A few more comments from people at the Thanksgiving lunch at the Lottridge Community Center

Gordon Bolin often attends the Wednesday lunches at the center, as he enjoys the meal and the chance to visit with neighbors.

His wife works and he receives Social Security, and they are able pay their bills each month. Money is tight, though, as their income is not great and they also help to support family members living overseas. Bolin grows food for his family in his garden every year, and he also shares much of his produce with others at the weekly meals in Lottridge.

Linda Congrove and her husband live in Trimble, but drive over to Lottridge each week to volunteer. She helps prepare and serve the free lunch, while he helps out at the food pantry.

“Some of the people here, it might be the only meal they get all week, other than opening a can of beans,” Congrove said. Some people at the meals are just lonely and need someone to talk to, she added. Congrove likes to volunteer at the center because everyone is always friendly, and she knows that a lot of people are facing hard times and need a little help.

Lisa Roberts, director of the Friends and Neighbors Community Choice Food Center, said that the food pantry sees more and more people who need help every week. She also runs food pantries in Torch and Racine, and said those sites are also seeing an increase in numbers.

At Racine, for example, the average number of people served over the last few months has climbed to about 100 families each week. The holidays and the cold weather will cause that number to continue to increase, Roberts said. The week before Thanksgiving, for example, the Racine center served 165 families.

In order to keep up with the increase in demand, the Friends and Neighbors Community Choice Food Center is looking for donations to help these families in need. The center is also looking for donations of Christmas presents that will be handed out to low-income families to give to their children this year.

For more information on the Friends and Neighbors Community Choice Food Center or to donate gifts to the center, call 740-667-0684.

Holidays can be tough for many families

The holiday season can be a very hard time for families who are struggling to get by, as Christmas presents and special dinners often result in more bills that they can’t afford to pay.

Local organizations such as the Friends and Neighbors Community Choice Food Center in Lottridge are stepping in to help these families, though, and are trying to bring them some holiday cheer.

On Wednesday, Nov. 25, the Lottridge center held a special Thanksgiving free meal along with its food box distribution. More than 150 people enjoyed the Thanksgiving lunch, and more than 50 families were able to pick up food boxes at the pantry that day.

Coolville residents Valerie Magill and Jason Simms were among those at the center for the Thanksgiving meal. Magill also volunteered to work at the food pantry for the day.

“I like helping people,” Magill said. She formerly worked as a nurse, but had to stop working in that field after she sustained a serious back injury.

“I have been off of work for a year,” she said. Her back has gotten better, but her doctor does not want her to go back to the type of work she used to do because it would most likely cause another injury. She also has other health problems relating to her battle with cancer four years ago and other health issues.

Currently, she receives Ohio Works First cash assistance and volunteers at the food pantry for the work hours she has to complete in order to receive the assistance.

Simms, meanwhile, has his own serious health problems stemming from a car accident that he was in when he was 10 years old. He was in a coma for 10 days after the accident, and his brain stem was injured. He has had health problems ever since the accident, and is unable to work.
Magill and Simms have four kids between them, and they survive on the monthly income of $455 she receives in cash assistance and $700 he receives from Social Security.

“We struggle to get by,” Magill said. They pay $510 per month in rent, and have very little money to pay all of their expenses.

“My self-esteem, it’s been down,” Magill added. She would like to work a full-time job again and has been looking for work. Her car needs repaired, though, and the Athens County Job and Family Services Prevention, Retention and Contingency (PRC) program that used to pay for car repairs for people who needed their vehicles for work is no longer operating. That program was eliminated earlier this year due to cuts in state funding.

Magill and Simms are not sure how they will pay for Christmas presents for the children or pay for other holiday and winter expenses. But they are thankful for everything they do have and for the programs such as the one at Lottridge that provide assistance. They are also hopeful that things will improve for them soon.

Why is "Welfare" a dirty word?

Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary defines the word “welfare” as a noun as the state of doing well, especially in respect to good fortune, happiness, well-being, or prosperity. “Welfare” is defined as an adjective as: (1) of, relating to, or concerned with welfare and especially with improvement of the welfare of disadvantaged social groups, and (2) receiving public welfare benefits.

