By Pete Chiodo

Meadville Tribune

The bottom line is we re running out of food, said Shawnel Lee, essential services director for the Center for Family Services.

Among the numerous charity programs that the center provides are the seven food pantries it operates in Crawford County. These food pantries serve an average of 1,300 families each month, equaling more than 3,000 people in total. And each of those numbers is up significantly from last year.

The problem is, much of the money used to purchase food for the pantries comes from the State Food Purchasing Program. And this summer, Pennsylvania legislators were locked in a budget battle for nearly three months. So no money left the state coffers during that time. That means that CFS never received its funding to restock the pantries.

I buy over $30,000 (worth of food) each quarter, said Lee. And the last shipment of food I received was in June. Normally, I d get another shipment in the next fiscal quarter, usually in September.  
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