Stories of Flood Affected Neighbors

A 92 year old man was reluctant to leave his rented house and all of his belongings. There was mold growing on walls and on his tile floor.  With no family in the area was finally convinced to go to a motel and a niece from Pennsylvanian  took him home with her.   While he escaped with his life he lost everything. 

We just received a thank you note from his niece saying,      " the first thing we did when we got to PA was get him to a doctor.  We caught his pneumonia just in time.  He is doing much better. He wants his own place but we agree it is best for him to stay here with us for now.  We had no idea how bad his house was.  He is very precious to all of us and he will be well taken care of.  Again thank you to Kokomo Urban Outreach and Officer Gunlight   for caring for him.
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One man had just paid off his car, had it parked in front of his house and had no idea that the street was flooding in the middle of the night.  He is not sure what he is going to do.
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A paraplegic was in her hospital bed during the flood.  The water  rushed across her in the middle of the night. She lost here electric bed an her electric wheel chair. For four weeks she slept on a futon mattress on the floor.   She is now in the hospital because flood waters gave her an infection.  Good News:  Homeland Security purchased a bed and wheel chair for her and she will be moving in with family members. 
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Churches like Fresh Start, First Congregational Church and others were first on the scene after the flood water receded helping families carry out wet furniture, carpet etc.    Thanks church for being the Hands and Feet of Jesus.
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Travis Taflinger of Bridges Outreach has spent countless hours in the homes of flood affected families, not only mucking out basements but listening and praying.
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A ten year old boy and his mom and dad came to the Flood Recovery Center to get some clothes for the boy.  They did not know about the Center, the boy had no clothes.  He was wearing a pair of his dad's jeans, holding them up with his hands as he tried to walk without them falling down.  He had not been to school for three weeks.  Because of the community's generosity the young man has some clothing and went back to school.

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I could go on and on.  Deanna a KUO staff person did a great job in organizing and helping our neighbors.  If you want to hear more stories just ask her.   Please keep all flood affected families in your prayers.  Just because the water is gone and things look good on the outside of a house, there is still a great deal of damage on the inside both with physical structures and spirituality. 

Flood Recovery Center Final Report

Flood Recovery Center Report

 May 24, 2013

 Special Thanks to the following for in-kind donations: American Party Time, First Congregational Church, Kokomo Rescue Mission, Salvation Army, Center Township Trustee, Merrill Brothers, Convoy of Hope, Clifford Signs, Grace UMC, Doug Bray Select Equipment, Red Cross, Motel 6, Kokomo Housing Authority, RD Phillips, Morning Star, Sears, JC Penny. Value approx. $60,000-75,000

 Other In-Kind donations(furniture, clothing, toys, household items etc) from individuals valued at approx. $150,000 

 Over 300 volunteers provided 887 hours valued at over $18,000.

 Kokomo Urban Outreach provided 430 staff hours valued at approx. $4,800.

 Nearly 3 tons of food was distributed at Center, about 4 tons of food donated to Center.  (No food was used from Post Office Drive at the Center) 

The Flood Recovery Center staff stood by and walked with  127 families representing 508 people. 

KUO has received a bit over $7,000 from local churches for immediate flood relief. With those funds KUO provided: Gas Cards, Grocery Gift Cards, Fast Food Cards, about 77 nights and extended night stays in Motels( while working with families to find other shelter), application fees for apartments, and utility deposits. 

 Right at a quarter of a million dollars was donated both with in-kind gifts and cash. THANK YOU!!!!!!

Families now will go through case-management to see if needs can be met.

United Methodist Flood Grant Details

·        INVOAD Casework will help determine family needs, however, KUO has total control of Grant Funds;

·        funds will be issued to and administered by Kokomo Urban Outreach ("KUO");

·        funds may be used for any disaster related repair, supply or equipment for the primary residence of KUO approved homeowners including, but not limited to drywall, water heaters, furnaces;

·      KUO must confirm with the local taxing authorities that all property taxes are paid current prior to funding improvements or supplies for said property;

·        KUO will make best effort to record and report to the INUMC Disaster Response Team the number of families/ homeowners benefitted through these grant dollars.

