Mid Valley`s Largest Food Bank Sees Surge in Middle Class Emergency

More middle class Oregonians are seeking help than before.

Salem, Oregon homeless family. Photo by Tim King Salem-News.com

(SALEM, Ore.) - In the past month, the number of previously middle-class residents seeking emergency assistance from St. Vincent de Paul has spiked remarkably, according to Shari Crawford, who coordinates the non-profit’s emergency services.

St. Vincent de Paul is the largest emergency food bank in the Mid Valley, providing basic staples to about 2500 people a month (600 families). “Lately, we’ve been seeing truck drivers, construction workers, counselors and many others who have lost jobs and been forced to seek assistance because they’ve spent their last dime,” said Crawford.

“It’s scary,” Crawford continued. The upsurge in unemployment coupled with dramatic increases in the cost of living has put these previously secure families “into a tailspin.”

St. Vincent de Paul is part of a local network of emergency service providers that includes the Salvation Army, Northwest Human Services and Congregations Helping People (CHP). Part of what scares Crawford is that, in the past, local citizens in healthy financial shape were quick to backfill with their donations whenever emergencies arose in the community. “Because the recession is affecting everybody, many agencies are seeing donations decline,” Crawford said.

Crawford added that, based on recent statistics at the food bank, the following groups are being severely affected by this economic downturn: 1) the unemployed, ages 50 – 61, too young for social security, 2) those with criminal history and, 3) single parents facing diminished work hours and increased costs that exceed their income. “This year, many clients are complaining of $200/month electric bills and find they must supplement their normal groceries budget with a food box once a month,” she said. There are 39 food box sites in the Marion/Polk Food Share network.

Emergency services through St. Vincent de Paul (SVDP) are funded by charitable grants, private donations, contracts for service and operations from their North Salem thrift store. The emergency food bank is their largest service effort, involving more than 40 volunteers. “The paid emergency service staff includes one full time and one part time employee,” said SVDP director Kimberly Allain. “Only because we have these wonderful community volunteers are we able to dedicate so much of the resource to those in need.”

Besides food, SVDP also has a small grant program providing needy families with emergency cash to cover shortfalls in rent, utilities and medicine. In June, SVDP will open a second store – on South Commercial, sharing the Joe’s Outlet building. “This will definitely help build our capacity to be responsive to the growing community need,” Allain added.

Crawford, who has more than seven years directing emergency services for St. Vincent de Paul, in Portland and now Salem, has advice for those who have never faced a financial emergency in the past: “Scale back your spending before you have to and when you find yourself with less money than you need, we recommend that families take care of basic needs such as rent and utilities first,” she said.

“People are so apologetic for having to ask for charity from anybody,” Crawford added, “consequently, they use up every penny before they ask for help.” She says that, in these circumstances, people’s need for empathy is almost as important as the bread and milk. “That’s what Frederic Ozanam emphasized, after starting St. Vincent de Paul Society as a university student in France, in 1833,” Crawford continued. “People need caring and compassion. They need acceptance and understanding as much as they need charity.”

St. Vincent de Paul, started in Salem in 1957, employs 40 people but relies heavily on volunteers for its service work. “The community animates what we do,” Allain said. Without community donations, funding for our programs and volunteers, we probably couldn’t exist…but it’s certain we couldn’t do what we do.”

In the past year, more than 7,800 hours were volunteered, mostly at the Food Bank. SVDP’s emergency services provided:

• more than 25,000 food boxes
• grant assistance to 232 households
• 4160 lunches for homeless individuals
• Clothing and bedrolls for more than 200 homeless adults and children
• New school clothing for hundreds of school children.

“When society has so many issues to grapple with simultaneously, it helps to have organizations like St. Vincent de Paul. We’re a bridge linking those in need to those with desire to contribute, whether financially or with their volunteer time. Money, itself, is not the way through crisis,” Allain added. “Rather, it is only through relationship building that our community is strengthened.”