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Tough Times for Pocono Food Pantry

Tough Times for Pocono Food Pantry - Wednesday, March 26, 2008 at 4:12PM EST

Reported by: Laurie Monteforte
Wednesday, Mar 26, 2008 @04:12pm EST
STROUDSBURG, MONROE COUNTY - Times are getting tough. Some people have trouble paying all of their bills and getting food on the table. That also means less people have food to donate to charities.

The Follow me Foundation's Feed a Friend program has about 80 new sign ups for help each month. Now it needs some help of its own.

Volunteers in Stroudsburg filled bag after bag with groceries Wednesday to help people who just can't afford all the food they need.

It takes longer than it has in the past because more people are struggling. "A lot of people are hurting. They've lost their jobs, some of them have lost their homes," said Marion Cramer of Price Township.

Cramer is a volunteer at the Follow me Foundation food pantry. She first came to the place as a client, a disabled senior citizen who just couldn't afford everything she needed. She said, "It can be very hard with your electric bill, your phone bill, it can be very, very hard."

Now Cramer is doing better and she volunteers to help others. She said since the economy is so bad more and more people sign up for help every day. She said, "It hurts having to see more people having to sign up, it really does."

Volunteers said in the past year the need for their service has doubled but the amount of space they had stayed the same.

"We can only store about 150 bags here in each aisle - and we're getting close to 200, 250 now each week," said Manager Jeni Himelright.

The volunteers do the best they can to make room for the donations because they say they want to help everyone who needs food even if things get worse before they get better.

"I hope it gets better, it just doesn't seem to be," said Cramer.

If you need help or you would like to help call the Follow Me Foundation at 5570-420-1077 or visit
 


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