Energy Audit Details

ENERGIZING INDIANA and KOKOMO URBAN OUTREACH

Together we will do powerful things!

Why is an Assessment Helpful?
An Assessment is a smart approach to improve the comfort of your home.  Home Energy Assessments help you raise your home's performance, lower energy bills, improve in-home air quality and increase your home's value.

What is included?
Energy Advisors will analyze your energy use and recommend low-cost energy-saving measures.  Advisors will assess the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems in your home, as well as check insulation levels, window seals and appliance efficiency.

What you will receive!
A comprehensive report detailing what can be done to start saving energy and make your home more comfortable will be provided immediately.  The following items* will be installed or provided: CFL bulbs, Low-flow faucet aerators, low-flow shower heads and a water heater insulation wrap for electric water heaters.
Weatherization services are also available for income-qualified homeowners.
*some limits apply.

Who may apply?
Individuals who pay utilities to one of the following energy providers (Duke Energy, IMPA, Indiana Michigan Power, IPL, NIPSCO, Vectren) may apply.  It doesn't matter if you are a homeowner or a renter.  If you live in a single-family home, duplex, triplex, quadplex or mobile home you qualify.  You do not have to live in Kokomo to receive an Energy Assessment.

How does this support Kokomo Urban Outreach?
For every home enrolled through KUO that completes the assessment, KUO will received $25.

Signing Up is Easy!
Simply follow this link https://energizingindiana.com/kokomourbanoutreach/ and complete the online form.  You will then receive a phone call from Energizing Indiana to schedule your appointment.

IT IS EASY!

THERE IS NO COST!

YOU ARE HELPING KOKOMO URBAN OUTREACH!

Adult Bulling

Adult Bulling

  Most of the children we work with are bullied on a regular basis.  We offer them tools to help them to cope. While childhood bullying is very serious, adult bulling is an ongoing issue.   Adult bullying can happen in marriage, at work, in the community and even in church.  I hope this will give you some tools on how to cope  (like a bee the following information has been “picked up” from many sources and placed here).

Adult bullies are usually, narcissistic.  Narcissistic people  are self-centered with  a grandiose sense of self-importance.  They are preoccupied with success, power, brilliance and/or their beauty.  A narcissist  requires excessive admiration, lacks empathy and humility and are rarely gracious.  

The adult bully is invariably narcissistic and  tend to attack when their ego is threatened. Pushing their face into the truth doesn't seem to help, just makes them more aggressive.  As for compassion, there isn't much.  Everyone who does not agree with or is an obstacle to the bully, are exceptionally stupid, socially inept, or completely incompetent.

Leaders  who bully will often display the following characteristics:

·roles of staff are continuously changed to keep everyone guessing

·loyalty is demanded often with the words “do you trust me”

·jealously and envy of the bully is apparent to everyone except the bully

·invites you to informal meetings which turn out to be disciplinary hearings

·encourages you to feel guilty and to believe you are always the one at fault

·blames others for errors

·makes unreasonable demands

·criticizes the work ability of others

·threatens and insults others

·yells and screams

·steals credit for other’s work

Bullies target people:

·         Who are too good at their job (makes bully look bad)

·         Who are popular with people

·         Who are experts to whom people come to for advice, getting more attention than the bully

·         Who have integrity, morals and values

Tips to cope with Bullies:

·         Don’t feed the beast.  Stay calm.

