What exactly does a soup-kitchen chef do with a fragrant citrus fruit called Buddhas Hand?
A big hit to food banks has come from cuts in fresh produce and canned food supplied through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s surplus-commodity program, designed to help farmers. Such donations dropped to $58 million worth of food last year from $242 million four years ago. Donations from food manufacturers and retailers have remained steadier. The government provides an additional $140 million annually to food banks through a mandatory program, but that program is purchasing less food as prices have risen. “There is a nascent crisis building,” says Chris Barrett, a professor at Cornell University, who studies food-assistance programs. “Demand for food-bank assistance is climbing rapidly when the resources are falling in dramatic terms because the dollars just don’t go as far.” “Many food banks tell us demand is up more than 20% from a year ago,” says Ross Fraser, a spokesman for America’s Second Harvest, which distributes food through a network of 205 food banks in the U.S. Food b
