aoconnell@wiltonvillager.com

WILTON — It's nearly Thanksgiving and the cupboards are bare.

That's what the administrators of the Food Bank of Lower Fairfield County and several local food pantries said this week, as they looked two weeks ahead to Thanksgiving

"Normally we have huge inquiries for food drives," said Lombardo on Monday. "We're just not seeing that."

Smaller donations and increased demand emptied the shelves of the Lower Fairfield County Food Bank this autumn, she said. The shortage is putting the squeeze on the 115 food pantries and soup kitchen in Stamford, Norwalk, Wilton, New Canaan, Darien and Greenwich, which are supplied by the food bank.

"We are not able to meet demand," said Joyce Gumbus, of 164 Wilson Pantry at Stamford's Wilson Memorial Church. Her pantry, which is a year old and provides food for Stamford's West Side, relies on the Food Bank of Lower Fairfield County for 85 to 90 percent of their food.

Last year the food bank was able to supply Wilson Pantry with turkeys for Thanksgiving. This year, Gumbus doesn't know if there will be any turkeys for her patrons.

"This is going on two weeks [until Thanksgiving] and we haven't heard whether we're getting turkeys yet," she said.

Although support for the county's food bank dwindled this season, Catherine Pierce, Wilton's new director of social services, said the Wilton Food Pantry has not been a part of that trend. The Wilton Food Pantry, which isn't supported by the Lower Fairfield County, but by the local Interfaith Council and donations from Wilton groups and individuals, has the usual promises of holiday food drives.

"We have not had a drop-off in people's commitment," Pierce said.

Lombardo said the food bank's supplies and reserves began to dwindle in summer, when gas prices were on the rise. Although the price of gas soon plummeted, donations remained low, she said.

"We try to keep reserves on hand, so we're constantly [stocked]," Lombardo said.

In October, the reserves began to run dry.

Nancy Carrington, executive director of Lombardo's parent organization, the Connecticut Food Bank in New Haven, agrees that donations from local, national and government sources were scarce in the past few months.

"All product is off," she said. "There's a little bit less here and a little bit less there."

Still, Carrington doesn't believe the holiday season will be so bleak.

"Things have picked up just in the last week," she said. "We have some food we will use for Thanksgiving, fresh vegetables, and we're anticipating a lot of food drives in the coming month."

Some of those drives include Fill the Bowl, a which will be held this weekend at the Yale Bowl in New Haven.

Donations to Connecticut Food Bank will benefit the Food Bank of Lower Fairfield County in part — the Food Bank of Lower Fairfield County is able to buy food from the Connecticut Food bank at 10 to 12 cents a pound.

As always, the shelter gets surplus food from manufacturers, but more often than not, the food is not the kind of item a family can eat for dinner. Recently, the food bank got a large shipment of dates.

"It's food that doesn't make a mean," Lombardo said.

Lombardo says the food bank needs the basics; spaghetti, canned vegetables, peanut butter and jelly.

The Food Bank of Lower Fairfield County also has a few promises of food drives this holiday season, Lombardo says, such as one which will be held next week by Stroller Strides, a Stamford-based fitness program for mothers. Still, the donations that have been promised will not be enough to fulfill demand, which increases yearly.

"We need more people out there conducting food drives," she said.