Sonoma County low-income families fall short on food

The number of low-income Sonoma County residents who could not afford to buy food for three meals every day declined slightly last year, but county officials and nonprofit organizations are concerned about the October wildfires’ impact on family nutrition.

Members of 61,000 “at-risk” families - those making less than $50,000 a year and accounting for nearly one-third of all households - did without 26 million meals last year, according to the latest Sonoma County Hunger Index report by the county’s Human Services Department.

That marked an improvement from 2015, when low-income families missed 33.7 million meals, a trend county officials attributed to rising household incomes for some families.

If the 26 million “missing meals” were spread among all county residents, it would amount to each person missing one meal a week, the report said.

Meanwhile, the wildfires that destroyed 5 percent of Santa Rosa’s housing stock and eliminated jobs will likely make the situation worse.

“We’re even more afraid for the future,” Kim Seamans, economic assistance director for the Human Services Department, said in a press release.

Noting that people who makes less than $50,000 are typically renters, the loss of housing in “an already critical housing crunch” will hit the county’s most vulnerable population hardest, she said.

“As rents go up, more residents will end up having to choose between having a roof over their heads and paying for other necessities, including food,” Seamans said.

With the county moving into a yearslong disaster recovery period, nonprofit resources will likely shift to housing while an “unmet need” for food continues, said George Malachowski, Human Services’ program development manager.

In response to the fire, Redwood Empire Food Bank established a free food distribution program for fire victims that served 4,300 families in November, said David Goodman, the nonprofit’s CEO.

It will continue as long as there is need and the food bank obtains the necessary financial support, he said.

Goodman, who has run the food bank for 17 years, was not impressed by the statistical reduction in missed meals.

People are still unemployed and underemployed and rents are “extraordinary,” he said. “Not everyone who misses meals is in the system” so even if the number has declined slightly, Goodman said it is still in the millions.

“We have to have a community that says, ‘No one goes to bed hungry.’”

As the largest hunger-relief agency on the North Coast, the food bank regularly serves 82,000 people - about one out of seven county residents - delivering $40 million worth of groceries a year.

The Human Services’ calculation of missing meals starts with multiplying the number of low-income families by the government’s standard for healthy food intake - three meals per day - which comes to 176 million meals in Sonoma County.

Subtracting 105 million meals purchased by families and 45 million meals provided by government programs and the community leaves 26 million missed meals in 2016, averaging three meals a week per person. The agency calculated 33.7 million missed meals in 2015 and 33.5 million the year before.

Cuts in state and federal funding for food programs - including school lunches, food stamps and the food bank - reduced the meals they provided to 44.8 million last year, compared with 48.6 million in 2015.

Food will remain a priority during the recovery, said Cynthia King, assistant director at Catholic Charities, a nonprofit operated by the Diocese of Santa Rosa.

For example, some former residents of the largely fire-demolished Journey’s End Mobile Home Park are just now seeking food assistance, she said.

Low-income parents may choose to buy less food in order to pay rent, skip meals themselves to feed their children or buy cheaper food with lower nutritional value, said King, and poor nutrition impairs brain development and learning ability in children.

Hunger is typically associated with homelessness and low-income neighborhoods like Roseland, but it also occurs in rural areas, such as Guerneville, where people who have homes and cars struggle to get by on fixed incomes, King said.

The need for food is “as great now as it ever was,” said Karen Shimizu, senior director of operations with Catholic Charities. Some undocumented residents have withdrawn from government programs like food stamps due to perceived jeopardy over their immigration status, she said.

A family of two working parents and two children in Sonoma County needs to earn nearly $76,000 a year to cover basic needs, including housing, food, child care, transportation and taxes, according to a report, “Making Ends Meet,” released this month by the California Budget & Policy Center, a nonprofit policy analysis organization.

Median household income in the county is $66,833, according to the Census Bureau’s latest report.

The Sonoma County Hunger Index is available online at sonomahungerindex.com.