Pantry

Moths are flying in my house, and I'm worried about my woolens and rugs. How do I get rid of them? They're probably not clothes moths, which are tiny and rarely glimpsed. Indian meal moths, however, are common year-round. This pantry pest has a faint dark band across its dusty wings. It originates in pasta, spices, cereals and -- take note this time of year -- bird seed, among other sources. Call us or read our online publication, Pantry Pests, for simple measures you can follow to eradicate the moths.

Happy wanderers -- The Freestate Happy Wanderers walking club will hold noncompetitive walks on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day at Owen Brown Community Center in Columbia. Two 10K trails and one 5K trail are available; walkers can start any time between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. and finish by 4 p.m. Home-cooked food and a place to sit and chat with other walkers will be available. There is a fee. Take a can of nonperishable food for a local food pantry. 410-437-2164 or 301-317-0639, before 9 p.m. Or www.ava.

There is something to be said for fast food: It is quick, convenient and - especially - cheap. We all know that it's bad for us, but when a bacon double-cheeseburger costs less than a head of lettuce, it might be hard to refuse. Fruits and vegetables are one of the keys to good health. Barbara Rolls invented the sensible Volumetrics diet, which encourages people to eat large quantities of low-energy-dense foods rather than small portions of energy-dense foods. This plan makes sense: You feel full, lose weight and end up eating a lot more fresh produce.

BATTLE CREEK, Mich. -- Bob Randels, Rose Miller and Teresa Osborne spend most of their waking hours rescuing food. They're not dumpster divers, but they are relentless in their pursuit of pizzas that weren't picked up, sub shop bread that wasn't used and even small bags of shrimp from the local Red Lobster that didn't get tossed into a pasta Alfredo. Their efforts are part of a much larger, organized daily hustle to meet the increasing need to feed the hungry. "We're trying to keep pace, as much as we can," said Randels, executive director of the Food Bank of South Central Michigan, which served 92,000 people last year, up almost 50 percent from 62,000 in 2001.

Bill Ewing was unemployed and living in his Volkswagen van on April Fools' Day 1979 when his aunt dragged him to a celebration marking the start of a new charity, the Maryland Food Bank. Ewing, who had recently left his job as a teacher, was looking for something to do. The first food banks had just started popping up around the country, and the concept behind them - bringing food from big producers to small food pantries - intrigued him. He decided to volunteer for a few weeks. Now, Ewing is preparing to step down as executive director of the nonprofit organization.

Larry Adam, founder of Harvest for the Hungry, spoke to the kids gathered in the boardroom like a commander rallying his troops. "And you, the students, you know how to raid your pantries, right?" he asked the group assembled at the Maryland Food Bank's headquarters in Halethorpe. "Yes, sir. That's right," answered Elijah Martin, laughing and nodding his head in agreement. Martin, who attends Catonsville High School, was one of several dozen students who participated in a kick-off rally for the Kids Helping Kids food drive yesterday.

Have I set the bar too high? Are my standards unrealistic? Am I just an incurable curmudgeon? As the calendar flips to a new year, it is a natural inclination to take stock of the months gone by. But while others may feel compelled to ask tough questions about their relationships or career choices, I'm content to limit my introspection to my walk-in pantry - stocked with another year's worth of as-seen-on-TV products. And from my perspective, what a crummy year it was. I began testing infomercial products two years ago, and I'm continuing a tradition of taking a year-end look back at the highlights and lowlights.

Help! My bedroom is infested with a tiny black or dark brown insect that looks like a flea, but crawls rather than hops. My cat's dry food was loaded with these things. (They aren't weevils like you find in flour. They're bigger.) My friend in another state suggested an "ozonator," which is supposed to kill all bugs, bacteria, mold and mildew. I'm looking for a non-chemical, safe method to deal with these invaders! You're describing a cigarette beetle or drugstore beetle. As curious as the names sound, they are rather common pantry pests, probably introduced to your home via the dry cat food.

The city Planning Commission endorsed yesterday Our Daily Bread food pantry's move to a new location on Fallsway, near the state penitentiary complex. Angelo Boer, a representative of Catholic Charities - which operates the pantry for the homeless across from the central Enoch Pratt Free Library - said a January groundbreaking is scheduled. The new building - to be located at 358 E. Monument St. - would have a 60-bed transitional residency as well as a feeding operation that would serve about 900 meals daily, Boer said.

Catholic Charities has succeeded in raising at least $17 million to move a food pantry across from the central Enoch Pratt Free Library into an expanded center for the homeless east of downtown. That means that long-debated plans to move Our Daily Bread out of the Mount Vernon cultural district should lead to construction next year of an employment and counseling center for indigent people, said Hal Smith, executive director of Catholic Charities. The Baltimore Planning Commission is scheduled to hold a public hearing Thursday on the proposed location of the Our Daily Bread Employment Center at 358 E. Monument St., across from the state prison complex.