Continuing the practice of ‘interfaith packings’ to prepare bags of food for hungry children for the weekends, youth from several faith congregations met at St. Francis by the Sea Catholic Church on Sunday, March 18. This marked the second youth … Continue reading
Two years ago, Congregation Beth Yam sponsored a town meeting to address hunger and homelessness in Beaufort County. The Hunger and Homeless Coalition was formed as a result.
At this meeting, the coalition plans to review its progress, plan how to meet community needs and how to collaborate with other charitable groups.
Details: Walt Schymik at 843-681-5860
Posted in Press Releases
Fred Leyda of the Beaufort County Alliance for Human Services will be the featured speaker during a hunger and homelessness discussion from 7 to 9 p.m. March 13 at Congregation Beth Yam, 4501 Meeting St., on Hilton Head Island.
Details: Walt Schymik at 843-681-5860.
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A hidden population lives on the margins in Beaufort County — one that struggles to feed, shelter and care for itself day-to-day.
It’s a population that sleeps in cars or under tents and tarps in the woods or surfs from sofa to sofa in the homes of friends and family.
“These people are almost invisible,” said Lolita Huckaby, secretary of the Community Services Organization, composed of 35 nonprofit and service agencies that assist the homeless. “They’re not standing on the roadside holding a sign, but they are there. They are among us.”
Fortunately, more of them are being found and cared for, said Fred Leyda, facilitator of the Beaufort County Alliance for Human Services.
But efforts to keep them fed and provide a roof over their heads remain daunting, local homeless advocates say.
On March 13, members of the Hilton Head Hunger and Homeless Coalition plan to gather to review progress made over their first two years as a group and plan ways to better provide services.
Area churches and groups conducted a count of the homeless in Beaufort County in January 2011 to better evaluate their needs and get them help. The survey, done every two years as part of a national homeless count through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, documented 211 homeless people.
Only 17 people were counted as homeless in Beaufort County in 2009.
Getting realistic numbers in the past was difficult because traditional surveys, such as those by telephone, do not work well, said Betsy Doughtie, executive director of The Deep Well Project, which helps people on Hilton Head and the surrounding area in emergency situations.
Last year, HUD-trained survey takers canvassed the county looking for the homeless and went to places they congregate, including libraries, Leyda said.
Community service groups also sponsored events providing meals, clothing and other services to the homeless to promote the count.
“We’ve found more and more people who are part of this invisible population,” Leyda said. “And, as a result, we’re getting a better handle on what’s actually happening with hunger and homelessness in the county and what they need to get them out of that situation.”
Progress is being made, Leyda said. New soup kitchens have sprung up in Bluffton and on Hilton Head.
The Community Services Organization provides basic medical, dental and mental health screenings, food, clothing and other basic items for the homeless at the Charles Lind Brown Activity Center in Beaufort about every six months. The next event is scheduled for April 28.
The county, however, still lacks a permanent shelter for the homeless, who are put in motels for a short time, sleep at host churches or bused to shelters in Savannah.
In the meantime, Leyda said, the alliance hopes to develop “transitional housing options” as well as a panel of experts to help homeless people connect to resources providing housing assistance, as well as financial advice and counseling for drug and alcohol abuse and mental illness.
“We need to address the underlying causes for being indigent, whether it’s mental illness, drug and alcohol use, credit counseling and recovery, job training, etc.,” Leyda said.
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By: Justin Paprocki
jpaprocki@islandpacket.com
Program helps feed students on weekends, Nov. 22, 2010
Oftentimes hunger and homelessness go unnoticed on Hilton Head Island, obscured by the gated neighborhoods and lush environment.
Organizations, frequently led by local churches, have tried to make sure those in need get help. Now one of those organizations is getting recognition for its service.
Congregation Beth Yam is the recipient of the Irving J. Fain Award, a recognition of social action programs by the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism in Washington, D.C. Beth Yam was one of 18 congregations recognized this year out of the 900-plus reform synagogues nationwide that are part of the Union for Reform Judaism.
