SUMMER 2009 EDITION
COMMUNITY»
Collapsing economy weighs down social services
VALERIE MOSLEY/staff
Michelle Nelson, left, and Beverly Miller laugh over lunch at the Salvation Army Harbor House's soup kitchen on July 15. Nelson and Miller are residents at the Harbor House and both said if it wasn't for the meal program there, they didn't know where their next meal would come from.
COLUMBIA — Columbia's Meals on Wheels has reinstated delivery of evening meals to low-income clients.
At the beginning of the year, the organization discovered a deficit that caused it to stop delivering evening meals.
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The soup kitchen at the Salvation Army's Harbor House serves lunch and dinner daily to their residents and non-resident community members. The kitchen serves about 50 people at lunch and about 75 for dinner. "People are migrating from other areas because Columbia has a plethora or human service resources," said Maj. K. Kendall Mathews. "They know they'll be taken care of here."
"Clients were not paying for their evening meals because many had no source of income," Executive Director Marcia Walker said.
The economic recession has put social service organizations in a bind, jeopardizing donations, finances and even volunteer recruitment.
The Voluntary Action Center receives an average of $28,000 to $35,000 per year in church donations, but this year, the amount has dropped. In the past year, the organization received enough money from donations to meet the expenses it incurred.
The organization has not received enough in donations to cover the costs of services this year. Because of this shortage, it has spent $3,000 more than it has received thus far in 2009.
"Since our complete cost was a couple thousand dollars more than the donation money, we used leftover money from previous years," Executive Director Cindy Mustard said. "Since we were in the hole, the money came from the years when the VAC received more donations and spent less than that amount."
As of June, the organization had spent about $22,000 to help people in poverty, whereas for all of 2008, its expenditures amounted to about $17,000.
Soup kitchen Loaves and Fishes has experienced the effects of the recession, seeing increased patronage by the less fortunate in want of food and shelter.
"More people have been coming for food at Loaves and Fishes because they have lost their job and have no income," volunteer coordinator Rachel Crall said. "Normally, we serve about 30 to 50 people a day, but since the beginning of 2009, we have had around 50 to 100 daily.
"Loaves and Fishes' shelter has also seen more people coming in for a bed this year compared with last year. It even had to turn some away because of crowding, Crall said.
Although these organizations are struggling to make ends meet, there is no doubt they will find a way to help those in need.
After applying for a statewide grant from Walmart, Meals on Wheels was able to get the money it needed to restart delivery of evening meals. Although the program’s evening deliveries have been reinstated, the number of participants is low. With the expectation of getting back clients in the next few months, all they can do is wait
Although the Meals on Wheels client count is down, volunteers keep coming. Volunteer numbers are skyrocketing as more people in Columbia want to help. Walker said she thinks that volunteer numbers may be high because of how the economy has slashed the amount of available jobs in the area.
"I think we have a lot more volunteers this year because of the amount of people losing their jobs and realize that others are hurting too," Walker said. "While these people are searching for new employment opportunities, they are also helping others who are less fortunate than they are at Meals on Wheels."