 "Photo: Maddie Crum/The Daily Texan")
Just a few streets away from UT at the University Presbyterian Church, a food pantry run by a coalition of churches and volunteers from the University and the city feeds hundreds of people a week.
Volunteers from 11 churches in the University area operate the Micah 6 Food Pantry, which has been serving the community for about five years. The pantry takes its name from a Bible verse in the Book of Micah that reads, “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God.”
It takes about 25 to 30 volunteers per shift to run the pantry smoothly and to perform tasks such as running the childcare center, bagging groceries or stocking shelves in the pantry. The pantry serves between 450 and 500 people each week during the one-hour time slots it is open Thursdays and Saturdays.
“A year and a half ago, that number was 200 to 300 people a week,” said Gretchen Olson Kopp, president of the Micah 6 board of directors. “[The increase] is pretty clearly related to what’s happening in the economy in Austin.”
As more people have lost their jobs, many have had to go through their savings, Olson Kopp said.
“Some people use the pantry to extend the time that they can survive,” Olson Kopp said. “When someone has to decide between paying their medical or utility bill or purchasing groceries, the pantry is a resource that can sustain them a little bit longer.”
Every person that shops is shopping for two to three other people, she said, so a donor has the potential to impact more than 1,000 people during a given week.
The 2009 food budget has increased to $52,000 a year to accommodate the need, Olson Kopp said, and $30,000 has been raised so far.
About one-third or less of the people that visit the food pantry are homeless, Olson Kopp said. The vast majority are unemployed and in housing but don’t have the money to put food on the table.
When visitors enter the pantry, they are assigned a number. After a range of numbers is called, number holders are allowed to descend the stairs into the food pantry’s waiting area to be checked in and to fill out a form that includes questions about name, address, age and household income.
Once a recipient enters the pantry, he or she is given a shopping basket to go through the pantry and pick out enough food to fill the basket. Volunteers are at the end of the pantry to help shoppers bag and carry their groceries.
“One important thing that distinguishes us is the kind of dignity and respect that we value and treat everyone with that comes through the pantry,” Olson Kopp said. “Each person who comes in gets a shopping basket to pick the items they need the most.”
UT’s Honors Business Association began volunteering with Micah 6 last year and continues to serve the pantry on the first and third Thursday of every month.
“[The experience] gives our members an opportunity to make a difference in our own backyard,” said Michael Daehne, the vice president of external affairs for the business group. “It’s really eye-opening to see the poverty in Austin and to be able to contribute a small part to our community.”
Daehne said that he has had no problem getting organization members to volunteer.
“They gain so much,” Daehne said. “Working and talking with the people who come in the pantry humanizes the homeless population and reminds us that we are all equal.”
Ruby Jaime suffered from a stroke eight years ago that paralyzed the left side of his body. He is now in a wheelchair, though he said that he has walked and even danced. He said that it could take two hours to receive food.
Jaime knows many of the volunteers at the pantry by name, and the volunteers often help him pick out food from his wheelchair.
“When I see people that are hungry, I tell them to follow me to the pantry,” Jaime said.
