Eating up resources — Risings costs challenge food bank, its clients to make ends meet

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

Harry Moore has spent 50 years contri-buting to the community.

Moore moved to the central Kenai Peninsula from Anchorage in 1952 when the Sterling Highway opened. He home- steaded on Funny River Road and spent his working years in trades that helped build brand-new Soldotna — “mechanic, road const- ruction and what not,” he said.

Since retiring, he’s facing the same dilemma many seniors are — income is fixed, but bills are not. Heating, electricity, Medicare, gas and food costs spiral upward, leaving Moore and others who once helped build communities now needing help from them.

On Nov. 19 help came from the Kenai Peninsula Food Bank. Moore had a cab drop him and his power wheelchair off at the food bank just before 11 a.m., so he could sign the form for the seniors’ commodity supplemental food program. The program provides him with a slab of cheese and a prepacked box of food once a month, containing a variety of items — cereal, beans, peanut butter, powdered milk and the like.

“With me, I don’t need very much,” he said.

He’s been coming to the food bank for 10 or 15 years now, he said. He used to come in almost daily to eat lunch in the food bank’s soup kitchen, the Fireweed Diner. Now it’s more infrequently, but he doesn’t miss senior food box distribution day.

In the food bank’s records, Moore is a client, one of hundreds of seniors who get help during the month. But he’s more than a number. To his fellow Fireweed diners he’s a good lunch buddy, a sure bet for a laugh, quick with a smile, and he’s at the point in life where a good story takes precedence over a sip of coffee or spoonful of soup. To food bank staff, he’s also a supporter. He makes items for the food bank’s annual auction fundraiser, and brings a pan of homemade, sugar-free fudge that has become legendary in the building.

“I think there’s a lot of people in the community they do a lot of services for, mainly the elderly and what not, you know,” Moore said of the food bank. “It’s real important. They do a lot of services for the community. That’s why I make some stuff for the auction.”

Being both a contributor and consumer may be the attitude to take for seniors who find it difficult to go from taking care of themselves and others to needing help making ends meet.

“I don’t know what they think, but they probably think they’re getting something for nothing. I don’t think that’s the case. I think everybody contributes something to the community,” he said.

Senior food boxes are distributed a few days a month. Nov. 19 was the first day of distribution this month, which resulted in a line of seniors waiting to sign the eligibility form and pick up their food.

But the wait was short and the mood amiable, with many seniors making an afternoon of the errand by stopping for a hearty, well-balanced lunch and conversation in the Fireweed Diner, which serves meals on a donation basis.

“The lunch is nice, too. It gives you a chance to get out at noon,” said Phyllis Sather, of Soldotna.

Sather has been getting senior food boxes for the last three or four months, she said. Heating, electricity, gas and food bills have been going up.

“Oh yeah, every time you go to the store it seems like it goes up,” she said.

There isn’t a large amount of food in the boxes, but it helps, she said. A little bit goes a long way, especially when it can be difficult to seek help in the first place.

“I never signed up for anything like this before,” she said.

Evelyn Brandt, of Soldotna, was pragmatic about the food program.

“I find a use for most of it. If I don’t, I bring it back,” she said. “You get a lot of beans. You can do a lot of things with beans. It helps you know what you have to buy and what you don’t have to buy.”

Brandt has lived in the area off and on since 1969, raising her kids here and working a variety of jobs, including at the old Soldotna Drug Store and as a travel agent. She’s been getting senior boxes for the last three years and said anyone who’s eligible should take advantage of the program.

“If it’s pride that keeps them away, they better think about it. They’ll be starving,” she said.

The food bank has seen an increase in people seeking services, paralleling rising food, gas, heat, electricity, health care and other costs, said Linda Swarner, executive director of the food bank.

Last year the food bank gave senior food boxes to an average of 290 people a month. This year it’s 321. The Fireweed Diner served an average of 1,699 meals a month last year, compared to 1,981 this year. The food bank also gives out emergency food boxes to low-income households once a month and distributes perishable items — like yogurt, bread and milk. The monthly average of households getting emergency food boxes this year is 549, up from 510 last year, and the monthly average of people picking up perishable items is 532 this year, compared to 494 last year.

Eligibility for food bank programs is dependant on income. Seniors have an income limit of $22,750 for a two-person household, and families eligible for emergency food boxes can make $32,375 for a two-person household. There is some minimal paperwork to be filled out for food boxes, but it all basically operates on the honor system. If someone says they need help, the food bank believes them.

