Shortage of Drivers and Volunteers Reduces Food Accessibility in Poughkeepsie
COVID-19 and inflation are two primary reasons the nation’s hunger rates have increased since the pandemic began, but people may not know that the shortage of volunteers and drivers has contributed to the problem as well, especially here in the Poughkeepsie area.
“We have to pick up food from our donors twice a week, sometimes three times a week, which is done by me because we’re looking for more volunteers. We need drivers that can help us load and unload food and other items,” said the Poughkeepsie Salvation Army corps officer José Guzmán.
There are only nine people on Guzmán’s staff –most of which are seniors– that have to organize the food and other items of basic need, which leaves him and his wife Ana to drive to one of the donors on a given day and time to ensure they bring back food for families to pick from at their food drives. These donors include Stop & Shop, Shoprite, Olive Garden, and the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley. Twice a month they go to this food bank–24 miles away south of Poughkeepsie for a total of 100 minutes there and back without traffic– so that people can have the essentials at home.
Even the Food Bank of Hudson Valley has a shortage of drivers. “We have three drivers right now,” said Sara Gunn, director of the Food Bank of Hudson Valley. “That nationwide shortage of drivers has contributed to the shortage of food that many people are experiencing.”
This situation is certainly not helped by the fact that many people do not have access to cars and may have to take public transportation to get to food pantries. Even if people do have cars, some food pantries in the Hudson Valley are more than 15 miles away from their homes, which results in more money being spent on gas.
One way the Food Bank of Hudson Valley is combating this is with a short-term solution of a mobile pantry program.
“We started a mobile pantry program where we have vans that go to communities that are more than 15 miles from a food pantry, especially the rural areas,” said Gunn. “Our goal in this whole program is to work with people within the communities to eventually get a full standing pantry closer to them. Mobile pantries aren’t really designed to be permanent.”
But for places like Salvation Army, who don’t have the necessary funds to have this kind of mobile pantry, they have to go out and recruit people to assist them because they need all the help they can get, especially from “younger folks” as Guzmán points out.
“We have lost bellringers and volunteers since the pandemic began because they got jobs because of the economic situation. People are trying to survive, and people don’t want to be standing out in the cold during the winter for free,” said Gúzman. “You really have to have the heart and willingness to help others to do this.”
Gunn believes that the hunger crisis will last another five years, but that the issue has leveled out significantly over the last year, and will continue to do so as food pantries, food banks, soup kitchens, and all other places for those in need have adapted to the problems the COVID-19 pandemic has caused.
“I think what I would say as far as food insecurity goes, it can happen to anyone. I would love for people to bear that in mind that it can happen to anyone in all walks of life,” said Gunn.
