Cancelled grant leaves agency scrambling for funding as holidays
approach
The loss of anticipated grant funding has left the Community
Food Bank of San Benito County with a deficit that is forcing it to
cut employee salaries and schedules just before the busy holiday
season.
To help close the funding gap, one of the organization’s board
members is promising to match any donations that come in through
the end of September.
Cancelled grant leaves agency scrambling for funding as holidays approach
The loss of anticipated grant funding has left the Community Food Bank of San Benito County with a deficit that is forcing it to cut employee salaries and schedules just before the busy holiday season.
To help close the funding gap, one of the organization’s board members is promising to match any donations that come in through the end of September.
Concern over the ability to get reimbursed by state and federal sources for fronting the money for a Temporary Aid to Needy Families grant prompted the county to pull the funding, which left the food bank with an approximately $30,000 shortfall.
“Some of that funding was for us to pay for food and we were counting on some of it to help us with operating expenses,” said Mary Anne Hughes, executive director of the food bank, which began as the Community Pantry in 1989. “We got $20,000 of the $50,000 we thought we would get, so as of October, I don’t think I have enough money to stay open” as often.
The food bank, which serves nearly 7,000 clients per month, remains open six days a week because employees agreed to stagger their work days and take a 20 percent cut in pay or hours to help reduce expenses.
“We’re going into the busiest time of the year,” Hughes said. “This week we are supposed to deliver barrels to schools for the holiday food drive and the business food drive runs the second week of October through the middle of December. It’ll be hard, but we’ll do it.”
Claudia Teehan, a food bank volunteer and member of the board of directors, recently issued “Claudia’s Challenge,” in which she has pledged to match donations to the food bank from Aug. 27 through Sept. 30.
“We are getting more clients every day, but not the funding to buy food for the increasing numbers,” she wrote in an e-mail championing her cause.
“Donations are down and getting less as each month goes by. We serve people who need a little help until things get better for them.”
Hughes acknowledged that community donations “are way down,” likely a combination of the economy and the fact that when locals learn that the food bank has received grant funding, they believe it is solvent.
“What people don’t realize is that most grants fund specific programs, they don’t pay the bills,” Hughes said. “Sometimes they may think that we’re a little better off than we are. It’s been pretty much hand to mouth since I’ve been director here. Every time we think we have more money, there it goes.”
Donations in response to Claudia’s Challenge are nearing $7,000, which will be doubled with Teehan’s pledge to match them.
“I’m looking forward to writing a check with lots of numbers before the decimal,” Teehan said.
Hughes said she hopes that some of the “great donors that normally help out during the holiday season … will step up a little earlier so we can get some breathing room as we see if we can find more grants.”
If $30,000 isn’t raised by October, the reduction in employee hours isn’t expected to be enough to prevent more drastic service cutbacks, according to Hughes.
“It’ll really start impacting our programs,” she said. “Maybe we can’t do as many food buys.”
Since it generally takes three to six months to get an answer on a grant request, Hughes said some funding could come in by the end of the year. In the meantime, the food bank received an emergency grant from the Community Foundation a few months ago and its Pat’s Place thrift store on Fifth Street in Hollister is bringing in approximately $3,000 per month.
“That’s really been a help and we hope to grow it,” she said. “That would help us out a little more.”
The reduction in employee hours will continue on a week-to-week basis as the funding situation evolves, Hughes said, adding that the food bank will rely on additional help from its many volunteers to help it through.
To participate in Claudia’s Challenge, send checks with “Claudia’s Challenge” in the memo to Food Bank of San Benito County, 1133 San Felipe Road in Hollister. For more information about the Community Food Bank of San Benito County, including volunteer opportunities, call 637-0340.
Bonus chicken to aid food bank
Community Food Bank of San Benito will receive more than 5,700 pounds of chicken from the United States Department of Agriculture, an unexpected bonus shipment that is part of a 4.2 million-pound disbursement to California’s 49 food banks.
The 106 truckloads of chicken being distributed around the state are designed to help feed low-income residents. Delivery is scheduled over the next two months.
“It’s unusual for food banks to receive high-quality meat commodities such as chicken, so we are especially pleased to make this protein-rich food available to needy Californians,” said John Wagner, director of the California Department of Social Services.
The chicken is considered a bonus commodity purchased by the USDA from domestic surplus food supplies to help supplement the diets of low-income Americans while also providing price support to farmers and growers.
The chicken is expected to provide more than 11 million meals statewide as part of the Emergency Food Assistance Program, for which a family can qualify if its household income does not exceed 150 percent of the federal poverty level. For example, a family of three can make up to $27,465 in annual income in order to qualify for food assistance.
