Metro food bank questioning future after massively rising restock bill
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — Stocking one metro food banks pantry used to cost just a few hundred bucks, but apparently that bill now runs in the thousands of dollars.
It has sparked some worries about being able to continue helping those depending on them for meals.
"You're going to have people who are calling the last resort they know to call and they're going to be saying, we can't help you,” Dorothy Day Center Director Gregory Ignatius said.
It’s a new fear unlocked by Ignatius amid uncertainties with their food banks future.
"Where do these hundreds, if not thousands of people then turn? We are the bottom of the ladder of the safety net,” he said.
Their shelves generally serve about 400 to 500 households, including some senior homes, through delivery across the metro. But they ran into a hiccup after a recent attempt to restock the racks through and order with the regional food bank.
"Everything that we normally get at no cost, there are significant charges for,” he said.
Usually, they seek items that are low cost. But there are also no cost items, like hot dogs and packs of lunch meat like turkey among other things that Ignatius said makes up over half their inventory. So, what was just a few hundred dollars to restock sky-rocketed.
"Just be a basic amount would be about three grand,” Ignatius said.
He claims he was told at the time it’s due to a USDA grant paying for food processing being gone.
"It's what would allow us to go from a turkey with feathers and wings to this,” Ignatius said pointing to a pack of turkey.
Now, coming out of their pocket, left with questions about how to move forward while strained with funds.
"When you start having to turn people away at a point like that, it can get real critical, real fast,” he said.
We did reach out to the regional food bank to get more details on the situation, and received the following statement.
"The Regional Food Bank will continue to source food for our partners and neighbors. We are working with the Dorothy Day Center to address their concerns."
They met with Ignatius on Tuesday. Ignatius told us in the short term that they may be able to get by through fundraising, but he said that’s not something he wants to have to do, especially with orders costing thousands of dollars.