Kansas City food pantries facing unprecedented demand

Published: 2006-01-26

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (CNS) -- Some days, Sheila McGee Christiansen hates her job. So does Deacon Frank Peak. Those are the days they have to put up the "stop" sign. The sign tells people who come to the Bishop Sullivan Center food pantry, where Christiansen is emergency services manager, or to the center's inner-city St. James Place food pantry, managed by Deacon Peak, that demand has exceeded the ability of each place to feed. Ordinarily, the sign went up about twice a month, when each agency served 50 families, the maximum it can feed in one day. Lately, the sign has been going up at least twice a week. Last year, during one stretch around Thanksgiving, it went up every day for six straight days. Christiansen and Deacon Peak said people generally don't come to a food pantry unless they are desperate. They are devastated when they read the sign.

Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .