Need greater but donations fewer at Ladies of Charity’s Center of Hope Food Pantry

IC Photo/Linda Petersen

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Empty shelves illustrate the struggle the Ladies of Charity have to feed the hungry at the Center of Hope Food Pantry in North Salt Lake.

NORTH SALT LAKE — As inflation, home, rent, fuel and food prices continue to remain high, more and more Utah families have struggled to put food on the table — and the agencies that have helped in the past are facing their own challenges. All Utah food pantries have seen a decline in contributions, and the Ladies of Charity Center of Hope Food Pantry in North Salt Lake is no exception. Donations have been down significantly, while the number of families and individuals in need has skyrocketed.

“In January, we served 294 families, which was a total of 12,140 people,” Ladies of Charity Vice President Ranee Hollinger said. “In September, we served 440 families with 19,091 people, and every month we have at least 25 to 30 new families that come to the pantry.”

Despite the increased need, the pantry has fewer resources to help those who are suffering, she added. “The donations are way down this year, from what they’ve been before. They went up a little bit after Covid, but they’ve never really gone up to where it was before. We have a few very generous people that come in two or three times a month and bring us things, but as far as the individual donations, we don’t get as much as we used to.”

The pantry’s most urgent need in foodstuffs is for protein items such as canned meat, tuna, peanut butter and beans. In the past, the pantry has always been well stocked with beans but this year these, too, are in short supply. Fresh items are also needed. The pantry has an ongoing grant from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints bishops’ storehouse that supplies milk and eggs every week but sometimes even that isn’t enough, and the pantry is forced to buy dairy items at retail prices to cover the need, Hollinger said.

Recent procedural changes in the food stamps program have also caught some recipient families off-guard. Just last week several families who normally receive food stamps but were denied benefits because they did not fill out the correct paperwork came into the pantry seeking assistance, Hollinger said.  “I had five families come in that were feeling real panicky, because they didn’t receive their food stamps, because apparently they didn’t comply with something.”

Nonfood items are also in short supply at the pantry as more families need these items. Many people don’t realize that food stamp programs do not cover personal hygiene items such as soap, shampoo, toothpaste and feminine products — “all of those things that we take for granted that we have to have to keep ourselves clean,” said Daughter of Charity Sister Germaine Sarrazin, the pantry’s executive director.

In addition, although the pantry receives large donations of disposable diapers, they are gone the day they come in, she said. “We always need diapers.”

The pantry is seeking new premises where it can expand its offerings and run a small thrift store that could help fund it on an ongoing basis.

“We have a very great need right now to enlarge or to get a bigger place; we are bursting at the seams,” Sr. Germaine said. “We try to have a small thrift store, but we just don’t have room for everything. We’re growing by leaps and bounds; we’ve doubled, even tripled our clientele and so we’re looking for a bigger place. We have a capital campaign going on.”

Donations to the pantry are accepted during operating hours: Saturday, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Monday, 4 to 6 p.m. and Wednesday, 3 to 6 p.m. Outside of those hours, donations may be arranged by calling the pantry to arrange a drop off.

To donate by credit or debit card for the pantry’s ongoing needs or to the capital campaign, visit https://www.ladiesofcharitynorthernutah.org/ or see the QR code in the ad below.

“We’re very appreciative for everything that people do,” Sr. Germaine said. “It’s just the need is always there. As Jesus said, ‘The poor you will always have with you.’ So we’re trying to take care of them.”