How can you help fight hunger in our community?

The first snow of this winter season fell Saturday. And though it didn’t stick around for long, it was a timely reminder of what is ahead for all of us: months and months of cold, dark winter.

Winter is when more of us are out of work. It’s when there is less subsistence hunting and fishing available, and it’s the season when we spend the most to heat and light our homes.

We think this means more Alaskans are hungry in the winter than at other times during the year. Already from January through June, United Way’s 211 referral line has had an 8 percent increase in the number of people calling asking for food aid.

Statewide, referrals for basic needs have remained about the same, around 30 percent, United Way reports. Among basic needs such as food, housing, transportation, and household goods and clothing, housing help makes up 50 percent of calls.

However, food referrals are a significantly bigger portion of the basic needs referrals than in past years, according to Michele Brown, President of United Way of Anchorage. Requests for food aid climbed from 23 percent in 2009 to 34 percent in the first half of 2012, she said.

Now winter is here. And United Way’s statistics from the first half of the year indicate more people in the Mat-Su Valley are hungry these days than in past years.

Food aid helps people stretch their household budgets so they can pay their own expenses, like rent and utilities, Brown said. She said providing food helps people stay in their homes, which is cheaper than re-housing people after they are homeless.

Across the board, Brown said, demand for help far exceeds supply.

“Increasingly since 2009, we’ve seen more Alaskans — working people higher on the income scale than ever before — struggling to make ends meet,” she said. “People who didn’t need help before need it now.”

Thanks to the Rasmuson Foundation, social service agencies statewide will get some help in the form of a $1 million safety net grant. But more help is needed.

Beyond donating food and cash resources, we think it’s also appropriate for people renting or leasing housing in the Mat-Su Valley to consider the impact steadily rising rents have had on issues like homelessness and food need here.

As much as anything, this is a math problem. Tally the take-home pay from a minimum-wage job. Subtract fixed costs like rent, utilities and day care. It would take a magic wand to pay for transportation, food, clothing and other incidentals with the too few dollars that are left.

So this winter, ask yourself how you can help most. Is it by donating a 50-pound bag of beans to the food pantry or modifying your rental and lease agreements to reflect reality: more and more of our neighbors in the Mat-Su Valley can’t afford food and rent.

Contact the United Way help line at 211, or online at alaska211.org.