Leadership, stability needed in food programs

Stuff flows downhill.

Politicians spew out talking points claiming cuts to safety net programs are needed. Federal cuts are made and passed to the states to decide where the pain will be felt. State cuts are then passed to agencies who actually do the work. In the end, the cuts are passed on to communities and individuals and those who rely on programs for survival and any semblance of normalcy.

That has been the case in the past several months with cuts to programs intended to help the most fragile and needy members of society. A few weeks ago, Indianhead Community Action Agency (ICAA) announced it was no longer the recipient of grant funds targeted toward emergency food programs. As a result, Ladysmith-based ICAA announced that it would be closing its food pantries throughout the region including the one in Medford.

ICAA Food Pantry is located on Hwy 13 and serves about 350 households each month providing a vital level of food security.

As inflation has eroded the buying power of area households, those living on the edge have had to rely more and more on pantries and other programs to maintain food security.

To the community’s credit, a broad coalition of individuals has come together for meetings facilitated by Feed My People (FMP) Food Bank to look at how to ensure no loss in emergency food services in the short-term and how to create a sustainable model going forward.

FMP is a supplier for food pantries, but does not run them, instead working with independent communitybased pantries. They have expressed a desire to continue to work with the pantries in Taylor County.

While there are several local food pantries and programs who cooperate with one another, none of them has the capacity to step into the void that would be left in the absence of the ICAA Food Pantry in Medford.

Thanks to the generosity of anonymous donors, the short term crisis appears to be averted as money was raised to continue paying rent and wages for the part-time manager through the end of the year.

Kicking the can down the road buys the community time to establish a community-based long-term solution. It is clear that a community-based centralized food panty is needed, but it will take leaders to step forward to make it happen and continued community support to sustain it.

At the same time as a community-based program is essential to ensuring that no person in Taylor County goes hungry, its mission also needs to look beyond feeding people for that day and how to reduce the need for reliance on food pantries. Social safety nets such as food pantries are necessary, but as a society it is important that a safety net not become a hammock. There will always be people who fall on bad times and who are in crisis. These people should be supported, not just with a hand out, but with a hand up and given the support and services needed to stand on their own. Community-based food shelter programs have a unique opportunity to provide this level of support.

It is time to stop passing the stuff downhill, piling it on the poor and downtrodden, and for community leaders to stand up and work for a long-term solution. Contact Mike Bub at 715-965-7748 if you are interested in being part of that solution.