Surplus of Diet Food Feeds Ky. Residents
Posted on: Thursday, 31 March 2005, 09:00 CST
PAINTSVILLE, Ky. - A surplus of diet food for the overweight has been a boon for the hungry in Appalachia.
Unsold crates of low-carb energy bars, shakes and breakfast mixes have been pouring into the Christian Appalachian Project to be distributed in mountain communities. For people who might otherwise go hungry, diet food beats no food at all.
"You can't go wrong with giving any kind of food away," said Ken Slone, manager of the charity's warehouse some 25 miles from the spot where President Lyndon Johnson declared war on poverty in 1964. "When you're feeding people, you're doing a good thing."
Since September, the charity has received 14 truckloads of food from Atkins Nutritionals, the New York company famous for the low-carb diet. Slone said each truck load contained about 1,300 cases of energy bars, shakes and breakfast mixes that are being distributed to churches and other organizations that minister to the needy.
"The Atkins products have really been a lifesaver for us," said the Rev. Brooks Kerrick, founder of Extended Hands Ministries, which serves residents in a rural area with double-digit unemployment rates. "They'll sure keep your belly button from rubbing your backbone."
Atkins Nutritional said in a statement Wednesday that the company routinely provides free foods to charitable organizations.
Those who follow the food industry say changes in the public's appetite for low-carb foods may be leaving manufacturers with more product to give away.
A recent study by the independent marketing company NPD Group found that the percentage of American adults on any low-carb diet in 2004 peaked at 9.1 percent in February and dropped to 4.9 percent by early November.
Bob Goldin, executive vice president of Technomic Inc., a food industry research and consulting firm, said many companies overproduced low-carb foods trying to cash in on the diet craze and now are stuck with large amounts of it.
"The market has just cratered for those products," he said. "Typically when it shows up in food banks, it's got very little commercial value."
The Rev. John Rausch, a Roman Catholic priest who serves on the board of the Catholic Committee of Appalachia, said poverty is widespread in the region because of a lack of good-paying jobs. People are left to work in service jobs, many of which pay only minimum wage.
"People's choices for jobs are really diminishing," he said. "You have the service sector, Wal-Mart and fast-food outlets, which give pretty much minimum wage, but it isn't enough to really maintain a household."
As a result, Rausch said the poor in mountain communities may have to choose between buying medicine and buying groceries, leaving them dependent on ministries like Extended Hands.
"To be honest, I don't know if anyone's going to starve to death, but they will have poor health because of bad nutrition," he said.
Slone said the Christian Appalachian Project, which has fed and clothed the poor in the mountain region for 40 years, receives an assortment of donated goods for the poor, from clothing to furniture, even cosmetic products from time to time. All the donations are distributed at no charge.
And, Slone said, diet products are only a portion of the foods the ministry distributes. He said large companies like Wal-Mart routinely donate canned goods for the needy in Appalachia.
"We distribute everything we get," he said. "It's always a good feeling to help people."
Source: Associated Press/AP Online
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