The Shoreline Soup Kitchens & Pantries
Volunteer Newsletter
Winter 2008

He who saves a single life saves the entire world.
- The Talmud


Did You Hear the News?
Volunteers are needed!
In March, 2008 our newest meal site will open their doors for the first time. A warm and very hearty welcome to:
• Grace Episcopal Church Meal Site
• 338 Main Street, Old Saybrook
• Wednesdays
• 12 noon to 1pm
Please help spread the word about our new lunch time meal site on Wednesdays. Let everyone know that we need volunteers!
 

Update:
Westbrook Pantry News

Ed an Anita Gorman, our Westbrook Pantry Managers have flown to their annual winter home. The Westbrook Pantry will be in good shape when they return in the spring. Our new Substitute Manager Sherrie Weiss will make sure that everything runs smooth. Sherrie has volunteered at the Old Lyme Pantry for several years and has done a little of everything from weekly trips to the Food Bank to helping with distribution day. Sherrie has a warm smile and always adds a bit of humor to help lighten our sometimes heavy work load. Enjoy the sun Ed and Anita. The Westbrook Pantry is in good hands.
Spread The Word
Harry Chapin Tribute Concert
• April 12, 2008
• 7pm
• Old Saybrook Congregational Church
• $10.00
• Music by “Lunch Bunch”
Thank You!
 

Very special thanks to all the wonderful people who helped prepare for and volunteer on Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day for our holiday meals. They were a huge success and provided a wonderful time for the visitors and the workers!
A special thanks to the Heat-n-Eat crew who came in to work “overtime” to tray up all the holiday left over food!

Spring Gardening News:
Spring and gardening are right around the corner. If you would like to volunteer at the SSKP garden in Old Saybrook please contact Claudia Van Nes at 860-526-3459.
 

Board Member Profile
Reverend Ryan Young

I grew up in Virginia Beach Va. before receiving a call to ministry which took me to the Outer banks of NC where I met and married my wife Dale of 27 years. Soon after we were invited to work as youth ministers in New Milford Connecticut at Rock Church. We moved to Old Saybrook 25 years ago with our 2 children Joshua and Elisa and began what is known today as the Living Rock Church.

Although we were very young, a passion was burning in our hearts to serve God and serve people. Planting a new congregation on the shoreline presented many challenges. Working with people, raising a disabled child, trusting God for finances, having a vision that motivates others shaped my life of faith and for that I am grateful.
The congregation out grew a rented facility in Madison and subsequently built a new
sanctuary on 15 acres of Land just off route 81 in Killingworth in the fall of 1990.
Since then, summer camps for kids, a Christian Academy and nursery school, recovery groups and numerous other ministries have sprung up each with the same emphasis, "serving others".
I count it a privilege to have been asked to serve on the SSK board. With the many challenges people face in our world today feeding those who are hungry I believe is the single greatest need.

Even Jesus turned to his disciples while observing a crowd one day that was following him and said, "Give them something to eat". I feel those who serve SSK have taken those words to heart.

Over the nearly 3 years that I have served as a member of the board I never cease to be impressed with the commitment and dedication of all who make Shoreline Soup Kitchens what it is.

The generosity of our community and selfless sacrifice of those who serve across denominational and religious backgrounds is a testimony that I pray pleases God.
Thank you Pastor Ryan

Meal Site Profile
Friday Meal Site
Coordinator – Barbara Hesser
Trinity Lutheran Church
Main Street
Centerbrook, Ct.

A hot meal is served every Friday at 12:00 noon, at the Trinity meal site for the Shoreline
Soup Kitchen. The Trinity site was established in 1998, with a handful of enthusiastic
Volunteers. In 2008 we are still going strong and our volunteer base has grown with
not only Trinity members, but friends throughout the community.
Our time is unique being it is a noontime meal. The cliental has grown and summer
is especially busy with school being out. We serve anywhere from 10 to 15 meals on
Fridays throughout the year. We serve as many as 700 meals a year. Our volunteers
donate all of the food. It is not only food preparation, but also a genuine reaching out
at the Trinity site. Our Pastor is with us at most meals. We are truly blessed.
As in any organization it takes volunteers to make this endeavor continue. The soup
kitchen can’t run without them. Thank you to one and all involved, and may God be
always the vocal point as to why we are here.
Yours In Christ
Barbara Hesser

Wrong End of the Binoculars
By Michael A. Macdonald
The gentleman with a striking mane of white hair pointed his knobby finger toward the piece of chocolate cake, indicating his choice for dessert. I find it fulfilling when our church hosts a cookout at the local homeless shelter for its residents. My satisfaction on this evening came from knowing that we were helping people in need and that we were representing Christ to them. As I served the cake, the man said, “Thank you.” I responded, “You’re welcome.”
Later, when I was studying today’s scripture passage, I realized I had viewed the cookout wrongly – as if I’d been looking through the wrong end of a pair of binoculars. We were not being Christ for the homeless people; they were being Christ for us! It is I who should have said thank you.
Now when we host these cookouts, I still feel fulfilled – but in a different way. Instead of
asking if the residents are sufficiently grateful for what we are doing, I ask if we are sufficiently grateful for the opportunity to serve Christ in them. I try to keep this perspective wherever and whenever I am helping those in need.