·         Walk away from confrontations

·         If you can’t walk away Look at him/her calmly and squarely in the eye, and don’t interrupt as they vent on you. After they finish, pause and say, “I’m sorry, but my mind wandered (which you both know is clearly untrue) while you were talking. All I heard was that you’re upset about something and would like me to do something about it. Please tell me again exactly what’s troubling you because I don’t want to do the wrong thing, and I need your input on how to do it without it taking away from other things I’m supposed to be doing.”  Most bullies are better at venting than they are at solving and won’t be prepared for a fair and reasonable request. Instead, your bully will get the clear message that they cannot push you into rage or fear and force you to give in. They’ll probably look at you for a moment just to make sure that they can’t find another way to run you over, then will  go bully someone else.

Signs that you are working with a bully

·         They know what is best

·         They think they have nothing to learn

·         They believe they are more important than others

·         Everyone is a pawn in their game

·         Their excuses, excuse

·         Their rules, rule

·         They contradict themselves, change stories and then deny it.

·         They will keep asking you over and over “Do you trust me”  they want your full allegiance. A person who is genuine in what they say and do very rarely needs to ask you to trust them. find that the people I trust never have to ask it of me, and that I never have to ask it of them. 

*Who Needs the Charmin?

The children rushed up the stairs, as they were so excited to come to their first session of sidewalk Sunday school of the new year. The children all sit down on the floor, the rules of sidewalk Sunday school are reviewed. Rule number one: boys on one side and girls on the other. Rule number two: sit on your pockets. Rule number three: when an adult, counts to three everyone’s quiet. That night, about 30 kids came into the room. We sang some songs, told stories about Jesus, had a prayer time and played a game. A 10-year-old boy won the game. We went to the prize bucket that was at the front of the room to select a prize. When he got there, there were no prizes in the bucket. The bucket was empty. I had forgotten to put the prizes there. I told him that when everybody was gone we would go downstairs to the janitor’s closet where he could pick a prize. When we got down to the janitor’s closet, the boy looked up and saw toilet tissue all across the top shelf. He asked if he could have some toilet tissue instead, so I put tissue in a bag and gave it to him and then invited him to go ahead and pick out a prize. He said, “No, this is my prize. This is all my family needs.”

During the next week I went to visit this young man’s mother and asked what the deal was with the toilet tissue. I really didn’t know. She told me that she was on food stamps. With food stamps you can buy only food. You can’t buy soap, toilet tissue, shampoo, toothpaste, or anything else--- only food. I asked her what she did for toilet tissue. She explained when she gets to the end of the month it is difficult because she’s out of money. “What I do“ she said, “ is I send my son to school. I tell him never to steal, but when he goes to lunch, he should take two napkins. I tell him that every child deserves two napkins one to clean his face and his hands and the other goes into his pocket. When he comes home from school, I take the napkin out of his pocket and I rip it in thirds. I give a third to his brother, I give him a third and I keep a third. That’s how we get through.”

 When I left the house, I learned something about myself and about the way I grew up. We always had toilet tissue in our home; we never worried about that. I learned that day that too many people have to worry about little things in life. I’m so blessed! 

*Excerpted from, Life on the Porch,  all rights reserved  Jeff Newton, copy write, 2012  pages 38-39.

2008 Annual Report

Finances

• 2008 General Giving was about $66,682
• Designated giving was about $47,500
• Financial assistance was also received from the North Indiana Conference of the United Methodist Church and the Bishop's Annual Children's offering
• Three Grants received from North Indiana Conference totaling $3,338
• Family Services Association provided a grant for Baby College
  
• Sponsors gave $20,000 to the Buddy Bag program

Volunteers

• Hosted numbers Adult and church your groups from Howard County and throughout the state
• Hosted three work teams this summer
• To date over 2,500 youth and adults have volunteered and assisted with: organizing food drives, washing dishes, donating food, sorting and packing food, donating household goods and clothing, sorting clothing, as well as gutting and rebuilding the trailer at Riley Modern Estates
• Monthly newsletters are sent to 657 families by email and 30 by regular mail.
• Provided community service house for volunteers and neighbors