The problem is there may not be enough food to help everyone who needs it. Rising bills means a rising number of food bank clients, but it also means fewer donations. Food for the diner, food boxes and other services the food bank provides — like giving food to senior centers to use to cook lunch — come from grocery stores and donations from the public. The food bank is getting school groups and others coming in to volunteer service with the holidays approaching, but the amount of donated food is not as high as it’s been in past years.

Swarner said the food bank has given out 10,000 more pounds of food on average each month than they’ve taken in. Food drives in November and December are usually a big boost to the food bank, especially in providing holiday food boxes for families.
“It looks like our food drives are going to be a lot less, just the way the economy is,” Swarner said.

Last year was the first that the food bank didn’t have enough food to meet holiday needs. Monetary donations from the business community allowed the food bank to go buy turkeys from grocery stores to give to people. This year the state is chipping in $6,000 to be shared between the Fairbanks, Anchorage and Kenai Peninsula food banks to buy food to give out for the holidays, Swarner said.

And she’s still hopeful for an increase in donations.

“We just received three turkeys, so you just pray that somebody’s going to keep coming through the door,” Swarner said. “We have a very generous community. It’s just going to be tough, though.”

Good luck in store — Prize winner passes thanks on to charity

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

An ivory statue meant to reward a lucky grand prize winner in a drawing held by a new local business will now pass its charm onto a lucky bidder at a fundraiser event for Planned Parenthood.

Carol Percival, co-owner of Tikahtnu Gallery and Gifts in Soldotna, gave away a Billiken figure carved out of mammoth ivory as the top prize in a drawing held to celebrate the store’s grand opening a month ago.

A Billiken is a jovial, bare-chested, usually somewhat portly figure with elf-like ears and a pointed head that’s thought to bring the owner good luck. Florence Pretz, a Missouri art teacher and illustrator, patented the design in 1908. Manufacturing of the figures began in 1909, and they were apparently sold as a publicity stunt for the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition. That may be how carvers in the Nome region came to incorporate the figure into their designs.

RoseMary Peterson won the statue in Tikahtnu’s drawing, but she didn’t have a place to put it in her home off Kalifornsky Beach Road, so she decided to donate it to Planned Parenthood in Soldotna for the organization to use in its auction fundraiser dinner Saturday.

“I just have no place to display it, and I thought that it would be a good cause,” Peterson said. “I used them (Planned Parenthood) before and thought it would be a good way to give them something back.”

Peterson said Planned Parenthood helped her get a mammogram when she couldn’t afford it.

Percival was happy for the figure to go to a good cause, even if it’s taking a roundabout way to get there.

“Now she’s passing on her good luck. I had a lot of admiration for her. So many of us would have just taken it home and said, ‘Thank you very much,’” Percival said.

“I hate to see him go, he’s been one of my favorites,” she said.

“He is extremely cute,” said Autumn Leach with Planned Parenthood when she stopped by the store Monday to pick up the statue.

The Billiken will be raffled off at the organization’s fundraiser dinner at 7 p.m. Saturday at The Crossing in Soldotna. The theme is “Food from around the world.” Only 80 tickets will be sold, 50 of which were already spoken for by Monday. Tickets are $40 per person or $70 per couple. Call Jackie or Jen at 262-2622 for more information or to buy a ticket.

Peterson had been planning on presenting the good-luck Billiken to Planned Parenthood herself, but was sick with the flu all weekend and couldn’t make it Monday.

“I probably should have hung onto it. Oh well, he’ll bring me good luck long distance,” she said.

Percival, a retired educator, opened Tikahtnu Gallery and Gifts with her daughters, Tara and Amber Lathrop. Tikahtnu, which is a Dena’ina word for Cook Inlet, sells scrubs for medical professionals, and almost everything else is handcrafted artwork and crafts made in Alaska.

“I have always wanted to do this,” Percival said. “I love these Alaska arts and I knew a lot of arts people and crafters who are very talented and thought it would be a nice idea to open a gift store.”

Many of the items the store sells are made by people on the central Kenai Peninsula, including handmade jewelry by Mindy Chamberlin of Sterling, Loraine Larsen of Kasilof and Laurie Cleary of the Kenai area.

Percival contacted the artists she knew and advertised for more artwork to get inventory for the store, and she approached craftspeople at the weekly summer markets.

“I thought, ‘Well, what do they do with all their wonderful goods during the winter?’ Maybe I can suggest to help them out in the winter,” she said.

