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3:11 PM Thursday, January 7, 2010

As the director of an organization that works hard to be good stewards of the resources entrusted to us by individuals, United Way, foundations, corporations and the government, I want to apologize to Sandy Barnett (Dec. 30 letter to the editor, “Do we quit giving?”) and her daughter for their experience when volunteering to help distribute food baskets and toys for the holiday.

I would also encourage her daughter not to get caught up in a negative experience of a few hours and allowing that to color her perception (and her mother’s), which paints such a broad stroke, labeling people who turn to charity for help as “thieves, thankless jerks and opportunistic individuals.”

Shared Harvest Foodbank is part of the Holiday Community Project, a collaborative of organizations that work to maximize our resources by registering families for holiday baskets and gifts in a free centralized Web-driven database developed by Shared Harvest to limit duplication of services.

This year, the collaborative served more than 2,500 families in Butler County with nearly $224,000 worth of food and gifts contributed by the generous folks we are proud to call our neighbors. We have a similar database system in place for our member food pantries to register families who turn to them for groceries all year long.

This holiday project takes commitment and communication with planning meetings beginning in July, organizing dates of registrations for families in need, and assigning families to one organization for help if they have registered at more than one. We raise funds, food and gifts because we are more effective working together than apart.

But not all organizations that provide holiday baskets and gifts participate in the Holiday Community Project, so we are only as strong as our partners. I would encourage any organization in Butler County that provides these types of services over the holidays to consider joining our project by contacting me at (800) 352-3663.

As for the angry tenor of Ms. Barnett’s letter, I have to comment that those of us who have worked in the field for many years understand that people who live in poverty live in a very different world from ours. Many share rides because of lack of transportation, so it is common to see multiple families making many stops at a variety of charities; one being served at one charity, another being served at a different one. The perception is that these families must be double-dipping when, in reality, they are sharing rides, each gathering what they can in one trip while the gas holds out in the car.

One of the hardest things to do in my job is not to render judgment because I don’t know what life experience has brought a person to ask for help, nor do I know what other crisis that person is dealing with that day. One thing I do know is that living in poverty is living in crisis mode 24/7.

And I understand that there are those who will take advantage, but that mentality is not limited to poor folks. All we have to do is look around — at Bernie Madoff, sub-prime mortgage lenders, Ken Lay and Enron, just to name a few. These folks caused heartache and financial collapse for millions of people all around the world. Those few families who may have gotten a few extra presents for their children seem to pale in comparison.

So it seems that Ms. Barnett’s letter boils down to whether the families her daughter was helping really “deserved” what they were receiving. On average, the families we serve are one-parent families with two children who are living on $900 or less each month. The federal poverty level for a family of three is $18,310 annually. The majority of families who turn to our Holiday Community Project and our network of food pantries all year long fall over $8,000 below the poverty level, making them poorer than poor. Is that deserving enough?

ina Osso

is e

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hared Harvest Foodbank

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