Administration and Community Service

• purchased a new computer software fiance package
• Fax Machine provided by Grace UMC has assisted numerous residents in having welfare benefits restored
  
• Additional five hours per week for the Administrative Assistant bringing her to 25 hours per week
• The ministry of KUO has been shared at 5 mission fairs
• Pastor Jeff and Staff has spoke at 52 functions in 2008
• Pastor Jeff won a national award through the United Nations arm of Church Women United
• Pastor Jeff serves as the chair of a faith based group that is helping the community with its vision to strengthen families

Crisis Child Care Center

• Closed due to lack of use. We appreciated the leadership of Lia Sawyer, Renee' Roberts and the nearly 40 volunteers who keep the center running for over a year. Special thanks to Grace United Methodist Church for allowing us to use their space.

Project E.A.T.(Everyone Ate Today)

• Buddy Bags 34,020 meals
• Food Pantries 22,500
• Eat-in and Cook-outs 28,000 meals
• Thanksgiving Dinner 840 meals
• Christmas day Blitz 1000 meals

Grand total of 86,360 meals or 7,000 meals per month average

• Received food from Kroger, Kroger, Kroger, Olive Garden, Park 100, Society of St. Andrews, Marsh and a number of local churches
• Rescue Mission periodically help us with special events
• We are a member of Food Finders in Lafayette and the Fun Food Program at Gordon's Food Service

Outreach Programing

• Added the following Outreach Sites: Vinton Woods, Zion, Parr UMC, Riley Modern Estates, Briarwick
• Opened three new food pantries
• Began a family mentoring program as well as a Mothers Morning Out program at GS
• Starting a Girl and Boy Scout Troop at GS
• Secret Santa Store at GS, PV and Riley
• Easter Basket workshop providing 400 baskets
• Valentines provided for all children at PV and GS
• Backpacks with hygiene supplies given at PV and GS
• Distributed numerous hats, gloves, mittens and coats to those in need
• Continued Sewing Class at GS while participating at three community sales
• Began Adult Computer Classes
• Held a community concert at two locations at the conclusion of Summer Cookouts
• Summer cookouts held each week in 4 locations
• A full bag of socks were given to every child who attend our Thanksgiving Dinners at PV, GS and Riley Modern
• Assisted several new families moving in from homelessness at GS
• Had a booth at the Howard County Fair, "Shining a Light on Hunger"
• Children were blessed in numerous other ways by community organizations an volunteers
• Summer Kindergarten Readiness Class held a GS

Sidewalk Sunday School

• Conducted weekly for children at 4 locations with a fifth that started on January 5th.
• Held Easter Egg Hunts, a fall party and a winter Carnival
• Partnered with the United Methodist Church Cluster to provide a week long VBS program for the community
• IN the past three years KUO has reached 300 different children with at least half receiving Christ
  

Board of Directors

• Stephanie Bergoff was elected Board Chair
• New Board Members include: Jim Clark, Madelyn Stanforth, John Rudy, Walt Doering and Lori Collins
  

Christmas Day

Wow what a day. Thanks to an article in the newspaper we had 146 volunteers make 1000 sack lunches in 35 minutes. We knocked on 800 doors and distributed 800 sack lunches to those who were home. The numbers went like this they are all approx. 300 at Trailer Parks, 300 Garden Square, 200 at Pine Valley. The 200 left-overs were taken to the Favor's Christmas party. I later learned that they were running out of food and the left-overs saved the day. We also found about 20 families whose Christmas wasn't going so well. There was a family with a 3 and 4 year old and an infant without presents. One man who was alone said he hadn't received a Christmas gift in years. He got a whole bunch this year. Another woman had just lost her family to death(children and husband, I believe) she was alone in a trailer with no food and no furniture except for a TV. I realize that I am very blessed and I thank God for all of those who stepped forward to help. Below is the news article that caused so many people to volunteer it was published on Christmas Eve in the Kokomo Tribune, by writer Othello Bach.

