Going into the 2010 holiday season, food banks that serve the needy in Statesboro, Claxton and Sylvania are reporting increased demand.

The Food Bank Inc. in Statesboro is located at 108 Proctor Street. Customers who obtain a voucher by applying through an agency such as the Department of Family and Children Services, Concerted Services Inc., the Red Cross or ACTS, pick up groceries at the food bank between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. (The food bank will be closed for regular distributions this Thursday and Friday because the agencies that screen applications are also closed.)

Each customer receives enough food for seven days, depending on the size of their family. More than 100 households per week, including families with children as well as individuals and couples, are currently "shopping" at the food bank, reports lead volunteer Joe Bill Brannon.

"It's growing. Every month we get more and more and more," Brannon said. "The economy is getting worse and worse. We have not seen the turn-around yet in Statesboro."

The food bank was to distribute 100 turkeys Tuesday morning, but these were going exclusively to pre-registered, qualifying families. Brannon said the turkey distribution is more of an "above and beyond" thing.

This year the free turkeys will not be accompanied by food for side dishes, Brannon said, as the food bank did not have the extra items to give.

"What we don't have are the items to go with it, such as macaroni and cheese, instant potatoes, stuffing mix, gravy. ...We're short of yams and other things for a traditional Thanksgiving meal," he said. "We've got plenty of green beans."

Food bank support

The Food Bank Inc. is supported by donations from citizens of Bulloch County. Churches, civic clubs and businesses give money. Letter carriers hold an annual canned food drive, and schools often host drives. He had picked up hundreds of canned goods and other long shelf-life items from Southeast Bulloch High School and an elementary school in the past two weeks, and a recent drive at the university had netted more than 5,800 items.

The food bank obtains much of the food it distributes from America's Second Harvest of Coastal Georgia. Part of a national network, the Savannah distribution center supplies food for area food banks at deeply discounted wholesale prices.

With the discounted items averaging 19 cents per pound, the Second Harvest connection makes monetary donations go much further than direct donations of food. But the Food Bank Inc. encourages both.

"You can see where it's worth it, but ... it doesn't give people the same satisfaction as going to a grocery store and getting a sack of groceries and bringing it down," Brannon acknowledged.

Gracewood's effort

He noted that a separate charitable effort this week will dwarf the food bank's distribution of uncooked turkeys. Coordinated by volunteer Jimmy Anthony, the "Gracewood Feeds the Community" meal has returned each Thanksgiving for about 20 years.

It grew out of a project at Gracewood Baptist Church but involves other donors.

Dozens of volunteers, working out of the Statesboro High School cafeteria, will distribute prepared turkey dinners to pre-selected households Wednesday and Thursday. Last year, the project fed about 3,900 people, Anthony said.

Evans County

In Claxton, the Evans County Christian Food Bank has been looking for a larger location for most of the year, but has yet to find one. The city of Claxton provides space in the back of the old depot beside City Hall, but the Food Bank shares the depot with the Red Cross and Emergency Management Agency. It is cramped as a food pantry and must also serve as a distribution office.

The food bank receives donations of nonperishable food, produce donated by local farmers, and cash gifts used to buy food from Second Harvest.

"The need is greater now," said Sonja Peterson, the Evans County charity's secretary. "We have our people we see every month, but now there is a mix of newer people too."

From January through October, 173 families per month, on average, have turned to the Evans County Christian Food Bank for help, she reported. This includes an average of 414 individuals, 72 of them senior citizens and the rest younger. In 2009 the average was 156 families per month, including 393 individuals.

Screven County

The food pantry operated by the Screven County Community Collaborative reaches out from its headquarters in Sylvania with a "mobile food unit." It takes about 100 boxes of groceries per month to homes of senior citizens and people with disabilities, said collaborative director Ramona Stewart.

A special distribution in Hilltonia two weeks ago served more than 200 families, including 600-plus individuals, in two hours. A similar distribution last week in Newington served 191 families.

Obtaining most of its food from the Golden Harvest distribution center in Augusta, the food bank in Sylvania is open to people qualified under USDA and SNAP guidelines on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. These regular distributions served a recent peak of 324 families, including 787 individuals (164 were over age 60; 279 were under age 18) in September. This dropped to 278 families, with 685 individuals, in October, but Stewart believes the total will climb again for November.

"Screven County is a large, rural county and unfortunately, we've got a lot of poverty," Stewart said.

Like the other food banks, Screven County's welcomes both monetary donations and gifts of food.