Gene Dalton | The Roanoke Times

A group of men eat lunch at Pulaski Daily Bread. In June, the agency served nearly 4,000 meals, the second-highest month in its history.

Federal food and nutrition programs

• Nationally, more than 25 million people with low incomes receive food stamps, now offered through electronic debit cards that can be used only to purchase food. The average family receives a card that allows about $200 per month in food. The average food stamp benefit equals $1 per person per meal. About 80 percent of food stamp recipients live in households with children. About 31 percent of recipients are elderly people or people with disabilities. The USDA, however, estimates that only 54 percent of the people eligible for food stamps receive them.
• WIC — the special supplemental nutrition program for women, infants and children — provides food, nutrition counseling and health care referrals to about 8 million pregnant and postpartum women, infants and children younger than 5. WIC provides vouchers that may be used only for specific nutrient-rich foods, as well as nutrition education.
• School breakfast and lunch programs supported by the government provide free and lower-cost meals to more than 22 million schoolchildren who qualify from low-income families. One recent study found that nearly one in four eligible children — 23 percent — were not enrolled in a free or reduced-price lunch program.
• SOURCE: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Several organizations around the New River Valley provide food assistance and are always in need of donations and volunteers, especially during the summer.

• Radford-Fairlawn Daily Bread: 639-0290
• Pulaski Daily Bread: 980-2131
• Giles Christian Mission: 726-3811
• Shawsville Ministerial Association pantry: 268-2756 or 268-1002
• Montgomery County Emergency Assistance Program: 381-1561
• Montgomery County Department of Social Services: 382-6990
• Floyd County Department of Social Services: 745-9316
• Giles County Department of Social Services: 726-8315
• Pulaski County Department of Social Services: 980-7995
• Radford City Department of Social Services: 731-3663
• Beans & Rice: 980-4111
• SHARE (Self Help and Resource Exchange): 633-2850
• New River Community Action: 745-2102 (Floyd County); 921-2146 (Giles County); 382-6186 (Montgomery County); 980-5525 (Pulaski County)

Gene Dalton | The Roanoke Times

Debra Harrell, director of Pulaksi Daily Bread, feeds 15-month-old Keshon Miller.

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• Summer brings struggle for parents, programs

There's Mary Lee Duncan. She's 88 and walks with the aid of a cane. She's perky -- and proud.

"I have not one gray hair in my head," she says, oblivious to the silvery wisps escaping the rim of her brown wig. "I just eat things that are healthy... I come here every day."

There's Crystal Miller, 37. She has six children.

"They eat noodles," she says. "They like stuff like that. Corn dogs, canned spaghetti and stuff like that. They love greens, those canned collard greens. Tacos is their favorite. I get food stamps. That holds me over."

And there's James Nelson, 35. He has no children, no parents, no family.

A bushy, reddish beard frames his toothless mouth. He's a strapping man, but he's disabled by depression. He used to work in the steamy confines of Pulaski Furniture's boiler room. One day, something inside him just broke.

"I signed myself into a nut house," he says softly. "They said I would never be able to hold down a job."

Nelson is a first-timer at Pulaski Daily Bread, the weekday lunch kitchen that's been feeding the empty-handed and the lonely-hearted here at the First Presbyterian Church for nearly 20 years.

"I have no income, no medical card anymore," Nelson says as he stares at the plate of food placed graciously before him. "I signed up for food stamps but I haven't heard from them yet. I'm taking medicine now. Lots of it. It's very expensive."

Nelson admits it was hard for him to come to this place where the price of a good, hot lunch is a little humility.

"Someone told me there was usually a lot of people here," he says. "I've never had to ask for help. I'm usually not the one that asks. I'm usually the one that gives it."

But he came today and he can explain his decision in one word: "Hunger."

"This is the first thing I've had to eat. Just trying to go without really."

Hand-to-mouth

There's no doubt that "food insecurity" is growing in the New River Valley.

The expression -- coined in the 1980s -- refers to the lack of access to enough food to fully meet basic needs at all times due to lack of financial resources. For 11.9 percent of American households, it means going without when the money's spent.

For Debbie Harrell, executive director of the Pulaski Daily Bread, it means a never-ending job.

"I do know that several of the people who come in here, this is the only time they eat. I try to make sure they're full when they walk out the door," said Harrell, in her second year. "When I first started, 125 meals a day was really big. Now, that's a slow day. Our average right now is 185 a day."

In 1987 -- the first year the kitchen operated -- 10,467 meals were served. Last year, the number was 38,200.

Harrell fully expects the number to go over 40,000 this year. In June alone, nearly 4,000 people were served -- the second-highest month in Pulaski Daily Bread's history.

Harrell has many theories as to why the need for food has increased, based on what she sees day in and day out.

"I think a lot of it is unemployment," she noted. "Look at Pulaski. All the plants are closing down."

