As times get tougher, helping is harder

And at home: Would you pay your mortgage — or your heating bill?

And if you ran a social-service agency, would you cut back the number of people you feed, or the number of meals you give them?

As The Seattle Times today opens its 30th annual Fund For The Needy campaign, a common theme is being echoed nationally and around the Puget Sound area:

Hard times bring hard choices.

"Food banks are facing a double whammy right now," said Salvation Army Capt. Terry Masango in Renton. "We get more people coming to us at the same time donations have decreased."

A Salvation Army truck, the size of a large moving van, which used to come back daily full of donations from Renton-area grocery stores is now often half-full, if that. Meanwhile, the number of people served at the Renton site, either through the food bank or other programs, topped 11,700 in October — a 58 percent increase over the same month last year.

It's a sign of today's economic struggles that a program to help pay people rent and utilities is now being tapped to help some people pay mortgages, as homeowners' expenses outpace their income.

Senior Services of Seattle/King County also is feeling the pinch. Its popular "Meals on Wheels" program, serving about 2,500 homebound seniors in King County, cut recipients to one meal a day, rather than two, for November and December.

"We had to make the decision whether to stop accepting people or cut back the number of meals they got. We opted for the latter," said Denise Klein, Senior Services executive director. "It wasn't easy."

Tough choices are being made at all 13 nonprofit organizations benefiting from the Times fund, highlighting the importance of continued community support.

Since the Fund For The Needy was created in 1979, Times readers have donated more than $11.8 million, with 100 percent going to the recipient agencies.

Helping people get by

The cream-colored, one-story building on Renton's South Tobin Street is the busiest of six food banks operated by The Salvation Army in King County.

One recent morning, more than 30 people — from babies in strollers to gray-haired older gentlemen in tweed caps — waited to be escorted inside to the stainless-steel tables of food.

Among those waiting was Ileane Baker, 60, of Renton, whose husband was recently laid off from a City of Seattle street crew.

"You pay the rent, pay the utilities, stretch your money as far as you can, but everything's going up," said Baker, 60. Her husband's work can be seasonal, and she's been to a food bank in the past, but this was her first visit in a year.

Baker has been a nursing assistant, kitchen helper and secretary, but a heart condition now makes it difficult for her to work, and she is caring for two young nephews at home. "I don't know how we'd get by without this," she said.

Every client's story is unique, but the challenging economy plays a role in many.

Kimmberly Baxter, the center's intake coordinator, said an Army veteran came in who had closed his small construction business when he went into the service. When he got back from overseas, he couldn't find jobs.

"For someone who was fighting for our country to come back and be in that position, that's just not right," Baxter said.

Baxter, 35, knows asking for help can be humbling. Before she got this job in June, she was a food-bank client.

Although her husband has a steady job at a metal-plating company and she has worked off and on at fast-food restaurants, family bills would sometimes overwhelm the couple, who between them have five children, including four teenage boys.

Baxter shares her story with new food-bank clients, hoping to put them at ease. "I let them know we can all be in that position."

A key reason food banks are hurting, says Ameeca Akram, the center's social-services director, is that the grocery stores they rely on for surplus food are caught in the pinch of higher food and fuel prices.

"Stores aren't ordering as much food as they used to, so they don't have as much left over to donate," Akram said. "It's a challenge for us just to keep food on the shelves."

To stretch its supply, the food bank has reduced the amount recipients can take from the various tables. For example, a three-person household, in its monthly "food box," used to be allowed six items from the "grains" table, bearing mostly individual packs of top ramen and boxes of macaroni-and-cheese. Now, the limit is three.

Families can come once a month for a box of food, and they can return once a week for "commodities," typically produce and bread.

Stigma is going away

If there is an upside to the deluge of bad economic news, it's that so many people are hurting, the stigma is disappearing, notes John Deagen, Senior Services' manager of information and assistance.

"In an odd way, having the issue so visible in general makes it easier for people to ask for help without any sense of shame," he said.

Another change, Deagen said, is that fewer people are calling for just one kind of help. "Callers who need assistance with housing or utilities are also asking about food banks or food stamps as well."

With the new year, Senior Services will resume giving clients two meals a day, but it's unclear how long it can keep that up. Klein, the executive director, said a couple of foundations that regularly donate to Senior Services have told her they won't be able to give as much next year "because their own portfolios are shrinking."

If necessary, the agency, which has delivered meals since 1974, may need to do something it has been able to avoid in the past: put new clients on a waiting list.

Meals on Wheels, which accounts for about 10 percent of Senior Services' $15 million annual budget, gets 60 percent of its funding from the federal government and the rest from donations. The Seattle Times Fund For The Needy is its largest single donor.

Klein said she's hopeful that individual contributors, such as those who give through the Times fund, will meet the challenge.

"People in the Seattle area are as generous as anywhere in the country," Klein said. "Some actually donate more in time of economic distress because they know how much people need it."

Jack Broom: 206-464-2222 or jbroom@seattletimes.com