Free meals help families make ends meet

SANDPOINT - The red Christmas sweater was an attention-getter, decked out with appliqué snowmen and bordered at its sleeves and collar with broad stitches of white.

The woman who wore it - Alaura Cowles - took a compliment with grace as she worked herself around to face the stranger who commented on the garment. She balanced on her crutches and reached around to zip the holiday sweater an inch or two higher.

"Thanks for saying you like it," she said. "I do, too."

Cowles was on her way into the door of the Agape Café - one of several church-sponsored meal programs served throughout the week in Sandpoint.

"It's warm," she said as she followed two friends to the buffet line. "And it was free."

So, too, was the mid-day meal that she had come to receive. It was Tuesday, which meant volunteers were offering the free lunch from the Seventh-day Adventist Church at their center on Division Street. Monday's dinner comes from the Assembly of God, Thursday means the evening meal is served by the Methodists and Friday is the day for the soup kitchen at St. Joseph's Catholic Church. There are no church meals on Wednesdays, a day when you fend for yourself.

"We end up doing this two or three times a week now," Cowles said from the table as she crumbled a packet of crackers into a Styrofoam bowl filled with homemade chili. "For us, it's a way to make food last."

Cowles lives in a 27-foot camper trailer. It might not have running water, "but it's a roof," she said. And having a roof sets her apart from some of the people who come to share the free meals.

"I'm always one step away from homelessness, but we're fortunate to have a place to live," she said. "I feel sorry for the people who are on the street."

As she makes the circuit of churches, Cowles has begun to see new faces in line for the free food.

"We used to see the same people at all of the dinners," she said. "But now we're seeing a lot more younger people. And with the layoffs, there are more families that we're seeing everywhere. A lot of families are starting to show up at the meals and the food bank."

Bread Line 2.0

American history offers a graphic image of just how bad things can get. It is the iconic black-and-white imagery of bedraggled men standing in bread lines. The poorest among them stand hunched over, unshaven for days and clasping tin cups as they wait in the queue.

But the thing that stands out in these Depression-era photographs is not the obvious despair - it is the unexpected presence of men wearing expensive suits and ample overcoats. Where so many of those around them look trapped by circumstance, the well-dressed men seem stunned, as if they had been dropped in line from on high and left wondering, "How did I get here?"

 The cozy atmosphere of volunteers bustling around in Sandpoint's church kitchens is considerably more benign than the bread lines, but the question on the lips of some families who now take meals there is the same: "How did we get here - and how did it happen so quickly?"

The question is painful enough for a parent who has lost a job going into the holidays, but it is even more puzzling for those families who still have a paycheck coming in and can't find a way to make ends meet.

See MEALS, Page 2

Across the board, Sandpoint churches have seen an increase of about 20 percent in the number of people turning out for free meals. In every case, the volunteers who serve the food have noticed the trend moving away from single people and older couples on fixed incomes toward parents and kids in need.

"We're seeing a lot more families with children than we ever did before," said Linda Oens, who volunteers as a server with her husband, Harold, at the First United Methodist Church's 20-year-old free meal program.

On any given Thursday, the church feeds up to 60 people. Some church members come to enjoy the social aspect of gathering with others. More than a few of those who come to eat are "the people you see walking around town," Oens said.

"The homeless people," she added. "It would be nice if it wasn't true, but there are homeless people in Sandpoint. They aren't as visible as they are in someplace like Spokane or Seattle, but they are here."

Sharing the tables with Sandpoint's homeless population are people who have both homes and jobs. The problem, in some cases, is that one doesn't pay enough to cover the other.

"We have several families coming now where we know that at least one of the parents is working," Oens said. "They have to use us to stretch their dollars further."

Progressive Dinners

By utilizing the church meal network, families in need are finding a way to guarantee that they will have at least a few hot meals each week.

The Assembly of God Church has been offering meals for the past six years and has watched attendance grow from two people at the first meal to an average of about 75 last year.

