There are those rock hard but delicious fresh Mexican squash, or the seemingly endless supply of canned capers and sour little canned mandarins. And there was that can of “spotted dick” I found on Nancy Severy”s desk seven years ago.
The Fort Bragg Food Bank”s executive director was visibly mortified after I put our laughs about spotted dick into the paper back then. What would the board think? Would the joke offend some?
A much more confident Severy is now in her eighth year and wasn”t worried when I found yet another can of that oddly named (for Americans) British raisin pudding on her desk.
“We still have fun here with some of the many unusual items that come in,” she said.
With a quiet style in a noisy place, Severy, 64, has steered the Food Bank through budget deficits, volunteer shortages and the ups and downs of private donations and government generosity. The budget has grown slowly under her leadership from $255,000 in 2006 to $306,000 this year. While the budget has stayed tight, the client base has grown.
In 2006 The Food Bank served approximately 1,450 people monthly. In 2014 its about 1,600, with the numbers going up during the winter and down during the summer.
A website was created during her term. The Food Bank posts all its financial statements on that website, making it one of the most open local nonprofits.
She came from the Food Bank after 18 years at Wind and Weather, once one of Fort Bragg”s biggest employers. She did marketing and computer programming for that catalog and Internet company whose logo still marks the building on Main Street where it once resided. She enjoys a challenge, having worked as everything from a bus driver to a job with the United States Department of Agriculture that involved artificially inseminating chickens. When Wind and Weather announced it was moving its operation to the East Coast, she chose not to go.
“I wasn”t really that into retail. I liked that job because it was exciting to be part of a growing company and to tinker with the computers and finances?. Someone asked me when we found out the company was moving, if I could have any job in Fort Bragg what would it be?”
“Out of the blue I said, ”How about executive director at the Food Bank?”” She had never even visited the Food Bank at that time. Weeks later there was an ad for just that job. She quickly got a handle on the finances and wrote grants that brought in healthy foods, a new walk in freezer and, this year, solar panels for the roof. More difficult for her was the human drama that is the Food Bank.
“At Wind and Weather, I worked with a computer all day and didn”t interact with people much.”
One day at the Food Bank may feature a wriggling mob of volunteers, clients and visitors while the next might be quiet. The job also requires people skills to plan fundraising activites and interactions with the board.
“Every place with a lot of people working has a lot going on but this place has an extra level. I believe my nervous system has radically changed since I came here. I”m a different person and I like having moved in that direction,” she said.
What was once her biggest challenge has become her favorite part of the job.
“I truly love this job and I”ve come to really love the chaos, the disruptions, the whole scene of lots of people, lots of great characters, the wide ranging pace of the days,” she said. As a result, she has lost most of her shyness.
One thing that”s less exciting is the precarious financial position of the Food Bank. Although the organization desperately needs contributions and relies on the Holiday Spirit to keep it going, it”s more financially balanced. This means a one-time shock won”t force them to dip into the daily operating fund. Contributions go directly to the food now without fear. Check out those financials online.
Every year I meet, eat and write a series about the interesting characters and issues I find at the Fort Bragg Food Bank for the newspapers” Season of Sharing fund drive. The theme of this year”s writing will be looking at the future. I”ll interview clients and look at data on where the Food Bank and hunger is trending. We were marveling at how much things have changed. When the Food Bank started in 1979 it was a nice addition to the coastal community. Before long, it was a necessity, a major force and a change that has come in our lifetimes.
“This is purely from my own experience, but when I was young, there were jobs out there. You could get decent jobs and even try different ones. It doesn”t seem like that now,” said Severy, whose first job was “manning” the plastic flower section at Woolworth”s.
“I don”t have hard data for this but what I see here at the Food Bank is that since the recession, there have been young people that have tried hard but not found their way back into the workforce. They really need the Food Bank,” she said.
A variety of statistics from federal and state sources bear this out, with more people living paycheck to paycheck and more children living in poverty now than in the last three decades (other than recession times). The United States now has a higher percentage of low wage workers in the industrialized world.
Fort Bragg is, of course, unique with its remote location and lack of effort to create an economy beyond tourism. One of the things Severy has done is establish the Fort Bragg Food Bank as distributor of the food for smaller food banks in the region from Lake County to the South Coast. The situation all over is that the poor have gotten poorer, just as national statistics show. Working at big box stores leaves people as hungry as grinding out a living in the seasonal hotel trade.
“There are certain income levels now that lots of people have that just aren”t enough, even if they work full time,” said Severy.
Severy has lived on the Mendocino Coast for 30 years. Originally she is from Rockport, Massachusetts, an artist-tourist town similar to Mendocino with the next door famous fishing village of Gloucester being similar to Fort Bragg. (This reporter had a rowboat for fishing in Gloucester in what are now called the middle school years).
Severy sees a brighter future for Fort Bragg, mentioning ideas she heard council candidates speak about during the election. She”s for giving all ideas a try.
“We are really cool here, compared to anywhere. If we can believe in ourselves, we can be even more, provided we want more tourists,” she said.
Severy is an a cappella singer and has attended an a cappella summit in Sonoma County.
“That”s just one of many artistic events we could have here. We already have great events all year around that could be even more special and grow,” she said.
While the community”s economic situation has worsened over the past eight years, the support for the Food Bank has kept up with increasing demand.
“We have a wonderful and supportive community here and I don”t see that changing in the future,” she said.
While eating with the other clients every year, I”ve also enjoyed some unusual and good food. Petra Schulte, a nutritional teacher with Fort Bragg Schools, says the much wider variety of fresh veggies and fruits that are donated will provide superior nutrition to the Food Bank clients willing to choose them for their bags.
But spotted dick?
So far nobody, including me, has had the courage to open that can and sample it.
Season of Sharing
Since the 1996 holiday season, the Fort Bragg Advocate-News and The Mendocino Beacon have raised roughly $322,208 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, which means that every penny donated to the Season of Sharing goes directly to the Food Bank.
“There are many dozens of 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 year-round, 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.”
How to donate
• By check: Make check payable to the Community Foundation of Mendocino County (CFMC) and mail or deliver to the Advocate-News, 450 N. Franklin St., Fort Bragg 95437.
• By credit card: Pay via CFMC”s website, www.communityfound.org. Click “Donate Online,” then “Poverty Related Funds” and select “Season of Sharing Fund (Fort Bragg Food Bank).
The names of donors who contribute through the newspapers will be printed each week, unless they ask to remain anonymous. The drive runs through Dec. 31.
If you have any questions, please call us at 707-964-5642.
