Soup kitchens busier than ever

Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, November 26, 2003

SPOKANE — While millions of Washington state residents stuff themselves with turkey, gravy and all the trimmings today, some of their neighbors will be eating a lot less, or not at all, relief agencies say.

"This is our busiest November ever," Ed McCarron, who supervises meals served at the House of Charities shelter in downtown Spokane, said Wednesday. "Twice this week, we’ve served over 300 people, which is high. Yesterday, we had our Thanksgiving meal, which we didn’t advertise, and we had 371."

It’s the same at food banks and soup kitchens across Washington, which the U.S. Department of Agriculture says ranks second in the nation after Oregon in the prevalence of hunger.

The Cherry Street Food Bank in Seattle, the state’s largest, had a record day on Monday, serving 1,951 people.

"That’s not a number to be proud of, but we’re fortunate to have an abundant offering," Northwest Harvest spokeswoman Maria Lamarca Anderson said.

Not all of the estimated 500,000 people served by food banks and soup kitchens in the state are jobless and homeless, Anderson said.

"The last several years, we have been seeing more people who have jobs but aren’t making a living wage," she said. "Not all our clients are homeless and on government assistance. They go to work, have briefcases and backpacks."

Northwest Harvest distributes food to about 300 soup kitchens and food banks across the state. In the fiscal year ending June 30, the nonprofit organization distributed 17.7 million pounds of food, up nearly 2 million pounds from the previous year, Anderson said.

About 40 percent of those fed by the hunger agency are children, and 16 percent are elderly — the least able to change their circumstances and the most vulnerable to a compromised diet, she said.

The working poor and those experiencing unemployment for the first time are among those who are benefiting from food banks.

Jaye Samson, development director for Millionair Club Charities in Seattle, which provides meals for the working poor, had 400 at its noon Thanksgiving meal Wednesday, up 50 from last year.

"We’re really trying to count our blessings this year," Samson said. "We know that things are tough all over."

The mix of people served by the Union Gospel Mission in downtown Spokane has recently included the newly homeless and chronically unemployed, spokeswoman Kari Reese said.

"People are having a harder time finding work today than six months ago," she said.

In rural areas, where mills and mines have permanently closed and economic opportunities are limited, poverty is a big factor.

"It’s like a little black cloud," said Barbara Baum, who manages the People’s Pantry in Republic in northeastern Washington’s Ferry County. "And yet these people all have stories. It’s a joy to find they are real people who never asked to grow up like this."

The small food bank run from the basement of Baum’s First Presbyterian Church distributed Thanksgiving food packages Tuesday for 102 people in the logging and mining community of about 950. A satellite pantry in Curlew served about 50 people.

The stagnant economy of Ferry County — which last month had the state’s highest unemployment rate of 12.6 percent — has swelled the numbers of people needing the pantry’s services, Baum said.

"I think we’re beginning to see more and different people now that the people who lost jobs at the mill and mines run out of unemployment benefits," she said. "Some of them are trying to live on $300 a month, including paying utilities."

While most will be enjoying Thanksgiving meals with relatives on Thursday, some will spend the day volunteering at food distribution sites.

Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske, a Salvation Army board member, will join his wife, Anna, on Thursday as volunteer servers at the William Booth Center’s annual Thanksgiving Day dinner in Seattle’s International District. About 500 are expected for the dinner.

Floyd Lee is one of 300 volunteers who help out at House of Charity, operated by the Catholic Diocese of Spokane.

His job is to serve coffee and doughnuts and dispense toiletries to as many as 108 men who sleep at the shelter daily.

"Christ said, ‘What you do to the least of my brothers, you do to me,’ " Lee said.

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