April 1, 2020 451 PM
TRI-COUNTY – In Far West Texas, regional food pantries are already seeing an uptick in usage and are preparing for more clients in the coming month. While Marfa Food Pantry prepared for more, the increase hasn’t hit yet. The same cannot be said for Alpine and Jeff Davis County, where pantries are already enrolling new users and distributing more food to more families than usual.
Jan Moeller, the store manager and a board member at Alpine Food Pantry, said the uptick is here. “We had two distributions at the end of the month, but we probably had about a third more people,” she said.
The 30 percent increase in usage has Alpine placing larger orders from the West Texas Food Bank, a supplier of goods for three pantries in the tri-county area. The food bank told Alpine last week that they have enough capacity to handle the increase and are allowing local pantries to increase their food orders.
Moeller says they’ve prepared for April to have even higher usage. “We’re not turning anybody away,” she said. “People can come in and get food.” Early last week, in the early hours before a distribution day in Alpine, the pantry was burgled. A thief broke in through a garage door panel, taking a small share of food.
“It was really just a few cans of food, and we were going to be open that afternoon, so I don’t know why that happened,” Moeller said. But the pantry is already repaired and ready to continue distributions. “McCoys donated all of the materials for us to repair that and make it stronger, Moeller said. “We’re very grateful.”
In neighboring Jeff Davis, Vicki Gibson said she had about 75 percent of their clients show up at their end of March distribution. It is more than their usual, and Gibson signed up an additional 25 individuals that day. “That was about a 25 percent increase, because usually in Fort Davis we have about 100 households,” she said. The group also operates in Valentine, which had new sign ups as well.
“I’m pretty much getting a call every day of people saying, ‘How do I sign up?’ I anticipate the longer this goes on, the greater the need,” said Gibson.
Each pantry has taken precautions to implement social distancing in this new era. Alpine reduced their volunteers to a skeleton staff, and Jeff Davis, which previously operated like a grocery store where clients could shop, is considering a switch to pre-packed boxes of goods to hand out. In Marfa, Joe Williams said the pantry is keeping workers to a bare minimum to minimize contact.
Williams said they prepared for at least 50 clients last week, expecting an uptick, but instead had a regular turn out for their monthly distribution. “There was no uptick showing at all yet,” he said, though he thinks people wanting to maintain distance could have been a factor.
The full economic impact of the coronavirus is still unknown, but pieces of the picture have become clearer. Hundreds have lost work locally, and 3.3 million Americans applied for unemployment in mid-March as restaurants, shops, bars, attractions and more have been forced to close their doors to weather COVID-19. Economists at the Federal Reserve estimated last week that up to 32 percent of working Americans could lose their employment due to the virus.
The Marfa Food Pantry distributes food on the third Thursday of every month from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at 1403 W San Antonio.
Alpine Food Pantry has pickup at 108 1/2 S. Neville Haynes Rd. on the following days: Saturday, April 4 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Tuesday, April 7 from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., Thursday, April 9 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Tuesday, April 21 from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. and Thursday, April 23 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The Jeff Davis County Food Pantry’s next distribution days are April 9 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Valentine City Hall and April 11 from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. at 609 Compromise Street in Fort Davis.
Even with shelter-in-place orders across the Big Bend, the doors will stay open and the West Texas Food Bank will continue to provide a steady stream of food to Big Bend area food pantries. “According to DHS, food pantries and food banks are essential infrastructure just like grocery stores are,” said Gibson. “Our clients can come see us, people can come sign up and they can get their food here.”
