The woman in the black, sparkly Cher-like jacket shivered and bounced her skinny legs in shorts and bright tennis shoes on a cold Christmas eve morning. Next to her a red-haired and bearded man glared at me, or maybe at my camera. His arms were crossed in his overalls and checkered Paul Bunyan shirt.
What you looking at? Although we did look somewhat alike, there was no question of asking him for an interview.
There was a local businessman dressed in neat slacks and shirt. A retired couple who once ran a well-known local business were jolly in green and red. Grandmas chattered. Couples whispered. Some people scrunched themselves up to hide from everybody. Joyous children ran in the cold between older adults who lined up around the building all day last Monday, Dec. 23.
There were 612 special Christmas meals given out, anchored by a turkey, ham or chicken and including all the fixings. That”s just off from a record year last year when 654 meals were served. (Attendance and home delivery to shut-ins for the Fort Bragg Lions” free Christmas Day dinner for seniors were both up, with 406 meals served.)
Many people in the Food Bank line wore “new” coats they found there from the humane society”s State of the Ark thrift shop or the Outdoor Store”s coat drive. There were jeans and sweatshirts and gray hair.
What I was seeing wasn”t too different from the basic Headlands-Fort Bragg crowd minus the tourists. Over the years, I”ve seen many of these people while shopping at thrift shops, doing temporary work and writing the annual Season of Sharing series.
Invisible clients
Yet the actual Food Bank line was much longer. Many of the clients waiting are invisible and those are the people I wanted to feature. Shut-in seniors and disabled people of all ages get their food picked up by In-Home Supportive Services workers. I spot several IHSS workers in line, including Alycia Heater who was at the Food Bank getting food for a shut-in senior, as well as for her three children, ages 1, 3 and 5.
This was how to interview the invisible, talk to the busy working woman.
“There are a lot of older people who don”t get out,” said Heater. “Some never get out and they don”t drive anymore. Many live on fixed incomes. The Food Bank and Senior Center are very important to the whole survival of many people.”
In addition to IHSS and the whole mom job, Heater also works part time as a bookkeeper, a job she used to do in Sacramento full time for considerably more money.
I asked her why the line was so long, why so many old coast residents and some newer people needed food this Christmas.
“There aren”t a lot of employment opportunities here on the coast. And the cost of housing is way out of line with the economic base. I can rent an apartment in Ukiah for $400 and have a chance at a job, or rent a studio here for $900 per month,” she said.
In an area where clerks, laborers and most working people can”t afford to live, workers are predictably in short supply.
Having an extra good Food Bank in an area working people really can”t afford makes a big difference, said Heater.
“I can get some staples here and save money so I can buy the rest of what we need,” she said.
The people who stay at home don”t get to pick through the Food Bank”s offerings, but many of their workers are quite diligent. One man has me looking for certain books for the shut-in veteran he works for.
The 2010 U.S. Census showed 30 percent of those aged 65 and older in the U.S. live alone. For women aged 85 and older, that number grows to more than half. And the census reveals that the number of people living alone grows every year.
Heater and others who pick up food for shut-ins have told me that they are often the only person the shut-in person sees. Yet, these needs go deeper than just food.
“Sometimes they don”t want me around, even though I”m bringing them food. Some are paranoid and sometimes there are reasons for distrusting people. Usually we talk for a while and they get comfortable,” Heater said.
These are older people who often have no family and are desperately trying to stay put. An old hippie can no longer get into his tree house. An aging and increasingly frail father shares his small trailer with his mentally disabled son. Two older women share a 20-foot trailer with a man, an arrangement no longer desirable to one of them. There are people who lose track of time, or who think everybody is stealing from them.
The Food Bank is one link in a mostly invisible chain for these rarely visible people, many of whom once played meaningful roles in the community. County Adult Protective Services spends much of its time protecting seniors from the frailties of age, as well as from others.
Heater”s clients have ranged in age from 35 to 88. Mental and physical disabilities among younger people are often tougher than for seniors, who have more programs dedicated to them by multiple agencies.
In addition to weekly meals, the Food Bank offers special monthly boxes of highest quality foods, just for seniors who qualify by age and income. The Food Bank distributes about 230 senior boxes monthly about 150 here at the Fort Bragg Food Bank and the remainder through food pantries in Point Arena, Leggett and Laytonville.
On Tuesday, Santa in the person of Stan Halvorsen arrived, along with elf Glendie Johnson, giving out presents to about three dozen kids. The huge, full Christmas dinner was quite a weightlifting task for any client, much less for those like Heater picking up for themselves and shut-ins.
Food Bank Executive Director Nancy Severy has no count of the invisible people in line, but may start doing that this year.
“It”s a pretty important feature of what we do because we don”t have a comprehensive home delivery system. But any client can send another person (a proxy with a signed note from the client) in their stead if they are sick, disabled, without transportation or otherwise unable to come pick up their own food,” said Severy.
As the New Year moved in, with the newspapers” Season of Sharing fund drive at an end, lines had not gone away, but the atmosphere was festive. A local grower had brought some very tasty, small and very ripe oranges in. The Food Bank is in need of money, food, clothes and other contributions to help it through the winter, which has been early and cold so far, and the rest of the year.
“Our wonderful community has always been there for us and we just need to remind people that the need never really slows down here,” said Severy.
Season of Sharing
Since 1996, the Advocate-News and The Mendocino Beacon have raised roughly $301,543 for the Food Bank through the Season of Sharing fund drive. Since 1999, the nonprofit Community Foundation of Mendocino County has administered the drive as a courtesy to the newspapers. Every penny donated goes directly to the Food Bank.
“There are many nonprofit organizations in our area, all very worthy of support, but the Food Bank addresses the most basic problem facing hundreds of individuals and families hunger,” said Publisher Sharon DiMauro.
“The goal is to give the Food Bank money it can use through the year, not just during the holidays. It doesn”t matter a bit whether a person contributes through our fundraiser or directly to the Food Bank, the main thing is to contribute and if you”re able, to give year-round.”
This week”s donors
The names of donors who contribute through the newspapers or CFMC”s website are printed each week, unless they ask to remain anonymous.
Next week, the names of everyone who donated to the 2013 campaign will be reprinted.
As of press time Tuesday, donations from Benjamin and Pamela, Sasha and Oliver Graham, Bruce and Karen Smith, Terrence and Johanna Knaus, Arnie and Terri Parks, Linda Jupiter, Martha Buck, F&F Group, Richard Messier, Eileen Lopate, Susan Warner, Steven and Deborah Farmar, John Garratt, Patricia Sinkay, Susan Fullbright, Sharon and Jim DiMauro brought the Season of Sharing fund drive total to $20,000.