She points to senior citizens who don't receive enough Social Security benefits to cover the food bill, to working parents whose children are out of school during the summer months and don't get a free lunch, to the new Pulaski Area Transit, which might be bringing hunger out of the woodwork.

"I see a lot of new faces. They may not have been able to get here before."

At the Radford-Fairlawn Daily Bread -- the valley's only other lunch kitchen -- the number of people coming each day has remained steady.

"There's no way of knowing how many we'll have," said kitchen manager Ernie Spencer. "We usually run into 50 or 60. It's open-door policy. Anybody can come and eat."

Nancy Haynie, director of the Giles Christian Mission, said she sees a need for a similar offering in Giles County. Several years ago, she said, area churches took turns operating a soup kitchen.

"It just wasn't working. It started dwindling off. There has been some talk of doing something again. There is a need. Definitely."

"Maybe," she added, "we're not getting the word out. Maybe we're not doing something right."

At the Giles Christian Mission, county residents who meet federal guidelines for assistance may get food.

"We have seen an increase in about the last six to eight months," Haynie said. "I just got a call from a lady who hasn't asked for food since Christmas."

She remembers the woman's exact words: "When I pay my utilities and put gas in the car, I don't have money for food."

Paycheck-to-paycheck

Gas -- everybody complains about it. But not everyone has to choose between driving and dining.

Tammy Lemons of Floyd's New River Valley Community Action has clients who say gas prices force them to dip into the grocery money.

"Something like 80 percent of the people in Floyd commute to work," Lemons explained. "There are not a lot of employment opportunities in the county. Most of the people have to go out of the county to work."

Lemons said the pantry is drawing more people every day.

"In the last month, we went from serving 72 families to serving 115 families. ... Working families are the ones we're seeing. We're always feast or famine here. It seems like the more food we get, the more requests we get."

"These people are trying," she added. "They say, 'I'm working every day and I'm just not getting anywhere.' We feel helpless sometimes."

Vicky Collins, director of Radford's Department of Social Services, knows that feeling, too. She's only 43, but she feels like Old Mother Hubbard.

"Just within the past several weeks, we purchased $1,000 worth of food from Wades," she said last month. "That is now completely gone."

The pantry her department operates in Radford has been bare much of the summer.

"The donations we're getting aren't even close to keeping up with the demand," she said. "We're going to have to limit people to one bag of food to meet the need. That's the first time."

As social services director, Collins also has seen an increase in applications for federal food stamps.

"We are getting new cases every month and there has been a steady increase since February," she said.

Same story at the Montgomery County Department of Social Services.

"We've definitely had an increase in participation," noted eligibility supervisor Caroline Crist. "The state has been actively doing outreach. There are a lot of households we know that qualify for benefits that are not receiving them."

In fact, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that only 54 percent of people who could qualify for food stamps actually apply for them.

Person-to-person

Some people would rather not swallow than swallow their pride.

Jean Parks, area office director for New River Community Action in Giles County, believes that's why the soup kitchen there folded.

"Some of them would rather go hungry than go to the soup kitchen," Parks said.

Barbara Roberts, 41, felt that way at first. She walked up to the door of the First Presbyterian Church several times before she finally opened it and sat down to lunch at the Pulaski Daily Bread.

"I said, 'Well, I've got to eat.' But it was hard. I've always been one to go out and work and pretty much make it. ... This place helps a lot," Roberts added. "My daughter and I volunteer. When we want to eat, they never turn us away."

Harrell -- the only paid employee at the Pulaski Daily Bread -- is in charge of coordinating volunteers, keeping inventory and planning meals. She also cooks, serves and even feeds small children so their mothers can eat.

Hers is a part-time job and the money's minimal -- less than $17,000 a year. She's exhausted after the tables are cleaned and the pans put away.

She loves it.

"I've been in a lot of different jobs in my lifetime and you get burned out," she said. "I come here and I'm tired but it's wonderful. It's not that weariness. It's a feeling of accomplishment."

"These people come in here and they eat and they're happy. You know you've done your job. It's not just filling their stomachs. It's filling their hearts and their souls, too."

The Pulaski Daily Bread -- like other benevolent organizations in the New River Valley -- depends on donations. Grocery stores send food, churches and clubs send money, individuals volunteer.

Somehow, it's never enough.

"We're really desperate for servers on Mondays and Fridays," Harrell said. "We have between 75 and 100 volunteers. They work really hard when they're here."

Kent Morris is one of those volunteers. The 57-year-old retiree drives to Pulaski from Giles County on Fridays to serve the people who line up outside First Presbyterian and wait for 11 a.m.

"I enjoy helping when I can. I don't do much," he said last month before rushing to greet James Nelson as he stepped uncertainly into the room and inhaled the aroma of pork casserole and garlic bread.

Hunger brought James Nelson here. He swallowed his pride. He ate his meal and took home a loaf of day-old bread but, he admitted, "I haven't never accepted charity very well."

He hasn't been back.