True Christmas Giving

By Othello Bach

One frigid Christmas Eve when I was six, my mother had no choice but to take her seven children to the Salvation Army. Bundled up in practically every stitch we owned, and with gunny sacks tied around feet to trudge through the snow, we walked from our shack outside the city limits to a small church where the Salvation Army Santa was supposed to hand out gifts.

My sisters and I had prayed for rubber dolls for weeks. Maybe our prayer would be answered.

I have no idea how far we walked but it seemed like miles, and once there, a crowd jammed the door. Mother kept saying, “I have children here. Please, let us in.” My three older brothers ran around the church and entered through another door. They wanted to get up front, hoping for a better gift.

When we finally wiggled our way inside and squeezed onto a pew, the stifling heat and stench of wet wool coats made me nauseous. We heard Santa “ho-ho-ho-ing” in the front of the room but couldn’t see him. Then we were told to hold up our hands so a lady could bring us presents.

We held our arms as high as we could, but after a while, our elbows sagged. “Keep you hands up!” mother whispered franticly. “Keep them up so you’ll get present.”

We tried. But she had to tell us several times. It was so crowded we just couldn’t be seen. My little sisters began to cry. “Please!” mother called repeatedly. “Over here! I have small children!” When she was finally noticed, a smiling lady handed her three gifts. Instantly our hopes for a doll vanished. The gifts were far too small.

My sisters and I received little rubber trucks.

However, the walk home wasn’t too bad; one of my brothers received a pair of stilts and entertained us stumbling about in the snow. The others received a baseball and bat—plus, our unwanted rubber trucks.

Last night, at Trinity Methodist Church, I watched Pastor Jeff Newton hand out gifts to children whose parents are also experiencing difficult times. One little boy, five or six years old, began to cry because he thought he had been forgotten. But even after he received a gift, he continued to cry. A few minutes later I learned he didn’t like his gift.

That’s when my memory returned like a bolt of lightening, and I suddenly had to blink back tears.

It may appear that a child is selfish and ungrateful to cry in such a circumstance, but when situations seem particularly hopeless, one more disappointment can be unbearable. Then today, I learned that after the program ended, the boy received the gift he longed for: a toy truck! Decades ago, I cried because I got one; last night, he cried because he didn’t!

I hope everyone reading this will consider helping Pastor Jeff Newton fulfill his incredible mission. He established the Kokomo Urban Outreach three years ago, and that year served approximately 50 families. This year, he has served 25,000 meals... so far.

Kokomo Urban Outreach has two locations where 300 dinners are served each week, and in three other locations there are food pantries that provide food to neighborhood families. Pastor Newton and his generous volunteer staff will distribute 1000 Christmas Day sack lunches, but he still needs help packing and delivering on Christmas Day. Packing will begin at 10 AM Christmas Day and deliveries will be made between 11 and 12. If you can help for even one hour, your assistance will be deeply and sincerely appreciated.

As the economy weakens, the number in need will increase each week. Hunger and need do not end after

Christmas. Pastor Jeff constantly needs help keeping the pantries full and continuing to do the work of Kokomo

Urban Outreach. His phone number is: 461-9618. You’ll never regret lending a hand.

Christmas Miracles

After the miracle of serving 840 people Thanksgiving at 5 locations the following miracles occurred:

• Bags and Bags of clothing etc were given to the Outreach. The mound reached the ceiling in our clothing room. A group from Chapel Hill came and sorted it all.
• Wasn't sure how we would secure volunteers for Christmas break lunches received a call from a volunteer named Monica from Delphi, she asked to be put on staff because she recruited help for every day. I gave her a staff T shirt.
  
• Food has been provided out of nowhere for daily Christmas vacation meals at Pine Valley and Trinity.
• Milk came on just before our first day for meals. Fifty- one gallons.
  
