Too many needy people
Food bank hopes to fill shelves in 2010

A palette full canned and non-perishable food sits on otherwise empty shelves at the Community Pantry Wednesday. — © 2009 Gallup Independent / Cable Hoover

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Bill Donovan
Independent correspondent

GALLUP — As Christmas approached this year, officials at the Gallup Community Pantry watched as their shelves got emptier and emptier. Blame it on the economy, Jim Harlin, the pantry’s director, said Wednesday, pointing out that the number of low-income families eligible to receive free food had swelled to more than 8,000 by the end of the year, definitely a record.

“That’s an increase of 40 percent from last year,” said Harlin, who added that based on population figures, that’s practically every family that is eligible to receive free food and commodities. Pantry officials were expecting the economy to produce an increase of need but nowhere near as much as they saw.

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