From the archives: Donation drought; pantries say gifts down since Sept. 11

The Rev. Henry Bacon was hoping to hand out 1,000 turkeys to the needy this year, but his annual effort to solicit turkey donations has come up short. Way short.

The pastor of the Compel Church of God In Christ in Wyandanch has managed to round up just over 100 turkeys, and he said he's worked the phones harder for those 100 birds than he ever has in the 16 years he's been handing out turkeys to needy Long Islanders.

"I've never experienced a year like this," Bacon said. "Not even when I was first starting this program. The organizations I can usually count on to contact me each year, I've had to write them letters, and call them over and over again."

The unexpected turkey shortage, Bacon suspects, stems from the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, and from the weakening economy. Both have sapped the resources of Bacon's usual donors, even while demand for the food has jumped.

He's not the only one facing a food shortage, or a spike in demand. The Family Development Center in Glen Cove reported that its monetary donations have dropped off significantly this year, while the Crossroads School for Child Development in Inwood had to act fast even to find turkeys to distribute to the parents of its five neediest students. In past years, the school had enough food to feed 12 to 15 families.

The Hunger Action Network of New York State, an umbrella organization for food programs, said that nine of the 19 food pantries on Long Island that responded to a survey said they had seen a drop in food or monetary donations. Five of those groups said they were already unable to feed some of those who had come to them for help, even before the holiday.

Glen Cove's Family Development Center, run by the Glen Cove Employment Opportunity Commission, reported the gravest need. The center's William Richardson told the Hunger Action Network that the agency is "in a state of constant influx of families in need of emergency food," and its usual donors have directed their philanthropy to the American Red Cross.

Even those groups on Long Island that have been able to feed all the families they hoped to reach said they had to hustle more this year to have enough food for everyone.

In Oceanside, St. Anthony's Parish Outreach office was scrambling last week to find enough food to feed the 100 people on its list of the needy. The annual announcements in the church bulletin and at the end of Mass didn't elicit the usual response, said Anna Sirianni, the coordinator of the program. But one final push two weeks ago finally brought in the food.

"We were panicking," Sirianni said. "We figured people were tapped out. But our parishioners came through for us like they always do."

In the city, statistics show that more New Yorkers than ever are turning to soup kitchens and homeless shelters.

The trouble faced by Long Island groups is similar to the fund-raising headaches encountered by charities across the country in the two months following the attacks on the World Trade Center. Even as disaster relief groups and Sept. 11 memorial funds have raised a record-breaking $1.3 billion in the past two months, groups that serve those not directly affected by the tragedy have seen a drop in donations, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, a trade publication that covers nonprofits and their fund-raising efforts. Fund-raisers call the phenomenon "donor fatigue."

Susannah Pasquantonio, community food coordinator for the Hunger Action Network, said that most people don't realize how much local food programs rely on individual donations.

The Sept. 11 charities, she said, were "a noble cause, and we wouldn't want to discourage people from sending some of their resources that way. But people also need to realize how these small programs will be affected. Hungry people are being turned away."

But at least one person who runs a food pantry has another theory, besides donor fatigue and the stumbling economy.

All that is part of it, said Sister Ginny Down, the coordinator of the food program at Our Lady of Good Counsel in Inwood, but a more subtle effect of the terrorist attacks is now rearing its head, she said.

"People are in denial about it being Thanksgiving already," Down said. "All of us are missing the whole month of September. It disappeared on us. People are broken, people are hurting, and they're still trying to figure out what happened. Suddenly, it's Thanksgiving. It doesn't feel right."