Beth Yam spearheaded the Hunger and Homeless Coalition, a local network of about a half dozen churches that have started programs to help the needy. Most recognizable is the Backpack Buddies program, spurred by the fact that close to half of the enrollment at the public elementary schools receive free or reduced-price meals. The question remained: What do those children eat when they’re not in school? The coalition has teamed with three elementary schools to give 50 of the most needy children a package of food to last them the weekend.
The coalition also has helped out at Holy Family Catholic Church’s soup kitchen, providing food, clothing and toiletries. It’s also compiled a list that police can give to the homeless that details where they can get help.
All this has come together in a somewhat short time for the congregation. It started with a “Help — I’m Hungry” forum held March 2010 at Beth Yam. The forum brought together community religious, political, school and nonprofit group leaders to discuss ways to combat homelessness.
The interest was high enough that the coalition was formed shortly after. Within months, Backpack Buddies was under way.
“I was shocked,” said Janet Weingarten, who attended the forum and now heads Backpack Buddies. “It was very revealing. There is nothing worse than a hungry child or a cold adult or those without.”
The coalition also is taking steps for programs that can find places for the homeless to stay during the winter with an ultimate goal of establishing a homeless shelter. It’s working alongside groups such as Family Promise, which started a day center in Bluffton for local families to shower, eat and look for work.
Hilton Head has as small Jewish population; Beth Yam has slightly more than 200 members. But by banding with other churches and organizations, its ability to change can be felt even more, leaders said.
“Hilton Head is a beautiful place,” said Twyla Sable, co-chairwoman of the coalition. “You come here and think this is the perfect place. Then you find out it’s not. If you’re cold or if you’re stomach is empty, you don’t get to see that beauty.”
To get involved in the Backpack Buddies program, call 843-342-3386.
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Source: IslandPacket
I was grateful to see your Nov. 22 article on the newly formed Hilton Head Island Backpack Buddies program.
The excellent article gave details concerning the formation of this new nonprofit organization, whose mission is to ensure that youngsters who get subsidized meals during the school week do not go hungry on weekends. As the article pointed out, about 80,000 children in coastal South Carolina go hungry every day. Facts like this tend to get washed away by the tides of our beautiful beaches. It is easy to forget there are many people who need our help.
Kudos to Janet Weingarten, Twyla Sable, Judie Aronson and other members of Congregation Beth Yam who saw a need and pursued a solution. Their initiative and vision helped create a program that provides child-friendly, nutritional food on weekends to 50 youngsters in three Hilton Head elementary schools. Under their leadership, a partnership was formed with the Lowcountry Food Bank. They reached out to area churches, and the congregations of St. Andrew By-the-Sea United Methodist Church and First Presbyterian Church responded with time, talent, treasure and work space.
In a few short months, these women have created an ecumenical team focused on a common goal: Help eradicate hunger on Hilton Head. The need for this program extends far beyond 50 youngsters, but as they say, you have to start somewhere. I am certain that as individuals, churches and organizations learn more about Backpack Buddies, they will want to offer their support.
Carole Galli Hilton Head Island
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Lowcountry Food Bank partners with local volunteers to ensure students don’t go hungry when away from school.
By AMY COYNE BREDESON abredeson@islandpacket.com
843-706-8134
Published Monday, November 22, 2010
The Hard Facts on Hunger - About 191,000 people rely on food stamps, food shelters, pantries and soup kitchens in coastal South Carolina every year. – About 80,000 children in coastal South Carolina go hungry every day. – The Lowcountry Food Bank raises more than $50,000 a year to run the Backpack Buddies program in Beaufort.
(Source: Lowcountry Food Bank director of development and programs, Ilze Astad)
When most people think of hungry children, the tourist-friendly shores of Beaufort County don’t come to mind. But the truth is even in a beautiful resort town such as Hilton Head Island, children go hungry at times — especially on the weekends, when they aren’t being fed at school.
