As director of church and community ministries for Elkhorn Baptist Association in Lexington, Williams has coordinated food, clothing and other assistance projects to people in need for 13 years. Since March, the number of people served at Elkhorn’s weekly hot meal ministry has doubled, she explained.
“A lot of times the (prayer) requests will be about looking for jobs or housing,” Williams said.
The situation is similar in northwestern Kentucky where Kathy Strange is director of community ministries for Green Valley Baptist Association.
“We’re seeing a lot of new faces,” Strange noted. Volunteers at the Answer Center in Henderson expect to meet about four new families among the “regulars” each week, she added, “but now we’re seeing anywhere from 13 to 20.”
And many of those new faces perhaps were middle-class working families not too long ago.
The evicted and displaced are joining the usual transient guests at Christian Shelter for the Homeless in London, according to Theresa Marinaro. She and her husband, Phillip, direct the ministry that is supported, in part, by Kentucky Baptists.
“Landlords’ costs are going up so they have to raise the rent maybe $50 a month,” Marinaro pointed out as an example. “For those living paycheck to paycheck … there’s really not much margin for error.”
The shelter has been open less than a year but Marinaro said she has noticed a marked increase in calls for shelter and food in the last few months.
“We’ve been giving out two boxes (of food) a day where before we had been doing two or three boxes per month,” she noted.
Marinaro praised local churches for keeping the shelter pantry stocked. She said she hopes to expand the food ministry to help stabilize families before they are evicted or have their utilities disconnected.
Government reports confirm that times are tough throughout the commonwealth. The Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services has served 27,000 more households this fiscal year compared to the same period last year. According to cabinet spokesperson Anya Weber, most of those requests were for food stamps.
“If the increased trend continues, we anticipate a total caseload growth of approximately 47,200” households for 2009, Weber added.
According to the Kentucky Education and Workforce Development Cabinet, unemployment jumped from 5.4 percent in September 2007 to 7.1 percent a year later. The cabinet also reported recently that, “compared to September 2007, jobs in the (manufacturing) sector were down by 12,400 in September 2008.”
As food stamps and other government assistance are depleted before the end of each month, the needy turn to private agencies, such as the dozens of social ministries supported by Kentucky Baptists, for help.
Currently, “donations are holding steady” at the Answer Center, Strange said, but November and December are the times of greatest need according to social ministries coordinators, and some are wondering if they will be able to meet those needs.
“Demand has increased 30 to 40 percent and donations are down that much if not more,” said Mike Bargo, a volunteer and former board member of CARE Ministry, an effort initiated more than 10 years ago by Main Street Baptist Church in Alexandria.
As a member-agency of a Cincinnati-area food bank, CARE purchases food at deep discounts to keep its shelves stocked. However, the food bank “has been severely impacted by the economy,” Bargo noted. “We are spending a lot of our own resources just to buy food.”
That means other needs CARE helped clients meet previously, such as eyeglasses and prescriptions, may not be available.
More than 230 new families have been served so far this year at CARE, Bargo said. The total number of “first timers” for all of 2007 was 276.
People from as far away as Grant County and Hamilton County, Ohio, come to CARE for food, clothing, household goods and other assistance.
Bargo noted that when gas hovered around $4 per gallon, the value of donations some clients received was less than the cost of fuel to get them to the center.
Thanksgiving and Christmas projects may not be funded fully without a big boost from individuals and churches, he added.
“We’re still looking at another 600 families to come through” by Dec. 31, Bargo said. “Corporations are backing down on what they can give. (Donors) don’t have enough discretionary money to give anything extra. … The whole chain has broken.”
Thankfully, there are gifts that Kentucky Baptists provide that do not require boxes or bags.
Sharing the gospel with people sailing choppy financial waters—perhaps for the first time—is not always easy, Strange acknowledged, but keeping Christ front and center is crucial.
“What concerns me the most is the hopelessness some of them feel about the idea that things will get better,” she said.
But people do respond.
“We actually see decisions made here,” Strange noted, adding that each family receives a Bible at the Answer Center. Volunteers also pray for each client during the week.
Williams said other important gifts volunteers provide are a listening ear and a prayerful heart. “One thing we can offer is that we can listen to them.”
Western Recorder issue date: November 11, 2008
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