Advocates for poor see rise in needs

"I'll give you something to do, but it's not a job; I can't pay you," she says sadly. "But I'll smile and be nice to you."

Sister Betsy, who directs St. John's Center at St. John's/St. Ann's parish in Albany (which offers food, counseling, furniture and other aid to the needy), is among the first workers to see a jump in the numbers of those requesting food from parish food pantries, welcome tables and soup kitchens as welfare reform laws that cut food stamps take effect.

More in need

"Since January, there's been an incredible increase in our Welcome Table," she told The Evangelist. While 700 people were served there in January 1996, 838 came seeking food this January. The trend has continued, she said, with about 100 more meals per month being served all spring.

"If the increases we've seen early this year are any indication, by summer, we'll be doing twice as much as we did a year ago," she added. "We can't do it. Food pantries were not designed for this."

Faces to statistics

"There's not a lot of hope," she said. "I had somebody in here yesterday. He was arrested and he had to pay the court fees of $220, which means he didn't pay his rent and he didn't pay Niagara Mohawk. He showed up here with an eviction notice and a termination notice from NiMo, and said, `Sister, I don't know what to do.'

"There's no cushion for these people, no piggybank, not even with four pennies. They say, `I'm really afraid of what's going to happen. I don't know what's going to happen next.' And most of us can't really understand, because we had piggybanks."

A single individual used to receive between $98 and $120 in food stamps per month, Sister Betsy explained. Now, he or she gets about $68 -- enough for roughly 15 days' worth of food.

"Sometimes, they tell me that they won't tell me" how they're dealing with the cuts, the nun stated. "They say, `Sister, you don't want to know.'"

More increases

Since food pantries in the city are zoned, those asking for food are supposed to go to a pantry in their own area, he explained; but the numbers of those calling from outside the "zone" are on the rise. In 1996 alone, the parish served 2,480 meals.

"In one day, I got three calls just from our own parishioners," Father Mealey said. "That's a lot for this area."

North, too

"Some of the women come to work here" to meet workfare requirements, explained Sister Fran Husselbeck, RSM, founder of North Country Ministries. "It helps us give them a place of dignity and do some advocacy with them."

The workers can bring their children along as they sort clothes in the thrift shop or prepare lunches, providing a temporary solution to the problem of finding work while affording child care.

Greater needs

"They hide; they don't come out. But they're coming out for clothes; they're sneaking in for meals," he said. "We're averaging between 25 and 50 people each time The Gathering Place is open. The thrift store is doing a land-office business."

Those in need are requesting more than just food, noted Sister Fran and Sister Betsy. If a welfare recipient typically gets just $247 a month to pay rent, he or she is forced to use "needs money" to make up the difference. Consequently, both nuns have seen a sharp rise in demands for diapers and toilet paper, now deemed luxuries in comparison to housing.

Different places

"We don't have a steady clientele," she explained. "We haven't really had a big demand."

But in Albany, where the demand for aid has always been greater than the supply, Sister Betsy shook her head over the workfare laws that legislators have claimed will solve the welfare problem by demanding that food stamp recipients work or lose their aid.

"What are we giving people?" she asked. "We're not creating more jobs; we're not creating more child care. We're saying, `You have to do these things, but we're not going to help you.'"

Advocacy for poor

"That's not the truth," she said. "We have a society created around work, and that's what gives us our identity. People would love to work. They have no transportation, and there aren't any jobs down here. The moms need someone to take care of their kids."

Cutbacks

"The furniture program we're not doing as much," said Sister Betsy. "If we don't have to put gas in the truck [to pick up or deliver used furniture to the poor], we can use that money for food."

While Sister Betsy hopes that no other St. John's programs have to be cut, she said that the next step would be "smaller bags of food for people. Instead of three squares for three days, they might get two squares for three days.

"We get $3,700 a year [in state aid] for the soup kitchen and food pantry," she explained. "We use donated food we purchase from the Regional Food Bank at 12 cents a pound. There's no better way to spend that money. We need more money in the program."

Solutions

"Have you been to a soup kitchen, to a food pantry?" she asked lawmakers. "Do you know what you're talking about? Who is impacted? We're talking about babies; we're talking about little kids."

Cutting food stamps, she said, has dropped recipients below "the basic `enough,' a certain amount of money that it's possible to survive on. Below that, working out the kinks [in welfare legislation] isn't going to help. Food isn't going to go down in price. You can only rise so much with not enough."

Worse ahead

Without changes in welfare legislation, Sister Betsy foresaw an even grimmer future: "The image I keep getting is violence. Good people who get desperate do desperate things. They will do whatever they need to do to feed their children."

(05-08-97) [[In-content Ad]]