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Hunger, homelessness hit home in digesting local stats
As many of us await the fabulous feast we know as Thanksgiving, almost smelling the succulent turkey in the oven and the peach cobbler baking, the less-fortunate among us worry about putting food on any table, holiday gathering or not.
That's why it comes as no accident that National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week is observed Nov. 15-23, shining the spotlight for a full week before Thanksgiving on the ongoing issues that evolve as manifestations of extreme poverty.
In Greencastle, several representatives of Beyond Homeless Inc., the organization behind the new shelter that reopened in the old A-Way Home building at 309 E. Franklin St., were on hand as Mayor Sue Murray signed a proclamation designating the period as Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week locally.
The proclamation urges citizens to "donate their time and talents in support of local programs that provide hunger relief, emergency shelter, housing and social services that strengthen families and ask our community to recommit itself to ending the tragedy of hunger and homelessness."
Beyond Homeless has gone a long way toward tackling that issue locally, providing a shelter again after two and a half years without one in Greencastle or Putnam County.
Since opening at the end of March, it has provided shelter for 35 women and 16 children, totaling 2,034 bed nights of shelter, as well as providing 31 nights of hotel stays for men.
As the proclamation was being signed in front of a fireplace at cozy City Hall, just a stone's throw to the northwest seven people were living at the homeless shelter, Executive Director Tanis Monday reported. Five of the shelter residents were adult women and two children.
But that was before the recent snow and cold turned mid-November into mid-January. And now as the holidays and prolonged cold loom, it will only get busier at the shelter, organizers understand.
In speaking before the Greencastle City Council back in August, shelter board member Bob Sedlack, a former City Council member, updated figures on the reopening. He noted at the time there were 15 residents living at the shelter that day as temperatures reached the mid 80s, while nearly 40 had been served at the shelter by the time school had resumed for 2014-15.
"That is quite a remarkable number," Sedlack said, "considering April, May, June and July are the mildest months of the year."
The shelter has been reopened, Sedlack noted with six rooms of four beds each for a total of 24 spots.
"So it's not a lot," he reasoned.
Regardless, he urged the City Council to keep the $10,000 allotment from the city to the shelter in the Greencastle 2015 budget, the same as it provided in 2014.
That is indeed a given, Mayor Murray said.
"It's in the EDIT (Economic Development Income Tax) plan you passed last year," she reminded the Council, alluding to the three-year plan in place.
The shelter's mission, it was pointed out, is to "provide shelter and related services to households experiencing homelessness and extreme poverty."
The latest U.S. Census (2010) indicated that more than 15 percent of Greencastle residents live in poverty.
Startling, too, is the statistic that 78 students in the Greencastle Community School Corporation were identified as homeless (often living with friends or relatives or shuffling between a combination thereof) at the start of the 2014-15 school year. Meanwhile, 46 percent of the students in the school system qualify for the Federal Free/Reduced Price School Breakfast/Lunch Program.
As part of the current Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week observance, Sedlack noted that a Pastors Open House is scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 20 at the shelter.
Pastors from all faith-based communities within Putnam County have been invited to visit the shelter and tour its operations 4-5 p.m. Thursday.
Joining Sedlack and Monday at the proclamation occasion were Doug Cox, Beyond Homeless evening supervisor; Lyn Smith, volunteer and meal coordinator, and Reta Branham, shelter assistant.