Thanks to the Charleston-based Lowcountry Food Bank, school administrators and a group of caring citizens, at least 50 Hilton Head children won’t go without that basic necessity on Saturdays and Sundays.
The Hilton Head Island Hunger and Homelessness Coalition joined forces with the food bank and administrators at the three public elementary schools on Hilton Head — Hilton Head Island Elementary School, Hilton Head Island Elementary School for the Creative Arts and Hilton Head Island Early Childhood Center — to offer the Backpack Buddies program on Hilton Head. The coalition began feeding children on the island in September. The program already serves several schools in the Beaufort area but is not yet available in Bluffton.
“You hear about children starving all over the world, which is horrible, but we have children right here,” said Janet Weingarten, chairwoman of the Hilton Head backpack program.
Backpack Buddies is an initiative of the domestic hunger-relief charity Feeding America, a network of more than 200 food banks across the country, including the one in Charleston.
The Lowcountry Food Bank provides backpacks and healthy, child-friendly, shelf-sustainable food to about 2,300 of the neediest children at 53 different schools in coastal South Carolina through the backpack program, according to Lowcountry Food Bank director of development and programs Ilze Astad. The program benefits students at 12 schools in Beaufort County.
Once a month volunteers pick up food from a Lowcountry Food Bank storage facility in Yemassee and deliver it to St. Andrew By-the-Sea United Methodist Church on Hilton Head for storage.
Volunteers pack the food in plastic bags at the church and deliver them to the schools. Then volunteers go to the schools every Friday to put the plastic bags into the backpacks. School personnel distribute the backpacks to the students every Friday.
The empty backpacks are returned to school Monday or Tuesday and held for repacking the following Friday.
Each area’s backpack program is administered by a community partner, such as the coalition on Hilton Head. Astad said Seaside Vineyard is its partner in Beaufort, where volunteers pack and deliver food to Beaufort Elementary School, Broad River Elementary School, James J. Davis Early Childhood Education Center, Lady’s Island Elementary School, Lady’s Island Middle School, Joseph S. Shanklin Elementary School, St. Helena Elementary School, Whale Branch Elementary School and Shell Point Elementary School.
Astad said the food bank selects schools based on data from the National School Lunch Program, which helps children buy school lunches. School administrators help the food bank determine who the neediest children are based on a variety of factors, including physical well-being; behavioral attributes, such as rushing to food lines; signs of malnutrition, such as extreme thinness, chronically dried/cracked lips and itchy eyes; school performance; excessive absences; short attention span and inability to concentrate.
“It’s really sad that in this day and age in the United States that we have to use this checklist to identify children that are food insecure,” Astad said.
The Hilton Head program includes volunteers from Congregation Beth Yam, St. Andrew By-the-Sea United Methodist Church and First Presbyterian Church, as well as other individuals in the community.
Weingarten said her group would like to provide food for 100 children by next school year and eventually go beyond that. The group also would like to expand to Bluffton.
For now, the Hilton Head group is working to achieve its 501(c)3 nonprofit status and is looking for grants to expand the program.
“Childhood hunger is just widespread in this area,” Astad said. “At no point is that OK.”
Be a Backpack Buddy
To volunteer with the Backpack Buddies Program of Hilton Head Island, e-mail hungerandhomelesscoalitionhhi@gmail.com, or call 843-342-6126 or 843-342-3386.
Checks can be made out to The Hunger and Homelessness Coalition, noted they are for the Backpack Buddies program and sent to P.O. Box 22738, Hilton Head Island, SC 29925.
For information on the Backpack programs in coastal South Carolina, call Deb Loesel at 843-747-8146, ext. 110, e-mail dloesel@lcfbank.org or go to www.lowcountryfoodbank.org.
What’s in the bag?
Each three-pound backpack includes: two single-serving cereals, two protein items, two dairy items, two fruit items and granola bars.
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