bill has gone up $100 since last year.
"That's really just to get us through the hump of the summer because what happened this summer is that all of a sudden two air conditioning systems gave out in the church," Danieley said. "We still had a huge bill … and we don't have a reserve, we don't have an endowment, and so we have to walk and chew gum at the same time, and if we want to keep the pantry open, we have to find money to do that."
Right now, people in need can stop by the pantry to pick up fresh vegetables, canned goods and some household items once a week. The first few items to fly off the pantry's shelves are typically personal care items.
Danieley said families want to eat healthy but find it hard to afford fresh food in grocery stores because of high costs or they reserve most of their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits for more expensive items on their shopping lists. She said people are running out of supplemental benefits faster now because their benefits have been reduced by the federal government, and they run to the pantry to stock up.
According to the most recent U.S. Census data, there are nearly 18,000 people who live in Ferguson, and of them, about a quarter of the population is white and 69% of the population is Black. The median household income for the small St. Louis County enclave is $47,524, and about 24% of people in the city are experiencing poverty.
"It's just really difficult," Danieley said. "I wish we didn't just have to have a mishmash of services. I wish people got paid more. I wish there was more quality, affordable housing, more access to affordable healthcare. It's really expensive to be poor."
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