Lillian Danzy, a 38-year-old mother of seven with a persistent smile, traced her fingers across the ordered lines of canned food stacked inside a pantry at St. Francis House, a local homeless shelter and soup kitchen.
"None of this was here on Monday," said Danzy, who helps organize more than 200 lunches at the shelter every day. "It's not a lot, but it will have to do."
The pantry, arranged in categories like "Great Northern Beans," "Tomato Paste" and "Clam Chowder," was nearly empty when the week began, she said.
In what Director Kent Vann labeled an "emergency food shortage," donations of both money and food reached an all-time low Monday, causing employees to wonder how many people would go hungry as a result.
"It was like coming home to your family, opening the cupboard and realizing there's nothing for dinner," Danzy said. "We were walking around saying, 'What are we gonna do? What are we gonna do?'"
Vann cited the country's recession as a main reason for the shrinking food supply at St. Francis House.
Funding from the city decreased by more than $6,000 this year, and Vann said he expects Alachua County to also cut the funding set aside for nonprofit organizations.
Dwindling donations from people in the community are also affecting the shelter's day-to-day ability to feed and house its homeless residents, Vann said.
The shelter depends on local donors for more than two-thirds of its financial support, and as people feel the strain of feeding their own families, they are less likely to donate.
An increase in the Gainesville homeless population has also contributed to financial tension for the shelter.
Vann said he estimates that about 800 homeless people lived in Gainesville in 2007, compared to more than 1,300 this year.
When donations failed to restock the pantry Monday, Vann said he decided to unplug the shelter's two equally bare restaurant-size freezers to cut energy costs.
With the responsibility of feeding hundreds of people that day, Vann sent a pleading e-mail to local organizations and residents asking for canned goods and help.
In only two hours, the shelter's phones started ringing with promises of donations, he said.
Josh Tremill, volunteer coordinator for St. Francis House, said the community's response has been incredible, but the shelter still needs constant donations.
"Times are tough," Tremill said. "But times are tougher when you don't have a house or food."
