Food banks nationwide report more first timers

(From the AP) Prentice Jones worked construction jobs around Chicago for most of his 60 years and is quick to boast of a foreman job he once held at a revamped city college and 23 years at a steel company.

But these days, work has been so scarce that the man with a penchant for cowboy hats has been forced to move in with his mother and do something this week he never expected — visit a food pantry.

“There’s no work now,” Jones said while waiting in line at St. Columbanus Parish for a frozen turkey and bags of apples, bread and potatoes. “I pray it’s temporary.”

A surge in first time visitors has contributed to the greatest demand in years at food banks nationwide, according to Feeding America, a Chicago-based national food bank association. Many of the first timers were middle class but lost jobs or had their wages cut.

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