The Hungry Have Many Faces in Yankee New Hampshire

So, like thousands of other New Hampshire residents, she spends much of her time searching for food from the patchwork of social service agencies that offer free or inexpensive meals.

Ask French what she does on any given day, and she will answer with where she will be eating.

"Monday we go up to the church for dinner," she said recently while eating lunch courtesy of a program at the Alstead Fire Department. "Tuesdays we come here for lunch and I take home two lunches.

"Now, Wednesday I'll go up to Bellows Falls [Vt.] . . . and have lunch there. Thursdays we will come back here. Right now Friday is the day we dig out the Meals on Wheels, and there's nothing doing on Saturday and Sunday."

For an increasing number of New Hampshire's 1.2-million residents, there is nothing doing. Most of them are not welfare mothers or homeless men. The reasons for their hunger are as varied as their faces.

"It's not a state where people are dropping dead on the street because they're starving, but they're poorly nourished because they can't afford to eat right," said Albert Tremblay, director of the New Hampshire Food Bank.

Census figures show the state has the nation's lowest poverty rate and second-lowest proportion of residents (12.1%) on public assistance. Nevada is lowest, with 11.9%.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's most recent statistics, more than 8% of New Hampshire households weren't sure where their next meal was coming from in 1998, up from just over 6% the year before. And more than 3% of the state's households faced actual hunger in 1998, up from 2% in 1997.

Business at the food bank increased roughly 50% during the last five years, an increase Tremblay attributes to more working single parents struggling to feed their children.

"There are very few people on welfare going to pantries," he said. "It's the single parent who has to maintain a home, provide medical care and everything else. They just don't have the money."

That means children go hungry.

For most children, summer is a time to celebrate. But summer can be tough for the 28,000 New Hampshire children who get free lunches at school the rest of the year.

When school lets out, "our distribution goes sky high," Tremblay said. "Kids really have to fend for themselves. They'll have a candy bar, or they won't eat at all."

A federal program that depends on volunteer administrators provides lunches during summer vacation. But Elaine Van Dyke, administrator for the state Bureau of Nutrition, said the program doesn't come close to meeting the need. Only 3,300 children received meals last summer.

"We don't have as many sponsorships as there are hungry children, so they do go hungry," she said.

Those at the other end of the age spectrum don't fare much better, any time of the year. Of the nearly 148,000 New Hampshire residents over age 65, nearly 12,000 live in poverty. That means their annual income is no more than $8,259.

Few are as open about their situation as French, who accepts the generosity of a friend who shuttles her from place to place for meals. Most are ashamed of needing help and would rather do without.

Mary Lou Huffling, director of Fall Mountain Friendly Meals in Alstead, blames what she calls a Yankee sense of independence.

"For the elderly, it's a generation thing," she said. "They will pay their bills before they eat. Some of them are eligible for services, like food stamps [or] help on their electric bills. But they absolutely won't apply for it. To admit they need help and get into public assistance at all is the most degrading thing."

Between young and old are the working poor, men and women who toil at low-paying jobs, often more than one, and get few or no benefits.

They shared few of the spoils of the good economy in recent years, but now are likely to bear the brunt as it falters.

The state's low unemployment rate hides the numbers of working poor who make up a significant segment of the population, said Richard Hayes, executive director of Strafford County Community Action in Rochester.

"New Hampshire was highly rated in national polls as having a great quality of life, and that drew huge numbers of people here hoping to find their pots of gold. But that didn't turn out for them. They ended up working part-time jobs, not getting benefits and health insurance, just getting by," he said.

The food bank, run by New Hampshire Catholic Charities, serves hundreds of food pantries, soup kitchens, group homes, homes for battered women and orphanages across the state.

Last year, 2.7 million pounds of food moved through its Manchester warehouse. Though it's impossible to calculate how many people consumed that food, half a pound translates into roughly one meal.