An Anchorage food pantry had to temporarily close its doors earlier this week and is continuing to run on reduced hours, as other local organizations report a summer low on food and high on demand.
The Salvation Army's McKinnel House is open again, after closing Monday because officials had no food to give to the needy.
"There have been times where there's been limited resources, but never an occasion where we've had to shut the doors because we didn't have food to hand out," said Deanne Roering with the Salvation Army, "So this is the first time that's happened to us. We're looking of course to meet supply, and work on long-term plans so we can assure this doesn't happen again."
On Tuesday and Wednesday, McKinnel House staff had to dip into Salvation Army funds to purchase the food that it is giving out for free. This week, the facility has halved its hours for serving people. Although staff hope to return to regular hours by next week, they say that depends on donations.
The Food Bank of Alaska, a major source of food for the McKinnel House and other organizations, is also experiencing low supplies.
"We don't really have enough (food) to serve them as much as we'd like to serve them," said Michael Miller, the food bank's executive director. "I know lots of times they have to resort to buying food out of own pockets -- and, you know, we would love to see increased donations to help those partners serve even more folks that are under that stress this time of year."
The Food Bank of Alaska accepts donations at 2121 Spar Ave. from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays, as well as from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday.
The McKinnel House, at 1712 A St., can accept donations from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays.
Contact Mallory Peebles