• The food pantry gets used to the max each week. Yet God continues to keep it full.
• Needed 1000 pieces of fruit for sack lunches, was just about ready to put out an email plea and a local orchard called and donated 1200 apples.
• The Bishop of the United Methodist Church visited and preached at Trinity on the 14th. He oversees 1200 churches in Indiana and usually only goes to churches that invite him for special occasions. He called me to come here. That visit was wonderful and the bishop has been talking about us to various groups. We received a nice check from someone he spoke to. Let's say it will provide thousands of meals.
  
• Another fine man brought a large check to us out of the blue.
• We received a $1400.00 grant to start food service at two new sites.
• We have received 100's of hats, gloves, and socks. I did say hundreds.
• We added a Secret Santa Site. We needed 600 presents for children to give to their parents. We have more than enough.
• Christmas gifts keep pouring in and we think by the time all is said and done every Sidewalk Sunday School Child will have a gift.
• We have had some awesome new volunteers join our more experienced volunteers
• A brand new stove has been given to the trailer site by a Sunday School Class at Russiaville UMC.
• Two freezer have been given to the Outreach one is for the trailer.
• Money has been provided to buy kitchen appliances at two of our sites.
• Roasters are are being provided to new site.
• My family sorted and packed all of the Secret Santa Stuff
  
• Wasn't sure how we were going to pass out 400 fliers in the trailer park to tell them about Secret Santa, Darren and his group, said no problem we have got it covered. Wow.
  
• We are confident that the new Riley Modern site will open the first of January.
• The first Cycle of Baby College is fully funded(almost $3,000)
• Buddy Bag Sponsor need just completed.

All of the above happened during the last 23 days. Praise God!!!!

New Trailer Project

Click here to see pictures of our Outreach Trailer at Riley Estates.

Blessings so far this year

At Kokomo Urban Outreach we have been blessed by:

• Chapel Hill Dishwashers
• All the great youth groups that have volunteered about 20 different groups
• Society of St. Andrews Potato Drops
• Cowboy Church and Pastor Steve Sherwood
• Giving businesses especially Kim at Kroger
• Support from civic groups
  
• My Tuesday Morning Covenant Group
• Father Richard Lightsey and St. Andrew Episcopal church
• The Board of Directors of Kokomo Urban Outreach

Stephanie Berghoff Board President
Ron Harper Secretary/ Treasurer
Travis Taflinger
Gloria Strickland
Grant Poynter
April Mozingo
Deanna Ancil
Chris Roberts
Walt Doering
Madelyn Stanforth
John Rudy
Lori Collins

• Awesome Volunteers over 2000 strong
• A strong relationship with nearly 50 area churches
  
• Lifesaving Administrative Assistant
• Expansion of Project EAT with a new volunteer coordinator
• Lots of food drives
• A strong connection with other non-profits
• Tons of food given to be distributed
• Wonderful cooks and servers
• Faithful givers
• A vision of the future
  

This list is incomplete, I have just scratched the surface.

Trunk or Trick

Food Pantry Run and the goodness of God

This past week was interesting. Early in the week there was a front page article in the paper with big bold print that said Out of Stock Salvation Army Food Pantry shuts down. Apparently, it was on the radio and TV. From my understanding, the Salvation Army has a yearly budget to buy food from Food Finders in Lafayette. Their budget year starts on October 1, meaning Sept is the last month of their year. When the food ran out last week they closed until October 1 when a new load would be delivered. However, people that depend on the food pantries, panicked on Wednesday there was a run on all the pantries in town. At the end of the day Wednesday most were without food. Our shelves contained 60 jars of peanut butter, 12 cans of soup and 24 cans of green beans. We could not open with that on Monday. However, God is good and God is big and by Friday Night we were completely restocked with our shelves filled to overflowing. Thanks be to God. Thanks for the prayers we really appreciate it. Jeff

Reily Outreach

This summer Mary Ingle went around town asking managers of Apartments/Mobile Home Parks to see if they would be open to us coming in and setting up an Outreach site. Generally, we use community centers. She went to Riley Modern Estates on North Washington St. The manager was not only open to having us in the park, she gave us a trailer with free lot rent. The trailer is junk and had to be gutted. Yesterday was the United Way's Day of Caring. A group from Delphi and a group of students came and helped with the inside demolition. In about two hours the whole trailer was gutted. Kitchen, Living Room, three bedrooms and a bath and a half. Here are the pictures. We will be running Sidewalk School, a food/clothing closet and will be listening to neighbors to see what else we might need. Keep praying!!!

