Free Republic

Mehul Prajapati, an Indian-origin data scientist working at TD Bank in Canada, found himself at the center of controversy after a video surfaced showcasing his approach to acquiring "free food" from food banks designated for students in Canada. In the viral video, Prajapati discussed his method of obtaining food from charity food banks meant to support students in Canadian colleges and universities. He displayed his haul, which included a variety of items like fruits, vegetables, pasta, and canned goods obtained from these food banks. The video quickly drew backlash online, with many expressing outrage at Prajapati's actions, highlighting that food...

CHICAGO – Vicenta Buitrago stood in line for three hours at the Sheridan Market food pantry on a recent afternoon. The small waiting room was packed, and guests spilled out the front door onto the sidewalk. Despite the wait, the Colombian migrant left beaming, pushing a grocery cart piled high with an assortment of produce and other goods. A pot of red tulips from Trader Joe’s was perched above her bags. “Mira, que bonito. Look, how beautiful,” Buitrago, 59, said. “It’s been so long since I’ve had flowers.” For many nonprofit food distributors, hourslong lines have become the norm. Food...

President Biden on Monday joined volunteers at a food bank in Philadelphia in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the third consecutive year he has marked the holiday at the organization. Biden volunteered at Philabundance, a hunger relief organization in South Philadelphia. Biden chatted with volunteers and stuffed boxes of food. “Where do you want me? the president said as he picked up a bag of apples and donned a Philabundance hat.

The highest inflation prints in four decades have forced some Americans to flood food banks and pantries (again). WSJ reports that Forgotten Harvest in Detroit has experienced a dramatic increase in demand. Since December, demand at the food bank has increased from 25% to 45%. In March alone, when energy and food prices soared, demand jumped 30% over the prior month. Christopher Ivey, a spokesman for the Detroit food bank, said, “the need is growing quickly, as gas prices are continuing to rise.”  “As you know, there are shortages in the grocery store and the costs of the commodity...

Here's the rundown: My mother does evaluations for Solutions for Care, helping determine how much assistance elderly and disabled people receive from state programs available in Illinois. This includes home health care workers, cleaning services, food deliveries, and transportation for medical appointments. Right now, one of her clients is not receiving the amount of food necessary, and it will be at least a month before they will receive any bump in benefits. An elderly woman is caring for her husband, who has dementia and who is physically disabled, and neither can stand for long periods of time in a grocer...

AUSTIN, Texas -- More than 250,000 people in Travis County live at or below the poverty line. That means a single person earns roughly $1,000 monthly, $2,000 for families. Group starts food pantry Set up shop at the South Austin Community Church More than 250,000 in Travis Co. live at or below the poverty line “I get $20 on my food stamps so it’s a lot of things for when they come to my house and I’ll have things there but this is great. This is so good,” says 53-year-old Michelle Williams. Williams helps provide for her family, with four...

BROWNSVILLE, Texas — South Texas ranchers brought nilgai antelope from a California zoo decades ago, when it became fashionable to stock their sprawling acreage with exotic quarry. These days the species native to India and Pakistan are not so much a rarity in South Texas as a nuisance. For cattle ranchers they are a possible nemesis, threatening to spread a deadly tick to their herds. Federal wildlife officials say they are competing with native Rio Grande Valley species for food and trampling the brush they are trying so hard to preserve. The fast-running, 600-pound antelope have wandered all around the...

The largest hunger-fighting organization in the nation’s capital has put food-donating retailers on notice: no more candy, sugary sodas, or sheet cakes. As key as donations are to the nonprofit’s bottom line, the Capital Area Food Bank recently told retailers that, beginning this fall, it won’t accept free food that comes at a cost to recipients—many of whom struggle with obesity and diabetes as much as hunger. At a time when 97 percent of households reporting food insecurity “cannot afford a balanced meal,” the organization’s effort is part of a larger national shift that acknowledges solving hunger isn’t always as...

It´s a quiet crisis. In a city of plenty, a staggering number of people are struggling to feed themselves and their families. Nearly one in five New Yorkers, 1.4 million people, now rely on a patchwork network of 1,000 food pantries and soup kitchens across the city to eat. That represents an increase of 200,000 people in five years — straining the charities that are trying to help. The two biggest, City Harvest and the Food Bank for New York City, now provide nearly 110 million pounds of food to soup kitchens and food pantries a year. Yet those working

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Veterans are returning to New York City from their service only to be faced with going hungry, the head a city food bank said. As WCBS 880′s Monica Miller reported, Margarette Purvis, president and CEO of the Food Bank for New York City, tried to raise awareness about the plight of former service members during a speech in the Bronx on Sunday. Veterans Day is Monday. “On this Veterans Day, when we’re waving our flags — I need every New Yorker to know — 40 percent of New York City veterans are relying on soup kitchens...