"It's close to 100 people now," said Amy Rafferty, who leads the volunteer cooks in the church kitchen. "With everything like it is and the economy the way it is, I think we'll see even more people this next year.

"Lately, we have seen quite a few new faces," she went on. "It's all ages, but one of the most noticeable things is that big families are coming in a lot more. We always go out and talk to the people and they're telling us that they go to all the churches."

Bob Lange sees them at St. Joseph's Catholic Church, where he works in the Friday soup kitchen.

"We just had our Thanksgiving meal and we had more than 200 people there," he added. "We served more children this year, which was surprising."

St. Joseph's usually feeds about 65 people each week - up from 50 last year. Along with larger numbers overall, the volunteers have noticed that the headcount for families "is on the upswing."

"Especially families with a couple of children," Lange said. "If you can get your family a substantial meal at no cost, that helps stretch your budget."

Young, Hungry and Homeless

Also making the rounds of the churches are people in their late teens and early 20s who generally show up in groups.

"There are a lot of parents with quite young kids, but we're seeing more older kids involved, too," said Kathleen Flaherty, who volunteers at the Methodist church meal with her husband, Jim. "Before, it was always singles and elderly who came to eat. Now we're seeing the younger set - high school kids and young adults."

They show up at the Assembly of God Church, as well, according to Amy Rafferty.

"Big groups of younger people," she said, "who usually come in together."

Alaura Cowles said she knows the stories behind several of the kids coming to the free meals. She hears them as they cross paths at different churches throughout the week.

"They are the new homeless people," she said. "The young homeless people. A lot of them have been kicked out of foster homes when they turn 18 and they end up with no place else to go, so we're seeing more of them out there."

"We have a larger number of young people - even teens - coming to us these days," said Newton States, who volunteers at the Agape Café. "I'm sure they hit most of the meals at the other churches, too, because I've heard them say that."

Philanthropy's Front Lines

The Bonner Community Food Bank was designed to offer emergency food help as a way to respond to situations like a medical crisis or the breakdown of the family vehicle. But as economic woes come home to roost, the service is being stretched far beyond capacity, according to Alice Wallace, executive director.

Demand for help with food staples has jumped by 25 percent compared to the prior year and the description of what constitutes an emergency seems to have broadened to include trying to live from one check to the next. The reasons people come through the door at the food bank are as varied as the lives they lead.

"All kinds of reasons - mills closing, Schweitzer Resort not opening yet, housing and rent prices, of course, and hours that have been cut in all kinds of businesses," Wallace said. "Some people have medical bills that are taking a goodly share of their already small check.

"We are stretched to the limit," she added. "The only other thing we could do is cut back on the amount of food that we put in the food boxes, but then people would want them more often."

Many of the families that attend free meals first learn about them through a list of churches provided by the food bank. In some cases, the families drive up in vehicles that, from appearances, suggest they don't really need help. It's just one more case where looks can be deceiving, said Wallace, who screens her clients before they can use the food bank.

When a new car parks out front, the executive director makes it a point to have a discrete conversation with the owner to determine the level of need. Increasingly, she is hearing about spouses who recently lost good-paying jobs and families who are looking for a way to eke out another week in the face of mounting debt.

And the look in many of their eyes says, "How did we get here?"

"I question those who come in with the newer cars to find out what's up and see if it bothers them that they are asking for help, but have that kind of vehicle," Wallace said. "Some say it doesn't bother them, others get upset and some people get mad. It gets somewhat sensitive, but it is just part of my job.

"Most of them say that they are either behind in payments, or they're trying to sell it."

Between them, local churches and food banks are the closest thing struggling families have to a safety net in a severely depressed economy. Like the Bonner Community Food Bank, the churches also have to find ways to serve more people with limited resources.

"We prepare for about 50 people and sometimes we have to improvise a little bit to stretch things out," Kathleen Flaherty said. "But we never completely run out of food."

At St. Joseph's soup kitchen, Bob Lange doesn't mind at all that his church, along with others in the community, is on the front lines of need.

"That should be the case," he said. "That's the way it should be."