A study released Thursday shows 190,000 people in central and eastern Kentucky seek food assistance.
One of the state's best known food banks is doing its part to meet the needs of the hungry.
According to a study by God's Pantry Food Bank and Feed America, three-quarters of food insecure people in central and eastern Kentucky seek help from food pantries and meal service programs. Pam Sigler helped with the 2013 survey. Sigler recalls hearing the plight of two young clients who were taking care of unemployed family members. "They looked at each other and said what did we do wrong? We did everything right. We went to college. We paid our loans. We've taken care of other people. But life situations happen and you can't always predict when it's gonna hit," said Sigler.
Debbie Fatkin works for Clark County Community Services. Fatkin says the number of people who need food assistance has gone from 100 a month 14 years ago, to about 1,000 a month today. "Those are not duplicated numbers and every month it stays the same. It is right around 1,000 people that we are seeing and we're kind of their grocery store. We're helping them through so they can pay other bills," said Fatkin.
God's Pantry CEO Marian Guinn says her typical client is a white woman, in her early 40s. Guinn says the average client has a part-time job and is usually tasked with caring for other family members. She says many people believe it's primarily the homeless who go hungry. "Although homeless people certainly very well may suffer from hunger, they by far, are in the minority in the population that we are serving. 98% percent of the people that we interviewed are not living in temporary housing," explained Guinn.
The study revealed about 190,000 central and eastern Kentuckians turn to food pantries and meal service programs for food. Guinn says that figure includes more than 50,000 children and almost 34,000 senior citizens.?
