Scott Swanson
Of The New Era
Sweet Home Emergency Ministries needs help, its leaders say.
“We seem to be getting enough grants and stuff to keep the food coming, but we’re not getting enough out of town or the churches to use for administrative costs,” said Board President Dick Hill. “If that doesn’t pick up, we can’t afford to have a director and we’ll have to shut it down because we can’t run it with just volunteers.”
SHEM, which was founded 27 years ago by area churches to present a focused approach to helping those in needs, has received less than half its normal contributions from churches and individuals this year, said Peggy Blair, executive director.
“I want to say thank you to all the people who donate and bring items to us,” Blair said. “Also I want to thank the quality volunteers we’ve got.”
But, she said, money’s tight and getting tighter for expenses that aren’t covered by grants the organization receives from United Way and the Samaritan Healthy organization.
The United Way grant is “a major source of funding,” Blair said. The grant, for $1,500 a month, provides funds for pantry, kitchen and financial assistance needs.
The Samaritan grant, which exceeded $8,000 last year, pays for milk distribution to needy families, Blair said.
“Thanks to an increase in their grant, we can provide a whole gallon of milk for families with three children, where before we could only provide half a gallon,” she said.
SHEM also receives money from the Federal Emergency Management Agancy (FEMA) to provide emergency housing for catastrophe victims. Area churches donated another $12,000 last year, and contributions from individuals came to nearly the same total, Blair said. Those funds are unrestricted, unlike the grants, and can be used to pay rent, bills, Blair’s salary and other administrative costs of running the organization.
This year, contributions from churches have dropped significantly. SHEM received $1,417 from churches during the month of September last year; this year it received $645, though contributions from individuals has remained fairly steady, she said.
Hill said he believes part of the problem is that there is a fairly high turnover of ministers in Sweet Home churches and new pastors don’t always understand or appreciate what SHEM is all about.
The organization was founded by the local ministerial association, which no longer exists, to help solve the problem of people “abusing” local churches by moving from church to church, requesting aid, said Hill, who pastors Hillside Fellowship.
“We also found out that if we cooperated, we could get more government help and grants,” he said.
“It’s something for me as a pastor – if someone comes for help, I ask them if they’ve been to SHEM. It’s kind of a central thing for all the churches in the community, where (needy people) can go for help.”
Over the last few years, the organization has already had to cut back its days of operation as demand exceeds its abilities. The situation is worsening, Blair and Hill said.
“We’re very grateful for the money that does come in,” Blair said. “But we need help to keep it going. We’re looking at about half of what (the donations were) last year.”
She said demand for services has increased.
On one Saturday in May, SHEM set a record when it distributed 50 food boxes, she said.
“At this time last year we had 240 boxes handed out,” Blair said. “In September we handed out 309, which served 1,133 people, 444 of whom were children.”
Hill said that demand has increased significantly since he got involved with SHEM “eight or nine” years ago.
“When I got into this, if you did 30 boxes of food a month, that was a lot,” he said. “Now we do 30 boxes every day that we’re open.”
Blair said that the number of people within families is increasing, in many cases because family members are moving in with established families.
“Family sizes are growing – that’s definitely evident when I went through (SHEM’s records),” she said.
One client told SHEM workers that they moved from Portland because “it was safer down here” and there was less pollution, Blair said. Other reasons why people are turning to SHEM are higher fuel prices and the overall cost of living.
“We have been holding out OK despite the cost of food,” Blair said. “But in other areas we’re hurting. We don’t have cash for unrestricted expenses.”
Hill noted that Blair is already working twice as many hours as she’s getting paid for “and she’s not getting paid much anyway.”
The financial crisis is only one of the organization’s challenges right now, Hill said. The organization is also dealing with the loss of a couple of key volunteers, including Lynda Newton, who died of cancer last week (see page 2). Also, its current headquarters, at 1040 Long St., is not working out well and officials are looking for other options.
“It came up at the last couple of board meetings that we have to make some changes,” he said. “It’s a little frustrating but we’re in it for the long haul.”
For more information, contact Blair at 367-6504.