Amy Besunder, Executive Director at North Helpline, sent us email wanting to let the community know about a special event tomorrow at 4pm at its Lake City location across from Fred Meyer. They will unveil a new display to their window front gallery with photography from two seniors at Nathan Hale High School. Alex Tam and Kimie Young will exhibit a series of twelve color photographs "capturing the spirit of North Helpline and the people we serve," Amy says.
Also tomorrow, North Helpline will launch the distribution of the new Thursday evening food bank to to help clients who work throughout the day get the food they so desperately need.
North Helpline, was started in 1989 by a small group of volunteers who became aware that those around them weren't able to pay their rent or put food on their tables. The group began collecting food and financial support for their neighbors. Now the group is over 600 people and provides support to over 1000 people ever week in Greater North Seatte.
They "provide(s) the community with basic human emergency services to promote dignity, self respect and hope," the website says.
Lynda Locke, Special Projects Coodinator told us," People tend to be very generous at Thanksgiving and Christmas, but in the new year they tend to think about other things and forget us. Also, since the economy is still suffering, more people are concerned about money and spending, and aren’t feeling as generous as they were before.
Our problem is that 37% more people are getting food from North Helpline this year, but donations have only increased by 15% (even though we’ve been actively trying to improve that).
When food is donated to us, it is sorted into boxes of different categories (like protein, canned vegetables, soup, etc.). We register everyone who uses the food bank and they get a card stating the number of people in their household. On Wednesdays or Saturdays when the Food Bank is open, people go through the line and choose the appropriate amount from each category for their household size.
We have a wide variety of people from the newly unemployed, to the underemployed, to the chronically homeless using our food bank. We also have an interesting mix of different cultures and ages.
North Helpline is thrilled to announce two upcoming events.
Lynda sent us a list of barrels in our area:
All that Dance
8507 35th Avenue NE
Seattle, 98115
Wedgewood Alehouse
8515 35th Avenue NE
Seattle, 98115
Cloud City Coffee
8801 Roosevelt Way NE
Seattle, 98115
Café Javisti
8410 5th Avenue NE
Seattle, 98115
Meadowbrook Community Center
10517 35th Avenue NE
Seattle, 98125
Lynda tells us she is looking for more places to put barrels. She said if people can think of any place that might take one, please let her know, and she will call them.
"Even if they don’t collect a lot of food, it will still get our name out there and let people know of our needs," Lynda said.
And Kay Hardie, from North Help Line told us "I want you to know that donations are always down at this time of the year. People are so generous during the Holidays and have been espeically so the last few years during the economic downturn. Then historically donations always fall off. And while we are receiving more donations at this time of the year than we have in the past our clients continue to grow at a much higher percentage. Times are not good.
Just the other day a client who is on L&I from an on the job accident told me thru her tears that her husband has been told he will be laid off from his job at the end of the month. Her water will soon be turned off and they are so far behind on their mortgage, electric and other monthly payments that they don't know where to turn. I told her about our Emergency Services group and how they could help with some of the payments and help her with referrals to other places she can turn for help. This client has also had to hire a lawyer as they are having trouble with L&I payments. This is just one of many many stories we hear all the time."
You can also donate on-line.
Here is a photo from a previous exhibit.
No comments:
Post a Comment