Show income and food stamps he says only last half a month “It’s hard on the kids” says Matt “They keep searching the fridge for meat but it isn’t there Lately I've been worried about the way they're looking at the cat” he says smiling but not entirely joking Protein however is precious and scarce In Price a mining town in eastern Utah one food pantry is butchering deer and elk that have been confiscated from illegal hunting so they can distribute the meat to desperate families Every month the Utah Food Bank makes an emergency food drop in Wendover a hardscrabble town on the Nevada border On a recent winter day in a muddy “I don’t know if people know how hard we’re struggling We work hard but we’re barely surviving Without this food here I don’t think we’d make it” --Jenn Adair mother of four Pilot Valley Nev lot next to the Hard Times pawn shop hundreds of families are waiting in their cars when the tractor trailer ar- rives Jenn Adair 30 her blond ponytail sprouting out of a scuffed baseball cap volunteers to unload pallets of cheese f ing the beginning of our generation's Great De- pression” says Rachel Bristol executive director of the Oregon can help end child hunger today Organize a bake sale and send your proceeds to Share Our Strength the national organization The first annual Great American Bake Sale is a joint effort by PARADE and Share Our Strength and is by the ABC Television Network Betty Crocker Tyson Foods and Reynolds Consumer Products To learn how to get involved visit anti-hung- work er anti-pover- nt 1 APRIL 27 2003 PAGE 5 son Dakota wrapped ty to feed their children At the Crossroads wwwgreatamericanbakesaleorg Cupboard a food pantry call or in a church parking lot Yog also can visit www in Portland a couple paradecom on the Web named Matt and Vickey B and their three children After his discharge he repaired planes have arrived for the first time to accept for an airline But just over a year ago a box full of bread cereal doughnuts and hot dogs “You wonder how did he was laid off Eventually' his unemployment benefits ran out you get here?” Matt says “My parents Matt and Vickey moved out ot their so this raised me to be is hard on the ego” But it was harder comfortable house into a small apartment Matt has been doing temporary watching their children search the cupconstruction work making $40 a day vetis Matt boards for food a when he once earned $40 an hour Now eran of the Navy where he was a masrent and utilities eat up Matt’s entire ter mechanic working on fighter jets PARADE MAGAZINE bacon She works for two hours in the cold distributing food while her You ing to patch together part-tim- e vegetables mid precooked JOIN THE GREAT AMERICAN BAKE SALE' Food Bank a sprawling complex supplying 800 emergency food outlets “Every day we hear from families that had good jobs last year now living in cars and motels try- enough cookies in a quilt snoozes in his car seat After she's done Adair serving coaxes her battered car to life then loads a big Silenced By Shame Matt and Vickey ask that their last names not be used News of the national child hunger crisis is being muffled by many parents' shame — by their reluctance to talk about not being able to feed their children But at the Utah Food Bank the frenzied ballet of forklifts in a Salt Lake City warehouse on a recent winter morning is evidence of the new magnitude of need Five years ago the food bank fed 570000 people Last year it fed 963000 In its warehouse as at most of America’s e emergency food outlets baked goods are stacked to the ceiling close-to-dat- of food she'll drive 47 miles to her three other children at home in Pilot Valley Nev Adair's husband Don 4 works as a long-hatrucker and is rarely home So Adair raises sheep pigs and her children and chops wood for heat Since the school in her area doesn’t provide lunch she has to get “creative” to feed her family Lately Adair has been serving the kids her “poor boy dinner” — pow dered mashed potatoes mixed with canned vegetables — more often than she'd like “The economy anymore is not what it should be" Adair says “I don't know continued box |