She has work representative from art traditions across Alaska, as well as children’s toys, journals, greeting cards, hats and purses, and is on the lookout for more items.

“I’m constantly trying to increase our inventory with more variety, but definitely this is the place to buy your made-in-Alaska gifts to send Outside,” she said.

That’s been one of the biggest hits with the store so far, that almost everything sold is made in the state, she said.

“I am so pleased with the response,” Percival said. “People come in and say, ‘Oh, this is a nice store.’ Or I tell them it’s all made in Alaska and they say, ‘Oh, thank you for doing that.’ So many people are tired of buying things made in China, so people’s response has been wonderful.”

Percival put out comment cards to get shoppers’ input on what they’d like to see in the store.

“I’m really interested in it being something new and different for the local people,” she said. “… Considering the economy and the time of year, it’s going well. It’s going to take time for the communities to know we’re here.”

Percival created a store she likes to be in, and hopes others will like to be there, as well.

“I like to surround myself with this kind of thing. It makes me feel warm,” she said. “I just admire these people so much.”

Not thrifty in support — Bishop’s Attic needs bigger space to keep up with mounting donations

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

The donations room behind the back partition at Bishop’s Attic thrift store in Soldotna could be a scene from a horror movie for anyone who hates housework.







Kitchenwares and picture frames form stacks needing to be dusted. Boxes of electronics components and small appliances wait to be arranged on a shelf. Bags containing who-knows-what (one time it was a petrified horn) sit in corners until someone has time to see what’s inside.

Then there’s the clothes: Sacks and stacks of them, all piled into a mountain of fabric reaching nearly to the ceiling.

Going through it all — checking for holes and stains, sorting by size and style, affixing prices and getting it out on the racks — is a labor of love, say the store’s volunteers and employees.

If that’s the case, then Bishop’s Attic is certainly well loved, because there’s a whole lot of work involved.

“It’s overwhelming, but it’s good,” said Julie Soltis, who volunteers at Bishop’s Attic up to six days a week. “Some days you open the door and you want to go back home again.”

Donations have tripled in the last three years, and they don’t come in any predictable pattern, said Betty Phelps, who has worked at Bishop’s Attic for 15 years.

“Every day is different. You just don’t know,” she said. “I don’t even want to say we have cleared out three bags, because then it’s like, kabam!

“Everyone says with the economy people would be holding back and holding on to their stuff, but they’re not. We’re getting more clothes than I’ve ever seen.”

Dealing with donations is a constant battle that can never be won, at least in Bishop’s Attic’s current configuration. Even if the store had more volunteers — which it needs — and could somehow create extra hours in the day to go through all the stuff, there still isn’t room to display everything for sale. For all the racks, stacks, shelves and display cases full of items in the store, there’s just as much or more waiting behind the partition.

And that’s just in the clothes and housewares store. A few doors down in the Soldotna strip mall along the Kenai Spur Highway is another Bishop’s Attic store devoted to furniture, crafts, sports equipment and seasonal items. That store was opened to alleviate crowding in the original store. Now it’s just as full.

But don’t get the wrong idea. Keeping up with donations may be an impossible task, but Bishop’s Attic wouldn’t have it any other way. The more donations the store gets, the more items it can sell, and the more it can help the community.

“Everything that we make here, after we pay bills, goes right back into the community,” Phelps said.

The Kenai and Soldotna Catholic churches operate Bishop’s Attic. It opened in Soldotna about 15 years ago as a way to meet the needs of the community, said Jackie Swanson, a member of Bishop’s Attic’s board of directors.

Selling affordable clothes and merchandise is helpful to people with low incomes, but where the store really provides service is in donating the money generated from the store’s sales. In the last five years, Bishop’s Attic has donated about $115,000 to various community groups, including the Kenai Peninsula Food Bank, ABC Crisis Pregnancy Center, Love, INC., and the National and International Aid Agency, Swanson said.

The store generates money for three continuing education scholarships and provides community service opportunities. It also gives gift certificates to people in need, such as victims of house fires, residents of the LeeShore Center, returning National Guard members and people helped by the St. Vincent de Paul Society.

“That’s what we’re there for, to supply for the needs in the community,” Swanson said. “The community supports the store. It’s just so gratifying to see the piles of things that come in on a regular basis and be able to turn that around to the community.”

Business has grown 50 percent over the last five years, which means the amount the organization can give back to the community has grown, as well. With continued community support the board of directors sees potential to contribute even more but needs more space to do it, so it has been considering finding a bigger home for Bishop’s Attic.

