The Warren County Emergency Food Bank and local school FUEL programs may be seeing a reduction in funding if a recommendation by County Executive John Pelham to members of the FEMA Emergency Food and Shelter board is approved.
Members of the board met last week to discuss Phase 31 funding for 2014. The county will receive $16,872 for non-profits which is $973 less than last year’s funded amount of $17,845 and $1,680 less than the $18,552 received in 2011.
Pelham was not in attendance at the meeting but his administrative assistant, Carol Cantrell, conducted the meeting. Cantrell said Pelham looked at the funding available and made a proposal for the board to consider. Cantrell said a final decision cannot be made until all Local Recipient Organizations (LROs) have been approved by January 3, 2014.
Pelham proposed:
• Warren County Emergency Food Bank - $4,872 ($1,973 less than 2013)
• First United Methodist Church FUEL program - $1,000 ($1,400 less than 2013)
• Morrison United Methodist Church FUEL program - $1,000 ($600 less than 2013)
• Families in Crisis - $1,500 ($500 less than 2013)
• Upper Cumberland Human Resource Agency (UCHRA) - $5,000 (same as last year)
• Meals on Wheels - $2,000 (did not receive funding last year)
• McMinnville/Warren County Senior Center - $1,500 (did not receive funding last year)
The reduction in funding to the food bank and FUEL programs is not only a result of less funding from FEMA. Two organizations which opted out of funding last year, Meals on Wheels and the senior center requested funding for 2014.
Meals on Wheels director Martha Pepper said “Our need is so big. We have six people on the waiting list who need to go on. We do need to ask for help this time if possible. So many people today are living older, in their 90s. Their kids are in their 70s and they can’t take care of mom and dad. Our finances are down. We served 44,036 meals between June 31, 2012 and July 1, 2013. Our cost is approximately $4.12 per meal.”
Families in Crisis representative Rick Kinkade said, “In my opinion, I think John’s proposal is fair. There are other resources the kids can use throughout the week for food. I feel the FUEL program is necessary, but Kim (UCHRA director Luton) has the biggest need.”
Luton said, “Our situation is OK but, we are going into winter when kids are out of school. The volume of people needing food increases during winter and school break. We are focusing on the working poor, elderly and those with small children. The elderly seem to be having the most difficult time. We provide 62 programs and we are out of money on some. We are out of rental assistance and hotel stay money now and we are only five-and-a-half months into the fiscal year. I do, however, think John’s proposal is a fair allocation of funds.”
Anna Griffin, representative with the food bank said, “We have sent a letter to all churches in the county asking for help with food for the food bank. We are getting low on some foods.”
Representatives for the FUEL programs were not in attendance. The FUEL (Full Uv Emmaeus Love) program targets children whose main source of food may be the lunch they receive at school. Volunteers fill bags with food such as juice, cereal bars, peanut butter crackers, cheese crackers, pudding, applesauce, cookies and gummies to be placed in children’s backpacks on Friday afternoons in order for them to have food over the weekend.
The committee passed a motion to accept the allocations Pelham proposed contingent upon applications received by new LROs.