I chose to sit next to the diminutive well-dressed brunette because she was alone in a Fort Bragg Food Bank waiting room full of talkative people.
It turned out, that was by design.
“Many of these people have been coming here for years. Did you know that?”
The middle-aged woman promptly recited the lineage of her family in Fort Bragg, which stretched back to the heyday of logging. She frowned and pulled her knees together as she looked at the crowd, none of whom was looking her way.
She had lots of criticism for the Food Bank, recent changes to the town such as the arrival of too many tourists and the blacktopping of Franklin Street and especially, her fellow clients.
“So why are you here?” I asked.
She told me the tale of a disastrous real estate loan, acquired by someone in her family on the Internet. As we talked, I told her I was there as part of the newspapers” annual effort to raise money for the organization that feeds thousands of hungry coast residents each year.
“That newspaper could be great if it only had some real local people who knew how things really work around here,” she asserted, referring to the Advocate-News.
As a reporter for the Advocate-News and The Beacon, I have been watching the Fort Bragg Food Bank regularly for two years. Again this holiday season, I expect to meet more than a few surprises on my journey as a client/reporter who will show how real people are affected by the charity of our town.
Of the many non-profit organizations serving our area, Publisher Sharon DiMauro always puts her full support behind the Food Bank”s efforts. “Because they are addressing the most basic problems facing so many — hunger,” DiMauro said. “We support many community causes, but the Food Bank”s cause is the one we get entirely behind. We can”t address other problems if hunger isn”t addressed first.”
The Community Foundation of Mendocino County administers the Season of Sharing fund-raiser free of charge as a courtesy to the newspapers, so every cent goes to the Food Bank.
This year, I have seen lots of new faces, many of them lacking smiles. Despite a lot of joking among myself and the volunteers and many smiling clients, the lifelong Fort Bragg woman never managed a smile on her trip through the line.
The number of people using the Food Bank for the first time ever rose 18 percent in September and 21 percent in October, said Food Bank Executive Director Nancy Severy.
“We really feel these new people are here mostly because they have been cut back at work, or laid off, or face other financial difficulties due to the economy,” Severy said.
New clients come and go, meaning the number of bags given out by the Food Bank hasn”t risen as fast as the number of new clients. There were 925 unique clients who came to the Food Bank, up 5 percent over the same September-October period last year.
“This indicates that some of the new clients are coming because of a short-term need, or they are just checking us out,” Severy said.
These new people are often easily spotted by visible nervousness and standoffish behavior.
While many Food Bank clients and volunteers have lives that could be summed up in the old country western song about the Great Depression, “somebody told us Wall Street fell, we were so poor, we couldn”t tell,” new clients I have found and heard about are feeling a painful new pinch of lost retirements, lost jobs and plummeting housing values.
Despite depressing times, the crowds seem festive, with several people welcoming me back. It is clear that many of the clients I met last year have moved on.
This year, we plan to use our annual look at the Food Bank to illustrate issues like nutrition, not to harp on how truly bad the national economic situation has become.
We will meet people dealing creatively with the downturn.
We”ll tell how deceptive advertising by vitamin companies led to a court punishment that has brought more nutritious food to the Mendocino Coast”s hungry.
And for another shot of smiles, we will describe Food Bank efforts to help hungry pets.
Again I started by applying to be a client. Having not come to the Food Bank for a year, I was no longer in the computer.
The form was the same as last year, and took about 30 seconds, rather than a minute to fill out. It”s still on the honor system.
The income requirements of the Emergency Food Assistance Program (EFAP) are clearly stated. Since the law defines me as a family of one, I could make up to $1,225 per month and be eligible. That means a single person making minimum wage and working 40 hours a week would be eligible.
Severy credits the news stories for making last year a record-breaking year, with $37,214.15 raised — far surpassing the newspapers” $20,000 goal.
“It”s huge what the message getting out through the newspapers accomplishes,” she said.
“The newspapers showed real people — you put a face on the Food Bank, and it wasn”t the face that people feared … I think people read the articles and realized it could happen to me,” especially now,” Severy said.
The money from Season of Sharing 2007 came in handy all year, especially in light of the skyrocketing fuel costs spring and summer 2008 and some major repairs for aging trucks. The Food Bank gives away literally tons of fresh and packaged food each month. The total number of bags given away is now about 2,200 per month.
With what both political parties are calling the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression now under way, the staff, volunteers and clients at the Food Bank are worried.
“We are scared on two counts — that our caseload is going to go up, and that our donations may go down. There are people who have lost tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars who may not be able to give generously,” Severy said.
“I wasn”t worried last year, but this year I am concerned,” she said.
“It”s just that the feeling you get when you see your friends from the community, people you never thought you would see here, and now, this year, here they are.”
The Food Bank uses donated money to acquire food in the greatest possible volume and best quality for the lowest price. While that might seem obvious, the cheapest way is often not to buy food at all, but to send trucks to Santa Rosa, where the Redwood Empire Food Bank gives at least one ton of surplus per week to the Fort Bragg Food Bank.
“If we went out and bought food at wholesale prices, the money wouldn”t go very far. The cost of our donated food, including transport costs, is only about 7 cents a pound on average — a real bargain. Daily, we pick up donated food nearing expiration from local supermarkets, bakeries and restaurants. Weekly, we pick up a couple of tons of donated food from the Redwood Empire Food Bank in Santa Rosa,” she said.
The Fort Bragg Food Bank is open every weekday but Tuesday. There are special senior hours Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 10:45 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. The Food Bank is open from 4 to 6 p.m. on Thursdays, a time designed for working people.
Season of Sharing
The goal of the Advocate-News and Mendocino Beacon”s Season of Sharing fund drive is to raise a substantial chunk of money that the Food Bank can draw on year-round, not just during the holidays when donations tend to flow most freely. This year”s target is $40,000.
The Community Foundation of Mendocino County administers the Season of Sharing free of charge as a courtesy to the newspapers, so every cent goes to the Food Bank. Checks should be addressed to the Community Foundation of Mendocino County (CFMC), and mailed to Advocate-News, P.O. Box 1188, Fort Bragg, 95437, or dropped by the newspaper office, located at 450 N. Franklin St.
If you have any questions about the fund drive, call the newspapers at 964-5642. The fund-raiser runs through Dec. 31.
Donors” names are printed each week, unless they ask to remain anonymous.
