Sat, Apr 8, 2006 (7:29 a.m.)
Clarence McGilbra remembers a time when the National Association of Letter Carriers Food Drive supplied his North Las Vegas charity with enough food to feed its clients for an entire year.
That is, before the local event began a four-year donations nosedive following the economic downturn from the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Since then, McGilbra's nonprofit group FISH Emergency Assistance and other local charities that benefit from the nation's largest one-day food drive have struggled to meet the demands of ever-growing numbers of people in need.
"We now get about 70 percent of our annual supply of food from the letter carriers drive, but in the last year there has been a 200 percent increase of those who come to us for help," said McGilbra, whose agency has benefited from the drive for 12 years.
"We used to get 2 1/2 truckloads from this drive, but last year, we got just one truckload. We cannot afford another off year. Our pantry is bare."
McGilbra's organization has seen the demand for food double in the last year. Other agencies also have seen increases.
Local charities that feed the working poor are finding the cupboard bare. The 19 local groups that collect food from the mail carrier drive every May have seen the number of people who need help increase while donations have not kept pace.
While Hurricane Katrina was a contributor to the situation - more people came to town while donors sent some of their money out of state - food drive organizers are puzzled as to why the local event has done so poorly in recent years.
While the national drive last year set an event record by garnering 71.3 million pounds of food, the local drive was off by 25 percent from 2004, with just 425,200 pounds collected.
It's a far cry from the local record year of 2001, when the springtime event collected 675,000 pounds of nonperishable foods and other goods.
When the drive started in 1991 as a pilot program, it was the only spring food drive in the Las Vegas Valley, said Cindie Lindemon, a longtime letter carrier and food drive coordinator. Now it's one of several.
"That's probably one reason we are down," Lindemon said, "but we are still the easiest one to donate to. We come to you and pick up the food. It's so simple."
Jerry Penn, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 2502 in Southern Nevada and past local food drive coordinator, says the slump reflects some sad economic factors.
"I think a lot of people who used to contribute to this drive cannot do it now because they are unemployed or have other financial problems that put them in need," Penn said.
Penn, who also serves on the board of the local United Way, said not only are local charities' pantries empty because of the assistance they gave storm victims and others who moved here last fall, but also because they are not getting the federal help they hoped to get to help restock supplies.
Audrey Arnold of the United Labor Agency of Nevada said the letter carrier drive that once provided all of its annual food supplies to feed the working poor, now provides just 40 percent of what it needs to meet its demands.
"We have to work harder to get the community to donate more," Arnold said, noting that general donations to her agency since Hurricane Katrina are down.
"I do not think there is donor fatigue. There are just more agencies helping more of those in need and it's hard for people to donate to all of them."
Event coordinators have set a goal to collect 650,000 pounds of food locally during next month's drive to assist charities that include the Salvation Army and Catholic Charities.
Such a good take could mark a return to the days when the Las Vegas phase of the drive was among the most product-ive in the nation.
The local record year of 2001 resulted in Las Vegas being ranked 15th best in the nation for the drive that is nicknamed "Help Stamp Out Hunger." The 665,000 pounds collected in 2003 placed Las Vegas 18th among U.S. cities.
Since its inception, the letter carrier drive has collected 717 million pounds of food nationwide.
The food collected in such drives does not go to feed the homeless, but rather is placed in food baskets that are distributed to working poor families who prepare meals in their homes.
The homeless are fed with food purchased in bulk, prepared in charity kitchens and served in shelter dining rooms.
Each year about 1,600 local letter carriers pick up food that is placed outside mailboxes at hundreds of thousands of valley houses and apartments.
The drive, which will be May 13, accepts any canned or dry goods, including baby formula and nonfood items such as diapers, soap, toilet tissue and detergent. Items such as cans of soup, meats and vegetables, peanut butter, rice, beans, juices in plastic containers and macaroni and cheese are recommended as donations.
