I am receiving reports from food pantries across our Presbytery that the number of people needing assistance has risen somewhere between 10 to 20 percent in recent months.
           
The Good Samaritan Center in Loudon County reports that a lot of people are being laid off, and many who have had their hours cut in half cannot afford the gas to get to work five days a week for four hours a day.
           
The Good Shepherd Center in Madisonville had a record-breaking month in August: 1,566 people were served (up from 1,200 the previous month).
           
Ella Smith, Director of Morgan-Scott Project, wrote in a recent newsletter that Morgan-Scott has spent $24,558 in emergency aid during the first six months of this year. This figure is close to the total amount of emergency aid monies spent in 2007.
           
With the unemployment rate at 12 percent in Scott County, the Scott County food pantry is experiencing an increase in activity that is driven partly by the economic down turn and exacerbated by gas prices. Rev. Fairchild, First Presbyterian Church (Huntsville), notes: "In this rural county, people have to drive some distance for the very basics, and there is no public transportation to fall back on. ETHRA provides a van that drives a handful of people to medical appointments, but not for such routine things as grocery shopping and picking up prescriptions."
           
FISH Hospitality Pantries' Northwest Knoxville location recently served a record-breaking 674 families in one day.
           
Our Presbytery's Cents-Ability offering provides grants to these pantries and others throughout our region. As the need has risen across the Presbytery, I pray that our response to Jesus' directive, "You give them something to eat," will increase as well.

Deborah Phillips, Hunger Action Enabler deborah@presbyteryeasttn.org