[The Independent] 22 Nov 2007-- Today as millions of Americans sit down to their turkey dinners with all the trimmings, the safety net of hundreds of food banks and pantries that put food on the table of the nation's poor is creaking and torn as a result of sharply reduced donations. From New England to California warehouses that should be groaning with surplus foodstuffs are going half empty.
"We're bracing ourselves for a very tough winter, especially with home heating fuel prices at record highs in the north-east," said Mark Quandt of the regional food bank in New York. "People living in poverty or near poverty just can't sustain those types of increases."
America's obsession with energy independence from Middle East oil may be to blame. The country's farmers have brought in the greatest corn harvest since the Second World War, but their surpluses which once were bought by the government and sent to food banks are no longer available. Instead the corn is turned into heavily subsidised ethanol and less land is available to grow food.
And the corn syrup that turns up in almost every product found on a US supermarket shelf is in short supply. A cheap dollar means that food exports are booming and a crippling two-year drought in the south has left fruit and vegetables withered and useless.
Unnoticed by most Americans, as they drop off their old canned goods and surplus food at schools and church halls for the Thanksgiving food drives, the entire system may be heading for collapse.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-bareshelves_22nov22,1,3771432.story
Pantries brace as shelves go bare - Chicago Tribune
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_H_pantries22.322efdb.html
Inland food banks getting donations for the holidays but worry about the future - The Press-Enterprise
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/112207dnmetpantries.14f902c.html
Dallas-Fort Worth food pantries facing shortage - Dallas Morning News
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