Rising poverty numbers keep relief agencies busy

|tab|

Area relief agencies have their work cut out for them as they help families and individuals in Springfield and southwest Missouri.|ret||ret||tab|

There was a substantial increase in household referrals to food pantries from last year to this year, said Julie Conway, communications director for the Ozarks Area Community Action Corporation. In fiscal 2001, OACAC made 374 household referrals to food pantries; in fiscal 2002, it made 542 referrals.|ret||ret||tab|

Conway said people in poverty in the 10-county area OACAC serves increased by 1 percent, based on 2000 census figures. Federal moneys are distributed to states based on census figures and then channeled to OACAC as one of 19 different community action agencies statewide. |ret||ret||tab|

"Nine percent of the total number of people in the state of Missouri living in poverty live here in southwest Missouri," Conway said. |ret||ret||tab|

|ret||ret||tab|

A tight Christmas|ret||ret||tab|

Greene County 2000 census figures showed a total population of 228,560 with 27,630 individuals (12.1 percent) living in poverty.|ret||ret||tab|

For the 10-county area OACAC serves, which includes Greene, Barry, Christian, Dade, Dallas, Lawrence, Polk, Stone, Taney and Webster, census figures recorded a total population of 495,903 with 63,679 individuals (13.9 percent) at or below the poverty mark. Statewide population numbers came in at 5,433,153 with 637,891 individuals (11.7 percent) living in poverty. |ret||ret||tab|

October data from the Missouri Department of Economic Development shows 173,440 persons employed out of a possible workforce of 179,922 in the Springfield metropolitan statistical area. |ret||ret||tab|

The 6,482-person difference represents a 3.6 percent unemployment rate compared to a national rate of 5.3 percent. The MSA covers Greene, Christian and Webster counties. Missouri's state rate is 4.7 percent.|ret||ret||tab|

Providing and distributing living assistance to families and individuals with no or low income is the ongoing challenge of Springfield's relief agencies. |ret||ret||tab|

|ret||ret||tab|

Relief agencies |ret||ret||tab|

Crosslines' donor receipts are $30,000 down this year from last, but the need continues to rise, said Julie Guillebeau, chief operating officer with the Council of Churches of the Ozarks "In November alone, Crosslines saw 155 new clients." Crosslines is one of several programs the Council of Churches operates. |ret||ret||tab|

Guillebeau said funding shortfalls are due to people "watching their money closer ... with layoffs and the economy."|ret||ret||tab|

In an effort to eliminate duplicate giving by different agencies to needy parties, the Community Clearinghouse a program of Crosslines of Springfield was established to coordinate the distribution of area resources. |ret||ret||tab|

"There's hardly a place in town... who isn't funded by donor dollars. And you don't want to waste that money," said Pam Copling, director of Crosslines of Springfield. She added the program serves as "a teaching technique also to let people know not to abuse the help that's offered." |ret||ret||tab|

Since 1992, the clearinghouse has averaged better than 3,600 total aid applications a year with more than 660 of these being duplicate requests. |ret||ret||tab|

|ret||ret||tab|

Salvation Army|ret||ret||tab|

The Salvation Army works with the clearinghouse and relies on public support through its Tree of Lights campaign and mail appeals, said Shirley McDonald, public relations director. "Our (Tree of Lights) goal this year is $385,000. We are struggling right now, we're only at 38.9 percent, she said. "Last year at this time we were at 53.57 percent."|ret||ret||tab|

From its 48 kettles in Springfield and locations in Republic and Rogersville will come roughly 45 percent of the Salvation Army's public contributions, McDonald said. The other 55 percent derives from its dozen or so mail appeals. |ret||ret||tab|

Public contributions for 2001 were $727,517, with total revenues including moneys from church tithing, federal and state funds, program service fees, thrift store income and United Way support at $1,781,966, McDonald said. Expenses outweighed this, however, and there was a $107,489 deficit for the year, she added.|ret||ret||tab|

|ret||ret||tab|

United Way|ret||ret||tab|

Incoming dollars into the United Way are holding even with last year's figures. John Rush, president and CEO, said the organization has raised $3,305,938 in its 2003 campaign compared to $3,302,000 for 2002. While Springfield, St. Louis and St. Joseph cleared their annual goals, Rush said other sites like Kansas City, Columbia and Jefferson City missed the mark.|ret||ret||tab|

Rush said giving during the last three years has increased, and he expects it to go up annually by 3 percent to 4 percent. The 1,200 businesses enrolled in his area are located in Springfield and scattered areas in Christian, Taney and Stone counties. |ret||ret||tab|

|ret||ret||tab|

Ozark Food Harvest|ret||ret||tab|

Ozark Food Harvest, an affiliate of the Council of Churches and America's Second Harvest, solicits food donations and then distributes them to nonprofit charities spread out over the 40,000 square miles of its 37-county service area.|ret||ret||tab|

Three sources of money keep the food chain linked. About 35 percent to 40 percent comes from financial donations and grants, about a third comes from government reimbursement for commodity distribution and about 25 percent comes from "shared maintenance fees that member agencies pay to access food here," Brown said. |ret||ret||tab|

The maintenance fees cover utilities at the organization's 20,000-square-foot warehouse and go toward the 7-cent to 14-cent per pound price it costs to take food from there.|ret||ret||tab|

Large food donations from national manufacturers "are down about 20 percent," Brown said. In 2001, 4.2 million pounds of food were distributed. "We're a little over half a million pounds ahead of where we were last year at this time in terms of food distribution." He anticipates that between 4.7 million and 5 million pounds of food will be provided to food pantries this year. |ret||ret||tab|

Project Share|ret||ret||tab|

Contributions are up for Project Share, a program designed to help low-income and elderly City Utilities customers with their utility expenses, said Cara Shaefer, energy management specialist. |ret||ret||tab|

For fiscal year 2002, which ran Oct. 1, 2001 to Sept. 30, 2002, $137,540 in donations were received compared to about $95,000 received the previous fiscal year, she added. There was no obvious factor accounting for this increase, she added. |ret||ret||tab|

More than 4,800 customers donated to Project Share during calendar year 2002 either on a monthly level, a one-time donation or a monthly bill round-up contribution, Shaefer said.|ret||ret||tab|

There have been 596 individual households assisted through Project Share in 2002, compared to 676 helped in 2001, said Conway. OACAC administers the program's account by determining the eligible applicants and approving qualifying expenses.|ret||ret||tab|

Ernest DeCamp, director of communications for CU said of its roughly 100,000 customers, 7,694 have made appeals to level billing this calendar year. |ret||ret||tab|

Level pay or "budget billing" establishes a set monthly bill amount based on usage, Shaefer said. It is reviewed annually. If there's a credit on the account a check will be sent to the customer and the level pay amount can be reduced. |ret||ret||tab|

If money is owed, it can be paid off with the level pay amount kept the same. Otherwise it can be rolled into the customer's account and their next year's level pay will be higher. |ret||ret||tab|

[[In-content Ad]]