Being concerned about improving someone’s welfare, especially a child’s or that of someone who is disabled or elderly would seem to be a good public policy. So why then do our elected officials avoid characterizing any attempt to improve someone’s “good fortune, happiness, well-being, or prosperity” as “welfare”? Why is it that “welfare” is so despised in the context of improving the welfare of disadvantaged social groups?

Is it fear? Fear seems to be behind many attempts to stereotype groups of people. Aren't we stereotyping poor people when we demonize all of them as cheats or undeserving? Do we stereotype poor people so that we can dehumanize and ignore them? Are we afraid of the 6.3 million children living in extreme poverty in the United States?

Is it selfishness? The federal government uses tax dollars to provide a subsidy of $250 billion per year to those employed people still lucky enough to receive employer subsidized health insurance. The federal government also uses an additional $80 billion tax dollars per year to provide subsidies to homeowners who deduct mortgage interest. According to Webster’s, these benefits are “welfare.” These welfare benefits alone, and there are many others, amount to 20 times the welfare subsidy provided to the poorest families among us. Are we afraid that we might have to share?

At some point, it was decided that it was good public policy to provide more than $320 billion per year in welfare benefits to employed people with subsidized health insurance who own homes with mortgages up to $1 million dollars, in order to improve their “good fortune, happiness, well-being, or prosperity.” Wouldn't it also be good public policy to improve the welfare of those less fortunate?

We must acknowledge that “welfare” is not a dirty word, and that it is provided in many forms to many different recipients. We need to refocus our assistance toward the poorest of the poor first.

By Gregg Oakley
Athens County Job and Family Services Deputy Director

Columbus Dispatch series examines how state budget cuts have hurt Ohio families

The Columbus Dispatch recently published an outstanding series of articles on how state budget cuts have hurt Ohio families living in poverty.

Click here for a link to the page on the Columbus Dispatch Web site for information on the series of articles, as well as links to the articles and a video report on one story. We have also saved each of the articles as PDF files, and you can click on the following links for these articles:

Click here for the short article that introduces the series. It has information on all of the subjects examined in the series.
Click here for an article on how budget cuts are affecting the most vulnerable Ohio residents. This article looks in particular at an Athens County family hit hard by the country's economic problems.
Click here for an article on how families in Ohio are digging the graves for their deceased family members and friends in order to save money on funeral expenses. This article also looks in particular at an Athens County family.
Click here for an article on how budget cuts are hurting programs that help the homeless.
Click here for an article examining how budget cuts have reduced the number of after-school programs for children, and how this is hurting children in Ohio.
Click here for an article on how budget cuts are reducing and in some cases wiping out programs to help and protect the elderly.
Click here for an article on how budget cuts are hurting programs designed to help the mentally ill.

Digging their own graves

“We can’t afford to live, and now we can’t even afford to die.”
That’s what one Athens County resident told me when I asked about funeral expenses for families living in poverty. Believe it or not, some families in Athens County are now digging the graves of their loved ones in order to save money on funeral expenses.

It does not happen every day, and many cemeteries in the county won’t allow just anyone to dig a grave. Also, one local funeral home director told me that some people offer to dig the graves of their deceased family members and friends as a gesture for their families, and see it as part of the grieving process.

To be sure, though, many families in Athens County and around the country are digging the graves simply because they cannot afford the funeral costs and have to find ways to save money.
I talked recently with several people who have been involved in helping families get crews together to dig graves. Sometimes the crews have equipment, other times the family members and friends are digging with shovels. This work would be difficult at any time, but it is made worse by the fact that these individuals are going through the grieving process for their deceased family member or friend at the same time.

Along the same lines, some families cannot afford any type of funeral for a loved one. The state of Ohio used to pay up to $750 for burial costs for an indigent individual, but the funding for that program was wiped out in 2001. Cities and townships have to pay up to $750 out of their own general funds for the burial of an unclaimed body, but there is no set law in the state for burying the body of an individual whose family or friends can’t pay for the funeral.

