Giving back

By Cindy Landrum  

NOVEMBER 29, 2010 1:50 p.m. (0)

A Spartanburg County schoolteacher recently walked into the Total Ministries office, but this time he didn’t have a donation.

He needed help to pay for a prescription. He told Total Ministries executive director Karen Bradley when his wife was laid off, they lost their company health insurance. The higher cost of insurance made it impossible to pay for the medicine.

“They have this look in their eyes of such brokenness,” she said.

For Total Ministries, and other charitable organizations that provide food, heating assistance and shelter in Spartanburg and Greenville counties, the time near Thanksgiving and through the end of the year is critical for meeting needs that have increased as the sour economy lingers.

“This is a prime time of year for us financially,” said Ken Kelly, vice president of adult ministries for Miracle Hill Ministries, an organization that operates shelters for the homeless in Greenville and Spartanburg counties. “A large percentage of our annual income comes in Oct. 1 through Dec. 31.”

And donations are especially critical this year, because donations are down.

Rebecca Ragland, director of development for United Ministries in Greenville, said individual giving is down 14 percent this year over last, and last year wasn’t a great year. The organization is $76,000 under budget.

At the same time, requests for help are up 30 percent.

United Ministries has had to change how often it can provide emergency assistance to people, she said.

The organization used to provide emergency assistance with power bills or heating bills once a year. That’s been cut to once every two years. It used to help 40 people a week. That’s been cut back to 30.

“We’re seeing a lot of new people,” she said. “About 50 percent of the people asking for emergency assistance have never asked us for help before.”

At Total Ministries, which considers itself an emergency room for people in financial difficulty, donations are running 14 percent behind last year, Bradley said. But the number of people served by the charity has more than doubled.

“We’re a bit behind, but I think that’s standard for any nonprofit in Spartanburg,” she said. “It’s been very challenging. We’re trying to stretch our dollars as far as we can.”

Total Ministries has had to suspend its rent assistance program so it could help people buy life-sustaining prescription medicine, she said.

“There are other groups that receive federal funding that can help with rent,” she said. “We think it’s more important to help keep the power and water on and help with prescriptions. In some cases, we’re not able to help the full amount. If they have a $200 power bill, we might give them $60 to $75 and a referral sheet to other agencies.”

Total Ministries provided bags of food to 300 families in October, she said. Next week, a mobile food pantry will provide food to people who are on unemployment but do not qualify for food stamps.

Usually this time of year, Greer Community Ministries is looking for Christmas toys, but not this year, said Lori Sondov, marketing and support coordinator. The organization is partnering with Greer Relief. Greer Relief is handling the Christmas toy program, while Greer Community Ministries handled school supplies for needy children earlier in the year.

Greer Community Ministries needs coats, hats and scarves because it’s getting cold at night. People have been coming in for food, heavier clothing and blankets, she said.

“We’ve seen people who are laid off who never had to ask for help before, people who haven’t been in a number of years who are in a rough path because of the economy, people on the receiving end who are usually on the giving end due to circumstances beyond their control,” Sondov said.

But, Sondov said, it seems like Greer always responds to the needs.

The Salvation Army in Greenville has already exceeded last year’s requests from needy families for Christmas toys for their children, said spokeswoman Pamela Garcia. It also has more requests from senior citizens for food certificates, she said.

“It’s no surprise because we’ve seen a large number of people coming in for utility assistance, rental assistance and food,” she said.

It makes the annual Red Kettle campaign more important, she said.

This year’s goal is $300,000, about the same amount raised last year.

“Need knows no season,” she said. “Money from the kettle campaign pays for our holiday programs and is used to fund our social services department into the summer.”

In addition to donations, the Salvation Army needs volunteers to help with its Christmas programs, she said.

Kelly said Miracle Hill has seen an increase in the number of people seeking shelter at one of its facilities.

“The ones on the streets have really fallen out the past several months,” he said. “They’ve already stayed with friends and relatives and really find themselves at the end of it.”

Miracle Hill wants to expand its men’s shelter in Greenville. He said it has 80 additional beds, but doesn’t have the employees to staff them.

The organization also provides food baskets to 25 people each day.

“A very small percentage of our budget goes for food. We get food donated, but that’s getting harder,” said Kelly, who was in Spartanburg for a Turkey Fry, where 250 turkeys were being cooked for Thanksgiving dinner. He expected about 1,500 people to be fed in Greenville and Spartanburg.

Bradley said she hopes when Upstate residents gather for Thanksgiving dinner, they’ll reflect on what they have and decide to provide for those who don’t.

“There’s no gift too small right now,” she said. “There are so many ways people can give without creating a burden on their own financial situation.”

She said friends who have exchanged Christmas gifts could decide to forego presents this year and instead donate the money that would have been spent to a charity that helps the needy. They can donate one of the “buy one get one free items” various grocery stores offer or give the penny item at Publix to an organization that could put it to use, she said.

Right now, the charitable organizations are in the same situation as the people they serve, she said.

“We need help,” she said.