Food For Thought - “Food for Thought” Is a new column where volunteers can share their views on hunger and poverty.

THE MOVE AWAY FROM POVERTY GUIDELINES TO:

STANDARDS FOR FAMILY SELF SUFFICIENCY
By: Lawrence Morse
I first met with the Board of Trustees of the Shoreline Soup Kitchens and Pantries at the Essex Baptist Church on March 9, 1999. This was to explore growing community needs and a possible role for the Old Saybrook Congregational Church. Rev. David Reed-Brown was Board Chairman at the time.
It’s hard to believe what’s taken place since then! We see the lines getting longer as families find it increasingly difficult to make ends meet and face tough choices. I think we all realize what’s happening, given the rapid increases in cost of many of the basics such as energy, food, health care etc. So much of it just doesn’t seem fair!

POVERTY GUIDELINES
I believe that one of the reasons for our predicament is our state and federal leaders just not realizing the magnitude of the problem or at least not feeling it. Part of that could be that the measurements being used to “define” poverty in our society are so absurdly out of date that they provide little more than a time oriented benchmark. The development of poverty guidelines is about 50 years old and initially (simplistically) consisted of analyzing what families spent on an “economy” food plan, which came from a 1955 Department of Agriculture Household Consumption Food Survey. Income equal to “food expenses times 3” was supposed to enable a family to “make ends meet”. The intent of setting such poverty guidelines was to define that level of income necessary for a family of a certain size to at least minimally support itself. That became the basis for the minimum wage. –and still is! For example, Federal Poverty Guidelines for 2007 would define a family of 4 with income of less than $20,650. as living in poverty – without regard to specific location or circumstances.
Existing poverty guidelines do not adequately reflect the massive changes in our culture during the last 50 years in cost areas such as energy, shelter, health care, child care, transportation, etc; nor do they reflect a multitude of income supplements. We deserve a much more thoughtful and current guideline that incorporates state, geographical, and other categorical indexing in order to be fair. Our legislature and society as a whole need to understand that poverty guidelines only define the bottom third of the problem. Working families unable to “make ends meet” amount to three times the number of families defined by present poverty guidelines. American society faces a massive dilemma of social justice.

FAMILY SELF SUFFICIENCY STANDARDS
We should update the guidelines to represent a standard for family SELF SUFFICIENCY; what does it take in earned income and work supports for a family to just make ends meet today?
One successful Family Self Sufficiency program was enacted ( as part of NAHA the National Affordable Housing Act) in 1990 with the goal of helping families in subsidized housing reduce their reliance on public assistance and gain economic independence. “FSS” programs provided individual case management, helped participants further their education and find jobs, provided support services such as child care and transportation, and offered monetary incentives that promote financial independence. 35 states have now passed various forms of “self sufficiency standards.

In 1999, Connecticut created its Self-Sufficiency Standard pursuant to P.A. 98-169, An Act Establishing a Self-Sufficiency Measurement and Expanding Job Training Opportunities. In 2002, the Connecticut General Assembly enacted a statute (P.A. 02-54) requiring the Self-Sufficiency Standard to be updated by the state every three years. An update was released in December 2005; sample below comparing benchmarks.
“Overlooked and Undercounted – Where Connecticut Stands” was released in June of 2007.
Highlighting its content:

“A large number of Connecticut’s (900,000) households are finding that their costs are rising faster than their wages. Comparing household incomes to bare-bones budgets, this report finds that 19% percent (170,000) or nearly one in five Connecticut households lacks enough money to cover basic living expenses. Yet, according to the Federal Poverty Level (FPL), only one in three of these households is officially poor or in need. The remainder — two out of every three households (110,000) — live in a “policy gap” where they have too much income to qualify for most supports, yet not enough to meet their most basic needs, especially as the costs of housing, health care, and other necessities skyrocket.”


 

FAMILY SELF SUFFICIENCY ON THE SHORELINE
“The Self-Sufficiency Standard represents the income required by Connecticut’s working families to pay for the basic needs of housing, food, child care, health care, transportation, miscellaneous costs, and taxes, on a region-by-region basis.” It is: “a bare bones budget, not including restaurants, savings, credit card or loan payments, or emergency funds”:
This chart, tailored to our region, illustrates why the majority of the clients of our food pantries are
working, but unable to make ends meet!
That’s why our Food Pantry lines are getting longer!