Many cities or townships will pay up to $750 for indigent funeral costs, and sometimes the local government groups will pay more than $1,000 for the funeral costs. Sometimes the local government will only pay the costs if the body is cremated.
And sadly, sometimes the local governments will not pay anything and do not have any policy in place for burying indigent bodies.

In addition, many funeral homes will not accept payment plans for funeral expenses anymore. Their costs have gone up over the years, and they say that while they do their best to work with low-income families, the payment plans are no longer feasible for them.

All of this leaves families digging graves to save money, holding fundraisers to pay burial expenses, donating bodies to science because they can’t afford a funeral, taking out high-interest loans to pay funeral expenses or just leaving the bodies unclaimed so there will be no funeral and so that the local government will be forced to pay for burial.

Our society has a hard enough time treating people with respect while they are alive, and now we are turning our backs on people living in poverty when they die. The federal, state or local governments need to do something about this problem and help out these families in need. This is a growing problem in Athens County and around the country, and it’s a sad commentary on our society.

We can’t just stand by and do nothing while our neighbors dig their own graves.

State leaders need to support House Bill 308

House Bill 308 is a responsible way for Ohio leaders to raise the revenue needed to properly fund the programs that are in place to help families in need. Athens County Job and Family Services Director Jack Frech recently wrote an editorial column explaining why House Bill 308 is so important and why it makes sense for Ohio. Click here to read the editorial.

America is failing to help poor children

At a time when the federal government is giving banks $700 billion in bailout funds, our country has 6.3 million children living in extreme poverty and we are doing little to help them.
The updated report, “TANF: Failing America’s Poorest Children,” details how cash assistance and food programs are underfunded and do not get families up to even half of the federal poverty level. Shockingly, over the last 11 years, only three states have increased their cash assistance funding to keep up with cost of living increases, and 23 states have not increased their cash assistance funding levels at all.
In Ohio, more than 160,000 children currently rely on the Ohio Works First cash assistance program. At the same time, Ohio has nearly 245,000 children who are living in extreme poverty, which means their family income is at or below 50 percent of the federal poverty level.
Welfare reform placed strict requirements on families receiving public assistance. But this newly-released report shows how people on public assistance fall further behind every year while our government actually reduces cash assistance funding in some states and turns its back on poor people all across America. Government leaders often argue that they do not have the money to increase TANF funding or other programs to help poor people. They say they have to make “tough choices,” but the choices almost always leave poor children out in the cold. Meanwhile, the government chooses to spend money in other areas:
· Financial institutions are allowed to hand out billions of dollars of the federal bailout money to pay for bonuses and special compensation for employees.
· The federal government chose to use more than $17 billion to bailout the auto industry. That $17 billion is more than the entire annual federal appropriation for the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program.
· States such as Ohio have chosen in recent years to roll back income taxes at a time when state budgets are losing money and welfare programs that poor families rely on are being cut.
· The federal government just chose to spend $79 million to see if there is water on the moon, while families all across the country don’t have water in their own homes.
The assistance programs that are supposed to help our neighbors are failing miserably simply because our government won’t adequately fund these programs. Too many families are going hungry. Too many children are living in extreme poverty. We need to greatly increase the funding for programs to help poor people. We need to choose to do the right thing.

Waiting for assistance

Julie is an Athens County resident who proudly worked for the same company for the last 15 years.

She loved her job and the people she worked with, but recently lost her job because she does not yet have her GED. Julie is working to earn her GED and get back on her feet, but has not been able to receive the help yet that she needs from the safety net programs that are supposed to be in place for Ohio residents.

She has to wait at least two weeks just to talk to someone about the Food Assistance program, and she is also waiting for unemployment assistance and other types of assistance.But while she is forced to wait for help, it's nearly impossible for her to pay her bills and buy groceries for her children. Click here to read more about Julie.

