CCS clients seek services, even in the rain

photo by Robert Steiner

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Clients at Catholic Community Services' Hall Food Bank in Ogden stand in orderly lined in the rain waiting to pick up food on a rainy ?drop in? day. A drop in day allows clients to pick up food additional to their regular allotment. Located in a former school building, the Hall Food Bank is the largest food bank in Northern Utah. Donors include the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

by Robert Steiner

CCS Board of Trustees

OGDEN — I made my first visit to Catholic Community Service’s (CCS) Hall Food Bank in Ogden on Jan. 22, 2009. It was the worst day of our temperature inversion in Salt Lake City, but as I drove the 45 minutes to Ogden, a light rain started to fall. About a mile off Ogden’s 24th Street Exit I easily found the Ogden Food Bank. It sits just north of a large flour mill and fairly close to an old Ogden landfill, which looks like pasture land until you are told otherwise.

I passed by the CCS facility a couple of times seeking a parking place. There was a crowd of people standing in two orderly lines in the rain. In the first line, family members were waiting to sign up for a box of food appropriate for their family size. Ahead of them in the second line, other people were receiving their box of supplies from the distribution door. The rain was steady, but no one seemed impatient. Some folks were walking away with boxes brimming with supplies. Some went to a car. Some went toward a bus stop. Some just walked.

I had come to see Sharon Downing, the program director for CCS Northern Utah. We were being joined by Brad Drake, CCS’s executive director. I was to get a tour of the food bank in my new capacity as president of the Board of Trustees of Catholic Community Services of Utah. CCS operates the largest food bank in Northern Utah, serving seven counties. The Utah Food Bank, in Salt Lake City, is a private non-profit operation, but it is not affiliated with CCS. However, these two food banks support each other in serving the needs of the community. Another recognizable partner is the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I saw pallets of canned goods, potatoes and flour which came from one or another of the church’s food processing facilities.

The Ogden Food Bank is in an attractive, historic building. It used to be the Hopkins Public School, dating from the last century. In 2003 Weber County sold the school to the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City so a food bank and accompanying social services could be established in the area. It sits on several acres of land. There is plenty of room for expansion. In 2005, thanks to the generosity of donors, especially United Way of Northern Utah and Alan Hall, the site was refurbished to allow space for case workers, administration, and an after school program. It has an ample parking lot and the landscaping looked as good as it can in winter.

Greeted by Downing in the office, I learned immediately it was "drop day," maybe as in "drop-in." On this day, once a month, needy clients can drop in and ask for food assistance. On this day it doesn’t matter if you already received your month’s regular supply earlier in the week. It is an opportunity for clients to add a little bit to their cupboards, a little bit of food security.

Hundred of food boxes were being distributed. Some donor must have over bought on coffee creamer because there was a quart or so of original flavor creamer in each box. In one box I inspected there was a jar of pickles, a five-pound bag of flour, peanut butter, fresh lettuce, a bag of nectarines and the creamer.

Downing explained that outside of "drop day," families normally receive larger loads of food once a month. Families are pre-qualified in the sense that the food bank needs to know how many people are in each family so an adequate box of food may be prepared for each. I asked Downing whether that box of food was enough for each family. She answered that it would be enough to keep them from starving, but that they would likely be hungry. One hopes that CCS is not our client’s only source of food.

The staging area for the food bank is a fairly large, square, high-ceilinged room. Food is only temporarily stored here. Large bulk containers are in adjacent rooms. About half the food is already sorted when it comes in. Volunteers move smaller amounts from the bulk areas to the staging area. Vegetables are grouped on an outside wall on one side. Potatoes would be in one area; rice, beans, flower, cereals would all be segregated.

Volunteers, or sometimes "trustees" from a local detention center, will start at one end with an empty box and then move around the room to all or most all of the stations. At each station they grab a few cans of this, or a bag of that, until the box becomes an effort to carry. They bring it to a table where other volunteers check that it is given to the correct recipient at the doorway.

I have been thinking that instead of carrying the box around, and balancing it with a hip and an arm while filling it with a free hand, it might be an idea to have a light weight cart on which to rest the box, so that the volunteer doesn’t strain his or her back. There would probably be room in this production line for about ten such carts. That’s what it is, a production line to assemble food for families. It is efficient and smart. It probably takes less than two minutes to load a box.

Downing estimates that CCS distributed about two million pounds of food in 2008. There was an increase in client need in the last quarter of the calendar year. Downing also said some people with jobs have come to her saying their employer just ran out of money to pay them. Let’s say a box weighs 20 pounds. That would mean the food bank distributed one hundred thousand boxes of food last year. If one box were given to one family each month, that would be 8,333 families, according to my sixth grader. We can guess that would help about 30,000 people. They also received some help with rent, and a lot of encouragement.

Downing said food donations have not slowed with the deteriorating economy. Somehow, our donors are still finding it within their means to give. They are not cutting back their giving to their poorest neighbors, even if it means cutting back in other areas of their lives. Perhaps it is just as easy to give in hard times because you feel your gift is more sorely needed, that it will be more appreciated. But I am just guessing.

Toward the end of my visit, sitting across from Downing at her desk, with Drake, and long time CCS board member and the President of United Way of Northern Utah, Bob Hunter, alongside me, we discussed the needs of the food bank. First, Downing said she needs a warehouse to store donated food and to store furniture given to the refugees CCS helps to resettle. Second, she needs a little more space for case-workers. I anticipate fulfilling her needs will be a challenge for our CCS board of trustees this year.