Focus | A hand up to local agencies

Augusta Health Foundation monies help agencies help those most in need

Story by Chris Graham
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Running a food pantry isn’t easy even when times are supposedly good. Try getting enough food in to help those who are in need when things aren’t so good.

“These organizations didn’t see a commensurate increase in donations to help them pay their bills,” said Michael McKee, the vice president of planning and development at the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank, which with the aid of the Augusta Health Foundation set up a program to help food pantries and soup kitchens in the Greater Augusta area purchase needed foodstuffs.

Pantries and soup kitchens can get food from the Food Bank for 6 cents to 15 cents a pound in shared-maintenance fees that go to the cost of overhead at the Food Bank. A $20,000 grant from the Augusta Health Foundation established a credit program that “allowing those entities to acquire much more food from us than they otherwise would have been able to, and keep pace with the soaring demands locally,” McKee said.

The grant was among $124,500 in grants and gifts distributed to local charities by the Foundation. The bulk of the monies went to agencies helping people work through the continuing economic downturn, like the Food Bank and like Valley Hope Couseling Center, which received an $11,000 grant to expand its available counseling services to low-income area residents.

“Our numbers have almost doubled in two years,” executive director Ginny Harris said, and not only does the Center have more clients today, “but we have more clients who are in serious need. The historical data suggest that in difficult economic times there’s an increase in substance abuse, domestic violence, suicides. We’re certainly dealing with all those issues on a daily basis.”

A $2,500 gift from the Foundation will help jumpstart a new job loss-counseling program being put together by Lutheran Family Services grief-support specialist Cynthia Long. The gift from the Foundation and another from the United Way of Greater Augusta will fund the formation of support groups in Augusta County, Staunton and Waynesboro for people who have lost their jobs and are struggling to cope with emotional issues resulting from their job loss.

The support groups will meet beginning Jan. 12, Long said.

“The support groups will be an opportunity for people to come and talk and share feelings and emotions and struggles with other people who are going through the same thing,” said Long, who equates the approach to support groups for people coping with a death or separation and divorce and other kinds of loss.

“We know with this deep recession that people are losing their jobs, and the people at the employment office are great at talking with people about their resumes and getting job applications in and that sort of thing, but there are few people who want to hear the emotional part of it. How is this impacting your marriage? How are you dealing with the stress? Let’s talk about that. What are ways you can cope with your anger? Are you depressed? Are you resentful – maybe your spouse is working, and you’re not, and you’re sniping at night and causing fights? Someone else in the group might be walking that same walk, and you and he or she can figure out better ways to handle that situation and make life better,” Long said.