Local Aid in the news

Local Aid lacking in donations, funding, and volunteers

Deeda Schroeder, The Tri-County News

JUNCTION CITY, Oregon (August 18, 2008) -- This last time, it was her older son's birthday.

Her family was having his party at Orchard Park to celebrate, but when she returned to their car, her purse had been stolen. Inside it was the $150 she'd saved to take her boys to the beach. The car was already packed.

They stayed home that weekend, and Jennifer cancelled all her credit and debit cards and closed her checking accounts, setting her finances into yet another tailspin.

"Unless you're ahead, when something like that happens it really puts you far back," Jennifer said.

Jennifer is a single mom, with two boys, 10 and 14. She works full-time and lives in Junction City, earning $10 an hour. While she's received two pay raises since she began the job last September, she's never quite able to get ahead of her growing stack of bills.

And while she goes to work every day for her roughly $23,000 in annual income, it's not going as far as it used to.

"It seems like everything's doubled in price," she says of her daily expenses like gas, groceries for growing boys and utility bills. "But my income hasn't."

The eight to ten hours of weekly overtime that Jennifer works in the summer busy season nudges her income to just outside the window for food stamps.

Jones [Susan Jones, Junction City Local Aid Executive Director] has seen a huge jump in first-time and working families — like Jennifer's — seeking food and emergency utility services, at a time when donations of money, food and time are in extremely short supply. "We are having families ask for help that have never asked before," Jones said.

Economic conditions have worsened in the last year, she said, with local companies hiring fewer people, shortening shifts and even laying off some current employees.

"That means I see them at my front door," Jones said of the influx of new clients needing her help. In June of this year, 29 new families came to Local Aid for assistance; families Jones said appear outwardly to be "normal, working folks with jobs."

This time, for Jennifer, that help came in the form of help with an electric bill that was about to be shut off. "For me it came down to a choice, do I pay my rent or do I pay my utility bill?" she said. Her 14-year-old eats more than she does, and her 10-year-old has ADHD, causing her to want to keep her stable, but low-paying job, because it's near his school.

Jones says she's having a tougher time meeting the needs of the growing number of people coming in to her office because resources at her disposal are simply dwindling.

"We're working with less coming in," she said. When she started working in Junction City last June, there was about 4,000 pounds of food coming in each week, she said. Now, she gets about half that to distribute. Last month, Local Aid provided food benefits to 642 people, compared to 525 in July of 2007, reflecting a 22% increase.

And monetary donations—which can be used for utility bill assistance of stocking the pantry with necessary proteins—are down tremendously, Jones said. Those monetary donations come from area churches, individuals and businesses, and everyone, it seems these days, is feeling the pinch of a tougher economy. When that money isn't coming in, she said, she cannot buy food needed to round out the pantry items that are regularly donated.

Jones wants the public to understand that while food donations are helpful, there are two critical things the organization really needs more.

"The first thing we really need is money," she said, emphasizing that money is never given directly to clients. Utility assistance is the most expensive service they provide to clients, she added.

"The second thing we desperately need is volunteers," Jones said. "I need community members to give two hours a week to help out. Right now, we are very low on volunteers." Jones is trying to open the office in the evening, once or twice a month, to accommodate the growing population of needy families who work during the day. In order to do so, she needs volunteers to greet at the front desk, stock pantry shelves and generally help where needed.

"I don't think people realize how easy it is to volunteer," Jones said.

Joan Young is a current volunteer and board member, who finds the eight to ten hours per week she spends at Local Aid to be very rewarding.

"I get a sense that I'm doing something to help," Young, a retired property tax administrator, said. "There are a lot of people of need in Junction City." Young is thankful to be able to give back some of the good will she's been given throughout her lifetime.

Jennifer, too, is thankful. Jones was able to make arrangements with EPUD to pitch in for a portion of her overdue utility bill, and Local Aid paid for most of the rest, getting her out of the hole.

But Jennifer still grapples with finding a long-term solution to her financial troubles today, keeping plans and dreams for the future on hold.

"I'm moving forward, but slowly," Jennifer said of her hopes to finish her interrupted college studies and a path to a higher-paying job. "I would like to find a way to make more money."

"But, something's always drawing us back," she said.

Jennifer asked that her real name not be used for this story.