6/19/2011

By GORDON D. FIEDLER JR.
Salina Journal
"God comes to the hungry in the form of food."
- Mohandas Gandhi

David and Karen Eaton don’t need a calendar to tell them it’s the end of the month. All the retired couple have to do is look in the refrigerator.
On one afternoon deep in May, David Eaton opened the door and peered at the few items on the shelves: assorted bottles of condiments, a few plastic containers of leftovers, some jugs of orange juice and a giant jar of pickles.
The Eatons, in their late 60s, are raising a granddaughter, and they’re entitled to almost $280 in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits (formerly the Food Stamp Program).
But the Eatons say the money they get from the program - SNAP for short - isn’t enough to last to the end of the month.
Rather than stamps, recipients get a debit card - or in official federal bureaucratese, an Electronic Benefits Transfer card -  that can be applied to allowable food purchases.
But by this late in the month, the Eatons have exhausted their account. The card won’t be replenished for another few days.
"We couldn’t live on what they give us," he said.
That’s why the Eatons and other Salinans like them rely on organizations such as the Salina Emergency Aid-Food Bank and Salvation Army to span the nutritional gap, and the traffic on that bridge some days is bumper-to-bumper.
"In the last 10 years, the numbers have doubled of people needing help," said Kathy Jackson, director of the food bank, which will officially commemorate its 40th anniversary later this year.
Emergency Aid-Food Bank board chairwoman Karen Black said it’s a dubious milestone.
"We’d love to go out of business instead of celebrating 40 years," she said.
We’d be starving now
Any retail establishment would covet the food bank’s steadily increasing customer base. The number of food bank clients has risen 18 percent in five years, and the number of food items it distributes has increased 36 percent.
But the operating budget of $220,000 has gone up only 15 percent. Except for a few intermittent grants, the lion’s share of its money and food comes from three sources: businesses, individuals and churches. An example is Project Salina, which involves all three of these entities. Project Salina, the annual food drive that concluded last month, fills much of the shelf space at the food bank, Salvation Army and other charities in town.
Jackson said that without Project Salina, the food bank could not dispense the amount of food it does on a daily basis.
Even though clients can receive food only every seven days, the agency’s waiting room is packed daily during the hours of its afternoon food distribution.
Among those seated in the crowded foyer late last month were Tina and Charles Graf.
"If it wasn’t for the food bank, we’d be starving right now," said Charles Graf.
They weren’t there because their SNAP funds were depleted: There are just two adults in their household, so they are economically ineligible for the government benefit.
Both are employed in food service, and between them, they work a total of 52 hours a week.
"Every week, I spend my check down to nothing," Tina Graf said. "I’ve got 49 cents in my bank account."
The Grafs are among the food bank clients who are being squeezed three ways: by rising gas prices, higher food costs and reduced wages.
Charles Graf is now working about a dozen hours a week, down from 26 not long ago.
But it’s not just gas and food pinching budgets of the Grafs and others.
Everything seems to be on the rise.
Taking cold showers
The couple’s house had heat during winter because of the cold-weather rule, but once that ended, their gas was shut off over a $500 unpaid bill.
"We don’t have hot water right now," Charles Graf said.
"We take cold showers," Tina Graf said, " and we boil water to wash dishes."
Fortunately, they have an electric oven and can still cook the food they can afford to buy and the items they receive from the food bank.
They’re worried what will happen when rising costs eventually collide with stagnant wages. Charles Graf, for instance, said he hasn’t had a pay raise in two years.
"Before long, everybody will be starving," Tina Graf guessed.
On one recent evening, that nutritional doomsday was on the minds of people lined up awaiting the free nightly meal at the Salvation Army Community Center, 1137 N. Santa Fe.
The agency dispenses the hot supper five days a week to people of all ages and family dynamics, no Electronic Benefits Transfer card needed.
Only meal of the day
Two of the regulars were brothers Lanny and Bruce Geissert, who were eating their first meal of the day. In fact, the Salvation Army meal often is the only one they eat each day.
"It’s not just gas," Bruce Geissert said of increasing prices. "Water, trash went up, electricity went up, all bills went up. Everything in the grocery store is going up. It’s getting to the point you can’t afford it."
This is why both are appreciative of the Salvation Army program.
"If it wasn’t for the Salvation Army, we wouldn’t have a place to eat."
And they are not alone. More Salinans are tapping the agency not just for a nightly hot meal but for food the Salvation Army receives from Project Salina.
"We’re getting  hit, big time," said Roxanne Matous, Salvation Army office manager and caseworker. "I’ve helped 32 families since May 2. That’s high."
Normally, she fills requests for about 15 families monthly.
"I’m seeing more and more people who need (food) on a regular basis."
She said the charity is serving more meals this year than last. In 2010, the Salvation Army served an average of 800 meals a month. Last month, it dished up 1,080.
The bulk of its food comes from Project Salina, which it uses to stock its pantry and to prepare food in its kitchen. Some money from its United Way of Salina allocation finds it way to supper plates, as do items from the Kansas Food Bank.
Food or utilities?
Matous said clients tell her that every month, they must make a choice between buying groceries or keeping creditors at bay.
"People have to decide what bills they are going to pay," she said.
If they know they can get food from local agencies, they put their money on utilities, rent and transportation, which is becoming more of a hardship.
"Gas costs are eating everybody up," Matous said.
Seeing clients struggle with choosing between food and other necessities is not unique to the Salvation Army.
