The University of Idaho Argonaut

Friday, students and alumni in the department of Family and Consumer Sciences gathered in the Niccols Building to bag meals to be donated to area food banks.
The event took place because of National Hunger Week, an event highlighting the presence of hunger and homelessness in America.
“We conduct needs assessments,” said Sandra Evenson, director of Margaret Richie School of family and consumer sciences. “I think this will meet a need.”

The bags contained everything necessary for a family to cook a simple chili, including lentils, seasoning and cans of tomatoes. Instructions designed so a child as young as 12 could prepare the food were also included.
The majority of the food was donated by George F. Brocke and Sons Inc., a local wholesaler, with an anonymous donor providing funding for the rest of the supplies.
Shirley Newcomb, an alumna of the department graduated with a master’s degree in food and nutrition in 1951.

“I think it’s great that the students put together an event like this,” Newcomb said. “There is hunger, there is poverty in Latah County, so hopefully this will be an ongoing project, and hopefully it will make the community more aware of what they can do.” 
The event was sponsored by the Margaret Ritchie Distinguished Speaker Series fund within the department of family and consumer sciences. The organization annually brings speakers to the college to talk about issues in related fields.
This year, the fund sponsored a panel discussion on Wednesday in which local leaders discussed food-related issues on the Palouse.

According to Linda Nickels, director of the Moscow Food Bank, true hunger is not a significant issue in the Palouse area. However, many families rely on services such as the food bank for extra help during the month, especially during tough economic times.
“I don’t feel that it is necessarily a significant problem,” Nickels said. “However, I used to have families that used the food bank once for emergencies, now those same families need to use it regularly like a grocery store.”

Amy Grey, president of Backyard Harvest Inc., a business that provides low-income families and seniors with fresh fruits and vegetables, agrees.
“With food prices jumping 6.1 percent recently, more and more people are using our services,” Grev said. “People have to make choices between food and utilities. These are impossible choices — do we keep our children warm, or do we keep them well fed?”
Linda Nickels said she feels these economic difficulties have caused a spike in the amount of people drawing food from the food bank.

“Usually we service about 500 people … mostly at the beginning of the month,” Nickels said. “Now we have about 750 people coming in throughout the month. This used to be a place you to go in an emergency, now people go here regularly.”
John Mix, president of Family Nutrition Enterprises, an organization that uses existing food banks and clubs to help provide nutritional meals for families, focused on the problem of an improper diet.
“Over hunger, I think malnutrition is an issue,” Mix said. “We are so used to pre-packaged meals.”

He added that boxed meals like macaroni and cheese, a common item at food banks, and the inability to cook nutritious meals leads to malnutrition and health problems such as childhood obesity.
“Our job here at home is to make more nutritious meals available for our population that is in poverty,” Mix said.
The panel agreed the best way to help local community is through donations.
“As different groups sponsor different food drives around the area, help out with them, donate to them,” Nickels said. “Eventually the food given to these drives makes it back to the food bank here in Moscow.”