Food banks in need of more donations

Every day, workers at the Hoosier Hills Food Bank sort cans of food, plan food drives and distribute food to local charitable organizations.\nEvery month, they feed 23,000 local hungry people.\nHoosier Hills receives donations and leftovers from restaurants, schools and IU greek houses. \nBut there are slow months where they don't collect as much food as they would like.\n"It would be wrong to say we had enough (food)," Hoosier Hills Executive Director Amy Robinson said. \nThe Hoosier Hills Food Bank is just one of many shelters, soup kitchens and community centers helping homeless and hungry people in Monroe County.\nMany individuals and families struggle to find affordable housing in Bloomington, said Ibby Ambrose, the Single Adult Emergency Shelter case manager at Shelter, Inc.\nBecause of the "cost of living and average wages, we are the most expensive city to live in in Indiana," Ambrose said. \nThe 2000 Census reported that 12 percent of Monroe County residents live in poverty, compared with 9.9 percent for the entire state of Indiana. Across the U.S., the poverty rate is 13.3 percent. \nShelter, Inc., located at 919 S. Rogers St., has to turn people away almost everyday because it does not have enough beds. The shelter served an estimated 550 people in 2001, Ambrose said, adding that a fourth of the people in shelters are children.\nShelter, Inc. provides emergency shelters for homeless families. It also offers facilities for low-cost, transitional and long-term housing for qualified individuals, Ambrose said. \nThe Hoosier Hills Food Bank organizes 100 food drives a year, Robinson said. On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, some IU students volunteered at a food drive. Volunteers from Golden Key, Alpha Phi Omega, Delta Lambda Phi, Sigma Delta Tau, the Masters of Public Health Association and the IU softball team helped out at Hoosier Hills.\nRobinson said poverty-stricken and homeless people in the rural areas in Monroe County are the hardest to provide food for because there are not many food pantries or soup kitchens in those areas.\nCarolyn Anderson, a volunteer at the Shalom Community Center, said hunger and homelessness in Bloomington is a pressing issue. \n"It's a big problem," she said. "It's bigger than what anyone would think." \nAnderson can't believe there are so many people in need in such a small town. She said there are long lists of families waiting for a spot in homeless shelters.\n"It's sad," Anderson said. "There are more things that need to be done"