Area residents line up for produce giveaway

When local volunteers began giving boxes and bags full of produce away at the Athens County Fairgrounds on Thursday, Aug. 27, the line of cars was at least 60 long.
“I couldn’t see where it ended,” said the Rev. Jim Jennings, associate pastor at Central Avenue United Methodist Church in Athens and one of the volunteers who helped during the day. “For the first hour, it was non-stop cars.”
The Friends and Neighbors Community Food Center in Lottridge organized the program after receiving the surplus produce from the United State Department of Agriculture. The organization received 26,620 pounds of produce worth a total value of nearly $44,000.
The volunteers gave food to 412 families at the fairgrounds, and then took the extra food to a food center in Little Hocking where they served an additional 100 families. When the giveaway started in Little Hocking at 5 p.m., 70 families were already waiting in line.
“It’s really nice that they are doing this,” one woman said after having bags and boxes of produce loaded into her car at the Athens County Fairgrounds. All families who met certain income guidelines were eligible to receive the produce, no matter when they had last had visited a food pantry.
Tomatoes, cucumbers, apples, corn, green peppers, green beans, pears and potatoes were all included in the giveaway, and each person received a generous quantity of the items. The bags of corn that were handed out, for example, each had 12 ears in them.
“I don’t get to buy all of this at the store,” one woman explained as she drove through the line with another family also in the car. Produce items can be very expensive, so while she would like to buy them for her daughter, she usually cannot.
“I like that I’m able to get this for my daughter, it helps her grow,” she said.
“It helps a million,” added another woman in her car.
Chrissy, who lives near Shade, was in another two-family car, and was also very thankful for the food items.
“This will last us a month or two,” she said. She was planning to freeze and refrigerate some of the produce items while also making meals ahead of time and then freezing those meals, too.
She is unable to work because of a disability, so her income is limited and things are very tough for her family of four. She has also been informed that even though prices are going up, she won’t receive any increase in her disability pay for at least another two years.
“We’re making it by the skin of our teeth,” Chrissy said. She visits the Friends and Neighbors Community Food Center twice a month for food and supplies, and finds ways to get food, clothing and other items at low prices in the community. For school supplies for her children, for example, she traveled to Gallipolis where she could receive the items she needed for not much money.
Last month, though, she was only able to go to the Friends and Neighbors Community Food Center once because she could not afford the gas to drive out a second time.

Lisa Roberts, director of the Friends and Neighbors Community Food Center, said that her facility is seeing more and more people needing help.
“It is scary we see so many new people. It has just grown and grown,” Roberts said. The number of senior citizens who need food and other items has increased especially rapidly, she added.
“So many senior citizens cannot afford to buy food because they have to buy their medicine instead,” Roberts said. “They’re going hungry because they can’t afford their medicine.”
Jennings explained that the members of his church have been volunteering at the Lottridge center for the last two years. And during that time, Jennings and the other volunteers have seen the need for help at the center go up as the economy has worsened.
“It has increased this summer,” Jennings said. “There are always new people.”
Many people are suddenly out of work or facing financial problems for other reasons, and now find themselves needing help from organizations such as Friends and Neighbors.
“Even in our (church) office, the calls for help have increased,” Jennings said. The Central Avenue United Methodist Church used to receive an average of one call per week for help, and now the church receives two or three per week. Usually the calls are from people looking for financial help to pay their utility bills or rent.
His church members also volunteer at the Kilvert Community Center, and Jennings said he also sees a great need there for assistance for people living in poverty.

Public school fees waived for Ohio children in free lunch program

All children who receive free lunch as part of the National School Lunch Program will no longer have to pay general school fees at public schools in Ohio. The new state budget includes a provision that waives these fees for children who receive free lunch.
The legislation does not apply to extra-curricular fees.
It is common in Ohio for schools to charge up to $100 in general fees just for students to attend school and take classes. Not all schools charge the fees, but the ones that do often hold back grade cards from the students who do not pay the fees. Some schools even contract with collection agencies to have the fees collected.
It is very difficult for families living on limited incomes to pay the fees, and very frustrating to see schools charging for a public education that is supposed to be free and open to all.
The change in school fees this year is a very positive first step, and Athens County Job and Family Services would ultimately like to see all fees waived for all children at public schools in Ohio. Click here to read more about the public school fees and the change in legislation this year.