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[Back to index of July/August articles] Hunger Fund’s cupboard is almost bare By Dana Wilkie When the Episcopal Diocese of Washington’s Hunger Fund Committee met last May, members discovered that for the first time in the fund’s roughly 15-year history, they did not have enough money to honor the grant requests before them. Whether that’s because there is more need or fewer donations is a matter of debate among committee members. The committee, whose money comes strictly from donations, awarded $39,000 in grants last year, roughly what it awarded the previous year. Halfway into 2005, however, the committee has awarded four grants totaling $14,130, but has only $2,500 left-not nearly enough to respond fully to three requests totaling $9,000. “When I started, we could always fund the requests that came in,” said Lee Mericle, one of eight members of the Hunger Fund Committee, which was created in the mid 1980s. “But in the past year or so, we haven’t had the funds, so we’ve been putting off [awards], or partially funding [requests]. It’s been getting to be more and more of a problem.” Grant requests come from a variety of hunger programs such as Shepherd’s Table, Central Union Mission, Loves and Fishes and the Manna Food Center. Typically, the organizations ask for modest amounts-from $1,500 to $4,000. “We have sometimes as many as five or 10 applications from organizations asking for money-for anything from a soup kitchen to a food pantry to programs serving specific populations like battered women,” said the Rev. Eric Shoemaker, a deacon at Christ Church, Port Tobacco, in La Plata. “They’re not asking for exorbitant amounts.” But keeping the committee’s work in the minds of parishioners has proved difficult. In 1978, the diocese’s Hunger Resolution “urged parishes, congregations and missions to contribute to hunger relief by encouraging each family… to contribute one dollar a month for hunger relief.” Additionally, the diocese provides envelopes marked “Hunger Fund” in pew racks, which rectors try to call attention to before the offertory. In reality, very few families contribute. Of the diocese’s 94 congregations, Mericle said, only 19 supported the Hunger Fund Committee last year, either with donations or by participating in the annual Hunger Walk, which typically raises $2,500 to $3,000 in pledges. “I doubt many people even know about it, to tell you the truth,” said Mericle, a parishioner at St. Mark’s Church in the Fairland section of Silver Spring. “We’re not up to $1 per person each year, much less $1 per person each month.” Committee members say part of the problem is that more organizations have applied for money, partly because government has cut funding for programs for the needy, partly because there are more hungry people, and partly because the committee has encouraged more applications. “We made an effort to reach more people, and we were maybe too successful in that and received a spike in applications,” said committee chairman Keith Powell. Most committee members believe that part of the problem is the itinerant nature of rectors-who tend to move on to new parishes after a few years. “One rector may be familiar with the Hunger Committee, then they leave and the next person comes in and doesn’t know about it,” said Powell, a member of St. George’s Church in the District. “They get inundated with other things, and a lot of things are competing for money.” A program at Powell’s church called Kwanzaa Kitchen is among those that receive a Hunger Fund grant. The program serves as many as 200 people breakfast two Sundays a month. “They were in very dire straits just a few months ago, and almost on the verge of shutting down,” Powell said. “They submitted an application and we were able to give them $3,700 to buy the bacon and eggs.” Shoemaker is one of the committee’s newest members, having joined this past fall. He has suggested that committee members begin attending the annual meetings of the diocese’s regional bodies, which draw clergy as well as laypeople. Members, he suggests, could provide 20-minute presentations on the Hunger Fund and provide literature with simple suggestions for encouraging parishioners to make Hunger Fund contributions weekly or monthly. “It’s just a matter of advertising-getting the word out that the Hunger Fund exists, here’s what we do and it’s easy to contribute,” Shoemaker said. “If it’s not on their radar, it needs to go there.” [Back to index of July/August articles]
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