Kevin Ryan, our Social Services Program Director, reflects on how we’re supporting each other through our services.
At the close of September of this year, William Temple House will mark a full year of welcoming clients back into our building to access our food pantry. In Spring of 2020, we made the difficult decision to transition our services outdoors in response to the looming threat of COVID-19 to our staff, volunteers, and clients, and, as summer faded and winter weather approached, we made multiple adjustments to our service delivery model and physical space to enable us to reverse that shift and get our community back into our building. As we did so, we experienced the highest participation in our food pantry program during September 2020 than we had ever seen: nearly 70 people accessed the food pantry, over two hours, every day of that month. By comparison, the highest average before that was 66.5 clients per day, but that was when our pantry was open five hours a day instead of two, pre-pandemic.
Responding to Food Insecurity, Together
September, always our busiest month of the year, is also Hunger Action Month, which brings focus to the pervasive and stubborn presence of hunger and seeks to organize communities to act against it and its many causes. Hunger has a stronger foothold in our state than before that pandemic, rising from a food insecurity rate of 12.9% to over 20% in just a few months, and, sadly, it disproportionately affects the BIPOC, LQBTQ+, single parent, and immigrant communities. Despite large increases in federal anti-poverty programs such as SNAP, 60 million people accessed food assistance programs last year in the United States, which is a 50% increase over the previous year. William Temple House is no exception to that trend as we have welcomed more client visits this fiscal year than we ever have, and many of them are experiencing housing insecurity, up from 12% to 20% over the past 18 months. Clearly, as COVID lingers and eviction moratoriums end, more action is needed.
The past year has been incredibly difficult for our community, especially our clients, who face myriad challenges including wildfires, racism, job loss, inflation, eviction fears, xenophobia, and systemic inequities. Yet, they remain resilient. Our clients supported each other while they waited in the smoke to access our food pantry, they shared resources, buoyed each other’s spirits, and continued to exhibit the courage that it takes to navigate a world in crisis. We take heart in their example, and we work to make the experience of coming to William Temple House as dignified and worthy of our clientele as possible, because we believe that food is a human right and that everyone deserves to be emotionally, physically, and spiritually nourished.