It is common throughout most of the state, according to a report completed in January 2010 for the Kansas Foodbank Warehouse, a network of food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters in all but northeast Kansas.
The survey revealed that 54 percent of food agency clients must regularly choose between food and utilities. For 45 percent, it’s food or rent or the mortgage; 36 percent, food or health care; 43 percent, food or transportation; 46 percent, food or gasoline.
"This despite the fact that a large percentage also receive some form of nutritional assistance, such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program; the Women, Infant and Children program; and school lunch and breakfast programs," the report stated.
Hope that these programs will receive an infusion of funding seems unlikely. According to The Associated Press, a House appropriations bill seeks to cut more than $800 million, or 13 percent of current funding, from the WIC program for fiscal year 2012.
The Kansas Food Bank study also backs up claims by those who say they have trouble stretching their food budget to the end of the month.
"Overall, 83.4 percent of client households reported that, during the previous 12 months, they had been in a situation where the food they bought ‘just didn’t last’ and that (they) did not have money to get more. In addition, 75.8 percent of the client households were, often or sometimes during the previous 12 months, in a situation where they ‘couldn’t afford to eat balanced meals,’ " according to the report.
This also applies to children.
"Among all clients with children (who) participated in SNAP, 24.6 percent said that their children were hungry at least once during the previous 12 months, but they could not afford more food," the report noted.
Kids are always hungry
Nickitta Shelton can relate. A working mother of three, Shelton said she often has no money left over for food, so she depends on the food bank.
"The kids are always hungry," she said. "They’re growing. There’s been times I’ve split the last package of Ramen noodles with the two older ones. The youngest just gets a bottle. There’s been times when I haven’t eaten for days. I go without before my kids."
Shelton hopes her economic situation will improve; her part-time job in south Salina may become full time.
Until then, she is among many Salinans suffering from the high cost of gasoline. However, she’s found a replacement for gas: shoe leather.
"I have to walk to work because gas prices are so high," she said. For her, the tipping point was when gas hit $3.50 a gallon.
The trip from her west-central Salina home takes her more than two hours.
Salina’s hungry children
In addition to the regular food distribution, the food bank targets children with its "backpacks"  - zippered plastic bags filled with enough nonperishable food to last the weekend.
Eligible elementary and middle school students receive the backpacks Friday afternoons during the school year.
"One hundred and eighty-nine children, which I think is a shocking number, are taking home food to get them through the weekend," Karen Black said.
For some children, it’s the only food they will have until Monday.
Reasons vary. School counselors tell Kathy Jackson that either the parents are working odd hours, they aren’t in the house at meal times, or "it could be there just is no food in the house," she said.
Or, they are strung out on drugs or are using the food money to buy drugs, she said.
You gotta have faith
The Geissert brothers dig into the barbecued beef sandwiches, beans, macaroni salad and strawberry shortcake in the Salvation Army dining room. Between bites, they discuss their lives and their future while giving thanks for the Salvation Army.
"I’d be out on the street or sitting in prison," Lanny Geissert said. "I feel sorry for some of these people that have families. No wonder they can’t take care of their families."
He and his brother are single and live together. Neither qualifies for SNAP benefits because they say their incomes are too high. Lanny earns $8 an hour working construction. His brother makes $10 an hour working for a tree service.
"I’m working from paycheck to paycheck," Lanny said. "It’s spent before I get it. I feel like I’m working for nothing. At times I want to give up."
But then, he sees that there are others worse off than he is. And he has his faith.
"My hands are in His. I go day to day by what He says."
Three-week medical coma
Religious strength also bolsters David and Karen Eaton.
Despite their current financial situation, they feel blessed for David’s recovery from a recent hospital stay, one which he was not expected to survive.
"The doctors gave me a 3 percent chance of living," David Eaton said.
He was admitted with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, pneumonia and other problems last September.
"I was in a medical coma for three weeks. They brought me back out so I could say goodbye to the family," David Eaton said.
At the time, he was working as a truck inspector at Schwans. Before that, he was an over-the-road truck driver for 36 years.
But he rallied.
"Within 24 hours, I turned around, and seven days later I walked out of the hospital," David Eaton said. "I had two good doctors and the good Lord."
Social Security stagnated
The illness is what sent the Eatons into a financial spiral. He was forced to retire and now depends on Social Security. He has no retirement savings or pension plan.
"Once I got sick, it was a little bit more than we could handle," he said.
He and his wife are covered by Medicare, but together they pay more than $260 a month for supplemental insurance.
As costs rise, their Social Security has stagnated.
"My wife and I haven’t had a cost-of-living increase for three years. Without the cost-of-living increases, it’s killing us," he said. "If they would give us our cost-of-living increases we should be getting, we could make it."
Still, his wife is grateful for what they have. When they first moved to Salina, they were not aware of all the available social service safety nets, such as the Salvation Army and food bank.
Wasn’t supposed to live
She sees more than a little divine inspiration at work.
"We didn’t know about the organizations that have helped us out," she said.
Mostly, though, she is thankful for having her husband, who wasn’t supposed to leave the hospital alive.
"We have to give the Lord credit," she said. "He’s helped us out."

n Gordon D. Fiedler Jr. can be reached at 822-1407 or by email at gfiedler@salina.com.

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