Gulf Coast Charities Looking For Help

By Chad Petri Reporter

The slow economy means many charities in the area are seeing an increase in the number of people looking for help. However these groups are also having trouble raising the needed funds. Gulf Coast Charities Looking For Help

Published: Thu, June 05, 2008 - 2:52 am Last Updated: Thu, June 05, 2008 - 4:19 am

Chad Petri

At the Dearborn YMCA, kids busily paint pictures for summer camp. Normally they have about 100 children per session. Now they have 60. Officials here say the drop is a direct reflection of tough economic times.

“We still have to purchase food, we still have to buy gas, we provide van service, and so we have to look at shortening our routes and how often we send our vans out and the length of our field trips, how far they go,” says CEO Eric Barnett Jefferson.

He says 90% of their clients are on some sort of public assistance. He says donations this year are static while demands for services are up.

Workers make meals for the elderly. The food's packed in vans. They all need fuel for delivering food and picking up YMCA participants. That van fee may be going up.

“We're kind of anticipating as we get into that and start discussing that with our participants that we may lose some van riders or we may have to do away w/ the van service altogether,” says Jefferson.

Over at the Bay Area Food Bank, things have been shrinking. Normally stocked shelves are looking a little thin.

“That's a problem because normally we like to see a lot of food in here,” says Food Bank Executive Director David Reaney.

He says their most recent food drive with the US Post Office showed a drop in collections for the first time in years. He says pantries nationwide are seeing a 20% jump in clients.