"It’s a curious thing why it’s okay for Planned Parenthood to be as politically affiliated as it wants and turn its quest to kill as many babies as possible for profit into political alliances, but when pro-life organizations say no to them they go full-on thug with the media and calls and name calling."

Food bank mistakenly gives out dog foodPublished: July 18, 2010 at 2:39 PM CLEARWATER, Fla., July 18 (UPI) -- A food bank in Clearwater, Fla., distributed a can labeled as a "superfood" that turned out to be a can of dog food, the recipient said. On Social Security, retired Air Force veteran Frank Viscido made his weekly trip from his home in Largo to the Religious Community Services Food Bank in Clearwater for free food, The St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times reported. Viscido was given the can labeled, "Senior Holistic Superfood" by a volunteer who noticed he wanted products for better...

A new survey indicates that nearly one in five US households could not afford to buy enough food at least once during the past year. An anti-hunger group said the poll found 18.2 percent of households reported "food hardship" -- lacking money to buy enough food -- in 2009. The figure reflects a higher percentage than the government's "food insecurity" rating of 14.6 percent of households, or 49 million people, in 2008. "There are no hunger-free areas of America," Jim Weill of the Food Research and Action Center was quoted as saying by Reuters. He added that he hoped President...

As a national recession wears on, more middle-class people are asking for food, even in places like affluent Montgomery County, Md. About 24,000 families have been added to the rolls of Manna Food Center in Rockville, Md., in the last year and a half, said Kim Damion, director of development and communication. Close to 400 families picked up food boxes on Thanksgiving Day this year, more than any other year since the center opened in 1983, Damion said. Manna gave food to 1,600 families on Thanksgiving week. Nationally, 49 million Americans are at risk of not getting enough to eat...

Today, Mormons work hand-in-hand with other faiths at the Food Bank Coalition of San Luis Obispo County to feed the hungry throughout an area of some 280,000 people. But it has not always been that way. In 1992, Kristina Manning approached the "Loaves & Fishes" organization and asked to be a volunteer. But Manning, a new LDS convert, was turned down. Two members of her bishopric at the time in the Paso Robles 1st Ward of the San Luis Obispo California Stake paid a visit to Loaves & Fishes and tried to resolve the situation. After being told they were...

It's a first lady faux pas -- wearing expensive, high-fashion French designer sneakers to a food bank. Michelle Obama wore the sneakers, made by Lanvin, while helping feed the poor at a Washington food bank on Wednesday. The pricetag on the footwear? A cool $540. Keds, they're not. The sneakers, which come in denim and satin, are a favorite of comic Ellen DeGeneres and rapper Kanye West -- and they're "certainly not a reflection of the poor economy," said FOX News' Noelle Watters, host of iMag Style. "She paired the kicks with a much more reasonably priced cardigan from J....

Michelle Obama has taken casual to a haute new level. While volunteering Wednesday at a D.C. food bank, the First Lady sported her usual J.Crew cardigan, a pair of utilitarian capri pants and, on her feet, a sneaky splurge: trainers that go for $540.

Unemployed for a year and with an ailing wife at home, Mike Hammer stepped out of his truck in a Concord strip mall and walked into the heart of one of the most sophisticated private welfare systems in the country. Here, in a plain white box of a building, Hammer and other Mormons come to get groceries - everything from produce to meats, much of which comes from Mormon-owned farms and cattle ranches. Others come for counseling, employment help and a self-canning facility, where observant Mormons can up to a year's worth of food supplies in the event of an...

ALTADENA, California (CNN) -- When she was laid off in February, Patricia Guerrero was making $70,000 a year. Weeks later, with bills piling up and in need of food for her family, this middle-class mother did something she never thought she would do: She went to a food bank. It was Good Friday, and a woman helping her offered to pay her utility bill. "It brought tears to my eyes, and I sat there and I cried. I was like, 'This is really where I'm at?' " she told CNN. "I go 'no way;' [but] this is true. This is...

Area food banks are experiencing a critical shortage of supplies as donations drop dramatically and as demand for free and discounted food continues to soar. The Capital Area Food Bank, the region's primary distribution center, reported that it had about 230,000 pounds of goods on its shelves this week, down from 570,000 pounds at this time last year, officials said. Volunteer Robert H. Coats restocks shelves at the Capital Area Food Bank, where the current inventory is dramatically below last year's level. (By Nikki Kahn -- The Washington Post) The short supplies, which are hitting food banks and soup kitchens...