The stories coming in from grantees this year illustrate the enormous impact of the ongoing recession on everyone from babies to grandparents. The situation in Ohio continues to be really grim, with ECSF grantees and friends working on many fronts to help neighbors in need weather the crisis and regain stability.

Ascension and Holy Trinity, Valley Interfaith Food and Clothing:

A man whose job depended on beach tourism was thrown out of work by the BP oil spill. Unable to find another job in Alabama, he moved with his wife and two children (aged 2 and 6) back to Cincinnati where they had some family. He got another job, but didn’t have the money for a rental deposit until his first paycheck got in. The family called VIFCC on the verge of being evicted from the hotel where they were staying. VIFCC paid for a couple of nights at the hotel and gave the family food to tide them over till they had some cash.

Christ Church, Springfield IHN: A single mother with two small children entered the IHN program having little hope and no place to go. She had no income at the time and was only receiving food stamps. When IHN staff advocated for this guest with the Department of Job and Family Services, she was able to qualify for hardship and received cash assistance. This guest has obtained housing, regained self-sufficiency and brought stabilization to her family. She and the children are doing well.

A grandmother with custody of her two small grandchildren, ages 5 and 1, became homeless Her strengths are family and self-determination. She was very responsive to the IHN program and followed the case plan we developed with her. This guest does have some income and moved into the IHN Transitional Housing program where she continues case management and moving forward with her life.

St. James Food Pantry, Piqua: Our small town does not yet show signs of economic recovery, so food banks play an important roll in the lives of many of its citizens.

St. James pantry is open five mornings and two evenings each week. Everyone using the pantry is having a difficult time but the mornings are very busy and people quietly come and go, not telling their stories.

The evening hours are not so rushed and the other evening one of our workers was able to spend time with two clients. They were young women, not married and at that time of life when they should have been full of laughter and plans for a happy future. Instead, they were coming to a pantry for food, having just lost part time jobs at Honda: a factory paying minimum wage and no benefits.

They had felt themselves lucky to have even that. Taking the long drive to another town and doing a hard job. Now that had gone and they were job-hunting again and debts were mounting. They were most grateful for the food. A small help, and perhaps having a sympathetic and caring listener helped too.

Trinity, Troy, Partners in Hope: In February, PIH staff and volunteers were very busy using the Ohio Benefit Bank to help families file their 2009 taxes. “Sue” is a single 55 year old woman who came in for help with her taxes. While completing her taxes, Sue shared with the volunteer she had been homeless for a while and was currently staying with friends. Sue was very emotional when she saw the refund she was going to receive as this would help her to get an apartment for herself. The friends she had been staying with were ready for her to move on and she had not been allowed to keep food or cook at the residence. Sue does have a part-time job, but she just had not been able to come up with a deposit to secure an apartment. Sue was very grateful to have help with her taxes and was very appreciative to have them filed for free.

St. Luke’s Marietta, Caring Connection: Caring Connection uses the ECSF grant to provide a month’s free prescriptions for people without insurance. Then staff and volunteers help chronically ill people fill out the application for free or discount prescriptions. Jim Tilley sent this great news: We broke the Million Dollar Barrier on March 8, 2010. Since the program started in November, 2005, we have written prescription drug applications to manufacturers' Patient Assistance Programs to get clients free/very low-cost meds worth $1,004,053.92.

Good Shepherd, Athens, Wednesday Free Lunch: Situated on the campus of Ohio University we regularly serve a number of university students in our Wednesday Free Lunch Program. Recently one of our Free Lunch regulars stopped on her way out to say how much she enjoyed our lunches, and that she hoped to see us again but wouldn’t be returning for the spring quarter. It seems she lives in the Cleveland area and her family owns a florist shop that has been affected by the financial downturn. She will be able to save the family a significant amount of money by living at home and working in the family business, like she did in high school. We wished her well and expressed our sadness to loose her, and our dismay that her education must be interrupted. She said she was hoping to take some course work at a nearby community college, and then return to OU in a year or two to finish her studies.

Diane Donato is the front line of the parish ministry to ex-offenders and homeless people needing ID’s. She wrote: Hi Ariel, These stories make me crazy! This guy could have been working and paying child support for these three years. Jeffrey came in to get his state ID as he was just released from three years of prison. He told me that three years ago he found out that he was the father of a 12 year old son. He was not aware of the child, but Child Enforcement put him in prison for non-payment since the boy’s birth. He is staying at a prison halfway house and has put in 40 applications for jobs, but no bites. Jeffrey is very worried because he has only a short time to get a job and begin making payments on an amount which doubled while he was in prison to the tune of $30,000. If he isn’t employed soon he will go back to prison.