Demand has far outpaced donations to food banks around Colorado, but when it comes to charitable giving this holiday season, people expect to be as generous as usual.
At places such as the Weld Food Bank, there’s a 50 percent increase in the number of people seeking help from its 104 agency partners.
In Boulder County, the Community Food Share’s “Let’s Bag Hunger” food drive so far has netted 15,000 pounds less than the 41,588 pounds donated by this time last year. Meanwhile, their direct service program — which serves families that have a child on the free-lunch program in one of the two school districts they serve — has grown from 600 to 700 clients a week.
“We had to close enrollment for now until we can evaluate our resources,” said chief executive James Baldwin.
At the Jeffco Action Center, which distributes about five tons of food daily, donations are flat though demand has soared.
But as many food banks struggle, charities such as the American Red Cross in Colorado have seen a 17 percent increase in donations from fiscal year 2010 to 2011.
“A lot of that is probably due to the disaster in Japan, which got a lot of coverage,” said Patricia Billinger, spokeswoman for the Mile High Region of the American Red Cross. “When people saw the need, they gave.”
The American Red Cross on Friday released the results of a telephone survey of 1,020 adults showing that although 67 percent hadn’t expected the economic downturn to have lasted so long, they still want to give. More than seven out of 10 said they expect to donate more or about the same this holiday season as last year.
“Consumer confidence doesn’t necessarily track the actual economic indicators,” said University of Colorado psychology professor Leaf Van Boven. “That moves somewhat independently. So something else is driving the reactions.”
Van Boven, with researchers at Dresden University of Technology in Germany, recently co-authored a study of what motivates people to give — to whom and how much.
They found people are motivated by emotion, things that upset in the immediate moment.
“Food banks are not charities that respond to acute crises that crop up out of nowhere,” he said.
There is not much media coverage of hundreds of people in food lines that snake around blocks, as happened during the Great Depression, so food banks tend to be more under the radar in public consciousness compared to tsunamis or earthquakes, he said.
Still, when they get a reminder, people do step up.
Last year, when the Denver Rescue Mission put out notice of near-empty freezers, the community responded by stocking the mission with nearly 20,000 birds before the holiday season got in full swing.
Likewise, last year, in the teeth of a steep economic downturn, Coloradans gave nearly $9 million to local charities on the first Colorado Gives Day — more than eight times the sum organizers expected to collect in that 24-hour period.
The online-giving event will take place again this year on Dec. 6, with FirstBank providing an incentive fund of $300,000 to match donations.
People such as Baldwin of Community Food Share welcome such innovations.
“If people have the ability to give now, they never know when they might need help like this,” he said. “It’s a way to pay it forward.”
Colleen O’Connor: 303-954-1083 or coconnor@denverpost.com
Numbers
68% of Americans think that because of the economy, it’s important to give something to charity (up 10 percent from last year)
79% agreed that they would rather have a charitable donation in their honor than get a gift they wouldn’t use
45% are likely to economize on travel
45% are likely to economize on holiday decorations
26% are likely to economize on charitable donations
Source: American Red Cross
