Originally published Sunday, November 23, 2008 at 12:00 AM
Comments (11)
E-mail article
Print view
The Fund For The Needy
As times get tougher, helping is harder
Fund For The Needy, The Seattle Times' annual fundraising campaign, kicks off as charities such as The Salvation Army and Senior Services are struggling with fewer donations and more people in need.
Seattle Times staff reporter
JOHN LOK / THE SEATTLE TIMES
Ileane Baker selects baked goods from a meager supply at The Salvation Army food bank in Renton. Baker's husband was recently laid off, and they support two young nephews. "You pay the rent, pay the utilities, stretch your money as far as you can, but everything's going up."
JOHN LOK / THE SEATTLE TIMES
Because the grocery stores they visit have less surplus food to give away these days, Salvation Army driver Donnie Cunningham, left, and volunteer Jonathan Harris seldom manage to fill the food bank's truck with donations on their daily rounds.
About this series
Each year, The Seattle Times Fund For The Needy raises money for a select group of charities that help children, families and senior citizens. Throughout the fall and winter, The Times will write about the difference these organizations make in the lives of thousands and the impact those who give to the Fund can make.How you can give
You can give to the fund For The Needy online at seattletimes.com/ffn or by sending in a coupon along with a check, money order or credit card information.Information
The Salvation Army www.salvationarmynw.org; 1-800-736-7291.
Senior Services www.seniorservices.org; 206-448-5757.
Numbers show the need
Homelessness: The number of homeless people in King County increased by about 15 percent from 2007 to 2008.Food-bank use: Between July 2006 and June 2007, nearly 1.2 million people made nearly 6 million visits to food banks in Washington state.
Unemployment: Washington's jobless rate was 6.3 percent in October, up from 5.7 percent in September.
Children in need: In King County, about 50,000 children under 18 lived below the poverty line in 2007.
Sources: The state Emergency Food Assistance Program, Seattle / King County Coalition for the Homeless, Washington State Employment Security Department, 2007 American Community Survey, United Way King County.
Compiled by Seattle Times news researcher Gene Balk
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
Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company
Food-safety lawyer's wish: Put me out of business
Illegal workers quietly let go
Metro won't cut bus service after all
Jerry Large: Food-bank theft turns into a gift
Bumper to Bumper: How can the city let bridges go dark?

Real Salt Lake wins MLS Cup
Real Salt Lake defeated the Los Angeles Galaxy with penalty kicks after 120 minutes of play at Qwest Field in Seattle.
general classifieds
Garage & estate salesFurniture & home furnishings
Sporting goods
just listed
8 Drawer Dresser with Attached Mirror - $200
8 seat pecon formal dining table and china hutch - $1500
A American Table, Chairs and Bench - $275
More listings
POST A FREE LISTING
shopping
Give yourself a treat and visit Watson Kennedy's Holiday Open Houses
More minding the store
events for Monday, Nov. 23
- REI Winter Sale
- Alhambra 20 Percent Off Jewelry Sale
- All About Weddings and Celebrations November ...
- Karan Dannenberg Clothier Black Friday Sale
editors' picks
- West Seattle shopping
- Local jewelry designers
- Phinney Ridge & Greenwood shopping
- Neighborhood shopping
- 'The Road' takes Viggo Mortensen to Mount St. Helens and Astoria, Ore.
- Tugboat sinks at Seattle waterfront pier
- Illegal workers quietly let go
- Child-support error costs nearly $21,000
- Vikings easily beat the Seahawks
- Craigslist adoption ad: A plea by young mother-to-be? A scam?
- Chase shrugs off loss of CD investors
- Woman stabbed by stranger in North Seattle
- Snow piles up on Cascade slopes
- Denny Triangle gains skyline, but tenants slow to come
- Illegal workers quietly let go
342 - Climate change speeds up since 1997 Kyoto accord
201 - Vikings easily beat the Seahawks
170 - Metro won't cut bus service after all
140 - Historic health care bill clears Senate hurdle
94 - New Husky recruit: Enes Kanter
86 - Tattoos at Mill Creek Church pierce skin, soul
80 - Jerry Brewer: Seahawks can't lean on the Hutch Crutch now
72 - Middleton says Huskies "plan on scoring at least 50 points'' Saturday
66 - UW, WSU once again meet to see who's worse
65
- Sprouts, raw fish on attorney's 'do not eat' list
- Tattoos at Mill Creek church pierce skin, soul
- Illegal workers quietly let go
- Food-safety lawyer's wish: Put me out of business
- Architects, chefs find 'kid' within to build Gingerbread Village
- Rediscovering Moab, 'the most beautiful place on Earth'
- It's possible to recover a life lost to hoarding
- Child-support error costs nearly $21,000
- 'The Road' takes Viggo Mortensen to Mount St. Helens and Astoria, Ore.
- Taste | The Great Pie Bake-off pits friends and fruit







