Charity serves, without red tape

Life has been stressful for 22-year-old Michael Lemelin. He recently lost the car wash job he'd had for five years and has been unable to find work. His girlfriend works as a stocker at Wal-Mart, but her paycheck isn't enough to cover the bills. Their utilities were shut off for awhile, until a church helped them out.

And they have a 10-month-old son to feed.

So Lemelin is thankful for the Living Faith Food Pantry, which opened in May at Living Faith Church of the Nazarene and - unlike many local pantries - serves anyone in need. Twice a week, he goes to the west-side pantry and picks up two bags of groceries containing fruit, meat, vegetables, canned goods and a few sweets.

"This tides us over for three to four days. After rent, utilities and food for the baby, there's not much left - we're out of luck except for this place," he said.

Lemelin's story is familiar at area food pantries, which are seeing demand like never before. Part of the reason: The ranks of the working poor - people who have jobs but who can't make ends meet - are rapidly growing, according to local human service agencies.

Care and Share Food Bank's 435 distribution sites in southern Colorado are reporting, on average, a 35 to 40 percent increase over last year in the number of people needing food, said Nicholas Saccaro, president and chief executive.

Living Faith is one of 175 food pantries in El Paso County, but the area could use more in underserved locations, particularly in the northern and southern sections of town, as the need continues to grow, said Lori Kapu, chief programs officer for Care and Share.

"More and more people are needing assistance. Families who have never used assistance are finding themselves in crisis," she said.

Yet many food pantries restrict who can get food and how often they can get it to control the supply and demand cycle. Because of the higher need and fewer donations these days, they're also doling out fewer items per person.

"Food is going out as quick as we get it in. Sometimes we run out of items, like peanut butter or spaghetti sauce," said Jenny Kay, volunteer coordinator for Northern Churches Care.

The consortium of 49 churches, one of the area's largest emergency food and services centers, operates near Austin Bluffs Parkway and Academy Boulevard. It serves people living in 14 ZIP codes in the city, and limits the number of times people can get help to three times a year. Demand for food this year is up 38 percent from last year, Kay said. In September, the agency helped 334 families.

Like other food pantries, Living Faith obtains groceries from Care and Share and from kind-hearted souls. But it operates on a different frequency. It doesn't require identification, doesn't limit how often people can get free food and doesn't impose ZIP code boundaries. Since opening six months ago, Living Faith has given out more than 40,000 pounds of food, founder John Corbin said.

The formerly homeless 52-year-old started the pantry because he got frustrated with the red tape he encountered while living on the streets for seven months following an accident.

"We'd lost our apartment, and my wallet with my ID got thrown out with my possessions," he said. "No ID - no food at most places."

The pantry's unorthodox approach helps keep its shelves stocked, Corbin said.

"We go to churches and businesses and show them our numbers and how we're different.
That's how we get our food," Corbin said.

In less than an hour after openingone recent weekday, 53 people had come in to the pantry, and Corbin was happy to distribute food to them all.

"My wife and I got out of the gutter because of a hand up, not a hand out. That's what we're doing here - giving people a hand up. We believe we can change things, one person at a time."

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Contact the writer: 636-0235 or debbie.kelley@gazette.com