By HEATH FOSTER SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
Hunger is far more severe in Western Washington than the rest of the nation for those relying on food banks -- largely because of the high cost of living here, a study by the nation's largest hunger-relief organization has found.
More than 51 percent of food bank users interviewed in five Western Washington counties have gone hungry, compared with just 37 percent nationally, according to the research.
And in contrast to the rest of the country, people using food pantries here are far more educated and more likely to be working.
Western Washington food bank users were more than twice as likely to have attended college than the national average. And about 41 percent of food bank users here said their primary source of household income was work, compared with 31 percent nationally. Only 5 percent of the food bank users here were on welfare.
"We still have this image that the people visiting food banks are bums and bag ladies living on the streets," said Susan Eichrodt, director of the state's Emergency Food Assistance Program.
"That's not the reality. We have many working poor who cannot make it on their wages, even though a lot of them are working full time."
The study was conducted by Mathematica Policy Research of Princeton, N.J., for America's Second Harvest and its local affiliate, Food Lifeline.
Linda Nageotte, Food Lifeline's executive director, said the growing number of working families using pantries is particularly worrisome as the state plunges into a recession.
"We fear the net result will be increasing numbers of hungry individuals," she said.
The researchers, who extensively interviewed 363 food bank users in King, Pierce, Snohomish, Kitsap and Clallam counties, and 30,000 low-income people nationally, also found that Western Washington people more often have to make the painful choice between buying groceries and paying their rent, utility and medical bills.
That's been true for Gay Hamilton, a Shoreline mother of four who recently lost her $7.25-an-hour job at Arby's. Hamilton's husband is working seven days a week, putting in 40 hours as a janitor at Pike Place Market weekdays and another 16 hours on weekends as a security guard.
But without her income, Hamilton said her family hasn't been able to weather unexpected expenses, like replacing a water heater, a $500 mandatory electrical upgrade to their trailer park, and climbing electricity bills.
"My husband works really hard but we just don't have anything to show for it," said Hamilton, 34.
The family has cut back by giving up their two cars for one motorcycle. And because she lacks health insurance, Hamilton has put off surgery on a painful cyst. But there still isn't enough money for groceries.
"The food we get at the food bank doesn't last that long, but it really helps," she said.
The hunger study is being released today in Washington, D.C., in an effort to pressure Congress to be generous when it reauthorizes funding for the ailing national food stamp program in coming months.
The increasing use of food banks in Washington and around the country has been paralleled by a dramatic decline in use of food stamps, which are supposed to be the government safety net that protects low-income families who have lost jobs or work hours. Since 1997, the number of food stamp recipients in Washington has dropped by 28 percent. And the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that fewer than two-thirds of the people who qualify for food stamps are receiving them.
Private food banks have tried to fill the void, welcoming about 1.1 million people through their doors last year. About 445,070 people now receive food stamps.
The U.S. Senate is just beginning debate on reforms backed by anti-hunger groups and many states, including Washington, that would substantially increase the amount of food stamps available for families and senior citizens, simplify the program's bureaucratic rules, and restore benefits to legal immigrants.
But even if the reforms win congressional approval, said Eichrodt, of the emergency assistance program, food banks are going to be put to a serious test during the coming downturn.
Many food banks around the state have seen their donations decline in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorists attacks even as demand for help from hungry families has risen.
Seattle-based Northwest Harvest, for instance, has seen a 7.2 percent increase in visits to the 300 food banks it supplies across the state, comparing the first eight months of this year with last year.
Peggy Kennedy, director of the Edmonds Food Bank, said that after Sept. 11, when her regular contributors sent their money to disaster victims, "the checks just stopped coming in." And over the last six weeks she has added 119 families to her list of regular visitors, bringing the total number of families served to 350. Even though donors have started giving money again, she worries about providing enough for her families.
"Food pantries were never set up to be a permanent fix for people, but they unfortunately have been given that role," said Eichrodt. "They are going to be strained."