At the Lompoc Food Pantry, the shelves are startlingly bare. What was once a fully stocked space for struggling families now holds only a fraction of what’s needed. With demand rising and donations dropping, staff say it’s the worst they’ve seen in years.
“This side of our warehouse is usually full,” said Monique Luna, pantry coordinator. “For the last few months, we’ve been down to the bare minimum. We’ve had to ration what we give out.”
Luna, who helps coordinate food distribution through Catholic Charities Community Services, says the pantry is now seeing around 800 clients each week. Meanwhile, food and monetary donations have dropped sharply over the last two years.
“We’ve always been a supplemental resource for families trying to make their budget stretch," said Dominic Fiore, president of the pantry’s advisory board. “But with the price of groceries and rent both climbing, more people are turning to us and our supply is thinning.”
Hermina Prieta, who has lived in Lompoc for over 20 years, says she’s feeling the impact, especially after becoming unemployed and having to put food on the table for her family.
“Before, they used to give us a lot. We’d come and would leave with our cart full. That would last us up to two to three weeks and [we] wouldn’t need much, and now they don’t give us as much.”
The pantry’s supply comes from USDA food shipments, local donations, and area grocery stores that donate perishable food items nearing expiration. But food pantry staff say it’s no longer sustainable to keep up with the demand.
Each year, on the second Saturday in May, letter carriers across the country take part in the National Association of Letter Carriers’ (NALC) Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive. Launched in 1993, it has grown into the nation’s largest one-day food drive, helping restock the shelves of food banks in cities and towns across the country.
“This drive alone gives us about six to eight months' worth of food for our demand,” Fiore said.
Residents are encouraged to place a bag of non-perishable food items by their mailbox on Saturday, May 11. Their mail carrier will collect the donations and deliver them to local food banks, including the Lompoc Food Pantry.
Luna urges donors to double-check expiration dates before donating.
“A lot of times when we get donations, it's the things that are already expired or we have to go through them and throw them away, and that's not really fair for our clients who are already in need.”