KUO Video

US Poverty Tour

Watch this powerful video.

Click on picture to go to Project EAT website.


Project E.A.T. 's goal is to be sure everyone eats everyday. Kokomo Urban Outreach with the help of churches and organizations are providing food to the food insecure all across Kokomo. Our focus is on childhood hunger. KUO disburses food in a variety of ways---weekend backpacks full of food to weekly meals. This blog is designed to provide hunger awareness and to be a resource of appropriate ways to respond to it.

The logo on this page was designed by some children we serve. I asked them to draw a picture of a city with the sun going down to remind us that no one should go to bed without eating.

Open Letter to Everyone especially United Methodist

Friends,

All across Indiana hunger is quietly on the rise. Hunger is found in every city, town, and county in Indiana. Hunger hits children and senior citizens, hardest. Everyday people in our state and in your community go to bed hungry. It appears that local hunger is not being addressed in many churches. I have had opportunities to speak throughout the state and have learned that few in the church understand the causes, ramifications, and proper response to hunger. While I don't pretend to be an expert, I do see hunger everyday and hear first hand stories about present challenges, as I work with the under-resourced throughout Kokomo. Presently, we are experiencing a crisis in our community that is headed toward or has already arrived in yours.

In October 2007, the State of Indiana rolled-out a new program known as, "The Modernization of the Welfare System". In a 1.6 billion dollar agreement between the State and IBM, the Welfare System was partially privatized, with the new system placed in twelve central Indiana counties including my county--- Howard. In March of 2008, the state added 27 counties in southern and western Indiana, such as Clark, Floyd and Vigo. While we were at Conference, in May of 2008, 20 more counties came on-line: Allen, Adams, DeKalb, Huntington, Jay, Kosciusko, Noble, Steuben, Wells and Whitley in northeast Indiana and Daviess, Dubois, Gibson, Knox, Pike, Perry, Posey, Spencer, Warrick and Vanderburgh in southwest Indiana. Within a few weeks "The Region" will come on board followed by Indianapolis.

It has now been the nine months since the first counties were rolled out and from my experience it has been a difficult transition. There are no more face to face interviews to apply or reapply for welfare benefits which include: Food Stamps, Medicaid and TANF (Temporary Aid to Needy Families formally known as welfare cash). Applications for benefits are to be submitted by phone, on-line, or fax. The problem is that few under-resource families have access to phones, computers or fax machines. Many families in my neighborhood have lost their stamps for improperly filling out a form sometimes it is as simple as not putting in zip code or as big as not submitting proper records. When an application is rejected, a letter of denial is sent, families then must reapply from scratch with benefits taking up to 90 days to be restored. While many are successful in securing benefits, others with little education, mental issues, or other life uncertainties, find it difficult to maneuver through the system, resulting in benefit loss.

The State thought that most would apply on-line not by phone. A recent update on the roll-out shows that Hoosiers so far are favoring the call centers over the Internet, with 800,000 calls versus 22,000 online applications (Welfare shift debuts under fire By Niki Kelly, Published: May 22, 2008 The Journal Gazette, Ft. Wayne, IN). The volume of calls has overwhelmed the call centers causing great frustration for applicants. In Kokomo, we help our neighbors fax information, yet, most have to be faxed late at night or on the weekend as the call centers fax machines can't handle the load.

What are the ramifications of the "Modernized of the Welfare System"?