It’s a difficult decision to make. On one hand, a bigger space would mean more merchandise could be displayed and potentially sold. On the other, it could mean higher costs, which cuts into the amount the organization can donate.

“The more we pay in overhead, the less we can give back to the community, so it is a double-edged sword,” said Carol Brenckle, board president.

“As a board, we have some responsibility to make some good choices,” Swanson said. “We feel like, in business you need to gamble sometimes, but we’re in a little bit different position here, so we need to be courageous and careful at the same time.”

Meanwhile, employees and volunteers try to move as much merchandise as they can, but don’t put out so much that racks and shelves get crowded.

Sales are a big help. The store often has 50-percent-off sales, and the $5-a-bag sales at the end of each month are legendary. It also helps that the store draws an array of shoppers.
“We reach out to a wide customer base, not just those who have a desperate need, but a wide range,” Swanson said. “I know when I walk in there I walk out with something, and I’m not even shopping.”

Gary Merryman, of Soldotna, says he shops at Bishop’s Attic a couple times a month looking for items he can’t find anywhere else. He likes to tinker, and the thrift store often has components he can use in his projects.

“We’ve got limited shopping down here,” he said. “… You come in here sometimes and find some odds and ends to put something together with.”

He said he could afford to shop elsewhere, but everyone appreciates a bargain.

“It’s just a good place to come, and you see all types of people in here. It’s not just people down on their luck, it’s people like myself. You shouldn’t categorize someone as down and out just because they come in here.”

Suzanne Lagasse, of Soldotna, said she sometimes finds clothes for her daughters, but more often is looking for business casual work clothes for her.

“I just don’t see the point in spending big money on name brands at the store when you can get them here, too. I figure, let someone else pay the big bucks,” she said.

“I get a charge out of someone saying, ‘That’s a cute outfit.’ I’ll say, ‘This whole thing was five bucks at the thrift store.’”

Whatever the reasons that bring customers in, Phelps hopes they keep coming, so Bishop’s Attic can keep growing.

“We can help so many more people,” especially if the store had a bigger space, she said. “I pray about this every night. It could happen. Nothing’s impossible through Christ.”

Individuals make big impact together — Grassroots group pools financial resources to help neighbors in need

By Naomi Hagelund
For the Redoubt Reporter

Financial hardships are becoming increasingly common as the economy continues to struggle. Those without health insurance are struggling even more, and those who do have health insurance are finding it difficult to pay the health care costs not covered by their insurance plans. That is where Impacting Together steps in. A band of local residents dedicated to giving back to the community, Impacting Together met on Oct. 6 for their second meeting since the founding of the group in April.

The group was formed by Peggy Morris, Rhonda Larson and two other women. The idea occurred to them after hearing of a similar group called Impact 100 in Le Grand, Ore., formed by Morris’ sister. The group in Oregon was based on the idea that 10 women would bring in 10 more women each, and the group of 100 would donate $100 each and disperse it to people in need throughout the community. In the group’s first five years, it donated over $77,000.

The central peninsula group started with four people, but has expanded to around 20, with 65 people on the organization’s e-mail list.

The group’s goal is to help people in situations where the government or other organizations cannot. In April, a family had a child who needed medical care in Anchorage, but couldn’t afford the gas to make the drive. Impacting Together donated enough money for the family to get the child to Anchorage.

“I think we all have friends and neighbors that are just in a hard crunch at the time. We are going to see a lot more of that,” Morris said. “We donate money for groceries or gas or things of that type, so that these people know that people care.”

At the first meeting, the group donated $3,700. At the most recent meeting the group gathered $4,050 in donations.

“We’ve put over $7,000 back in the community between two meetings,” Larson said. “We are not a wealthy community, so that is awesome.”

At the last meeting, the organization helped a woman who had no health insurance get dentures. A young man with a minimum-wage job and no insurance was given enough money for the dental care he required. A man recovering from a car accident was given money to help with his growing medical bills.

“It’s amazing the variety of needs that have been met,” Larson said. “It’s a sort of need you don’t have to fill out an application for, it’s just your neighbor saying, ‘Hey, I’ve pooled my resources with the rest of the neighbors and this is how we can help you.’”

The group holds meetings twice a year, and anyone who donates $100 is considered a member. Members can nominate someone they know to receive financial assistance.

The next meeting is slated for March 9. All community members are welcome to join the organization. For more information, e-mail impactingtogether@gmail.com.