• Hunger is on the upswing, especially since school is out with few communities offering a summer lunch program.

• A great deal of pressure has been put on local food pantries trying to keep up with increased demand. The pantry at Kokomo Urban Outreach was providing food once a month to an average of 40 families. In May and June we served over 200 families. Every pantry in town is being taxed to its limits.

• The local economy has been affected, grocery stores derives a significant portion of their income from food stamps. According to one grocery manager, in Kokomo, people will soon be losing jobs.
  

• It has put stress on low-income families. Many families were barely getting by but without food stamps it has become a day to day worry of how to feed the children.

• The loss of Medicaid has made it hard for children to secure medicines. Many of the children we work with have moderate to severe mental disabilities, the lack of medicine caused several children not to be able to function at school.

Just this week emergency Food Stamps became available to flood victims in southern Indiana. It is a wonderful thing to offer flood victims emergency Food Stamps, it is my prayer that they will actually get them in a timely fashion.

Loss of TANF(cash benefits averaging about $200.00 per month) have caused evictions, sanitary issues (food stamps is only for food not soap, laundry soap, toothpaste, shampoo or toilet tissue with no cash to secure needed items families do without) and transportation problems(no money for gas, taxi, bus etc).

The whole scenario is putting a strain on families (domestic violence is on the rise); crime in our area is on the rise, as well as homelessness.

Once food stamps are secure the rising cost of food makes it very difficult for families to stretch food dollars. Lack of transportation, whether due to no car or no gas, keeps families from using their food stamp dollars, prudently. Not being able to go to larger groceries with the better prices, forces many to shop at neighborhood convenience stores.

According to the USDA website, the average Food Stamp benefit per person in the State of Indiana is $3.13 per day. A family of four would receive $12.52 daily. I wonder what would happen if every United Methodist took a week and spent $3.13 a day on food. Would it be possible to organize a "Food Stamp Challenge" and journal our experiences? Is it even possible to live on $3.13 per day? Maybe for an extra challenge we would have to secure our food without the benefit of transportation. Just a thought.

This email is far too long and I heard we are not to link to other sites. If you email me I will send you resources and ideas that will put your Church in a position to respond to hunger in your community. I will, also, send you links of recent local news articles dealing with the "Modernization of the Welfare System".

Peace,

Jeff Newton

" I was hungry and you gave me something to eat...."

- Jesus

Note: While this sounds like I am against government "privatization" I am really not for or against anything. I just want everyone to eat and to become self-sufficient. I contacted my State Representative and he visited us on a Sunday night where we serving a meal to 183 people(we only seat about 100 in our fellowship hall). He gave me an 800 number to call to complain about the system, we made copies of it and passed it out to all who were having trouble. Every adult in the room asked for the number. I do think it is hard to take the "human" out of human services. JN

Lowell Work Team

Today a 24 person work team from Lowell Indiana came to town to help us out. They completed about 132 hours of work translating into a gift to KUO and the church of $2640.00. WOW!!!! They:

• Remodeled two restrooms
• Cleaned Kitchen including 2 refrigerators and defrosted a freezer
• Put away about 500 items of food in the food pantry
• Cleaned, primed and painted the food pantry room
• Put together about 100 craft projects for VBS
• Installed an Air conditioner in the Sanctuary
• Sorted a large amount of clothing
• Did exploratory surgery on a water fountain :)
  
• Donated 5 computer monitors
  
• Donated Several bags of groceries
  
• Left through volunteers about $150.00 in cash
• Brought a smile and some joy to about 25 children---- which is priceless

Thanks Lowell friends. Jeff

Cook-Outs

Cook Outs are now being held in four locations Garden Square, Pine Valley, Briarwick and Parr UMC on any given Sunday about 450-500 people are being served. The Parr/Oakbrook partnership seems to be working well. Hot dogs are pouring in but buns are a bit harder to come by. We are making it. Keep us in your prayers. Jeff