More kids are feeling financial stress
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By ERIN ANDERSEN / Lincoln Journal Star
The mother apologized. Her son would miss school. She had driven her husband to work across town and had run out of gas.
She didn’t have the money to get back home, or to get her son to Belmont Elementary School.
Another time, a mom called to see if the school could find some clothes for her children.
Then there was the distraught mom who came in asking if the school had any food it could give her to keep her children fed over the weekend.
“The calls we get break my heart,” said Principal Deb Dabbert.
“We have more students living at the (People’s City) Mission, than we did one year ago at this time. ... It feels like we have more (families struggling).”
Everyone knows the economy is in trouble.
But children, who often are shielded from financial difficulties, are feeling the stress this time around, said Beatty Brasch, executive director of the Center for People in Need.
“Kids don’t know what they are coming home to. Their parents are stressed and are spending less quality time with the kids. Families that were living with plenty, all of a sudden don’t have enough to live on,” Brasch said.
Families that were just getting by, aren’t any more, said Sheila Schlisner, executive director of the Center for People in Need.
“We’re seeing more and more families coming with a sense of desperation,” she said. “Some of them are angry — and with good reason — they are doing their best, and their best isn’t good enough.”
People are scared — more so than ever before, says Susanne Blue, executive director of Matt Talbot Kitchen.
Money is tight. The numbers of people seeking help are up. Donations are down. Assistance funds are being used up almost as quickly as they become available. And there is an increasing sense of desperation among people in need that the money, food and assistance will run out before they get to the front of the line.
With winter just around the corner, those who work with struggling families fear what lies ahead.
Even families that are not necessarily “living on the edge” are feeling a pinch that plays out in every part of their lives, from the clothes they buy and the foods they eat, to the activities they pursue.
It’s a tough time, agreed Nancy Mize, outpatient service director at Child Guidance Center. But it can be a good time to reconnect with the values that are most important — family.
Whether you are simply cutting back or are facing foreclosure, families need to recognize the value of one another, Mize said.
“We have to emphasize the fact that ‘we are a family, we are together and we are going to get through this.’”
Increasingly, those seeking assistance are families — mothers, fathers and grandparents raising children, Brasch said.
Among the various agencies working with the poor, estimates range from one-quarter to one-half of their clients are families with children.
Signs of struggle
The economy is THE topic of conversation.
Kids can’t help but hear it, Mize said.
Kids can’t help but feel the stress and anxiety their parents grapple with, said Sarah Fentress, outreach coordinator for Matt Talbot Kitchen.
Anecdotes illustrate stories of families living in vans, parents choosing between medication or milk for their child, kids hoping no one sees their family waiting in line to eat at Matt Talbot.
The numbers offer proof.
This year Belmont Elementary School doubled its school backpack weekend food program from 50 to 100 backpacks.
“Even with the increase, we have kids on a waiting list,” Dabbert said. “Determining who needs it over another person, that is the hard part.”
Last Friday, Lincoln Public Schools took its annual count of kids receiving free and reduced- price meals. Numbers were up 20 percent — 13,537 this September, compared to 10,889 at the same time last year, said Edith Zumwalt, director of nutrition services.
At some schools the jumps were significant — Park Middle school 476 students, up 140 from last year; North Star High School 847 students, up 183 students; and Lincoln High, 853 students, up 208 from last year.
At Saratoga Elementary, 82 percent of the students now receive free and reduced meals, compared to 73 percent last year, said Principal Kathy Fleming.
With the increase in income- eligible students comes an increase in kids able to receive their band and orchestra instruments rent-free from the district. To accommodate the growing numbers, LPS purchased another 160 violins for a total of 360 violins now placed in the hands of low-income students. The district also provides 166 band instruments to students for free, said Ray Lowther, supervisor of music.
So far this year, there is a 25 percent increase in the number of families receiving food through the Center for People in Need programs, said Brasch.
At the Good Neighbor Center, people are lining up for food long before the doors open, Schlisner said. As of Sept. 18, the center had distributed 425,000 pounds of food this year, compared to 364,000 pounds of food for all of 2007.
Matt Talbot Kitchen is seeing a large increase in families coming for free hot meals. When Fentress began working at the kitchen 15 years ago, it saw 30 to 40 people a day.
“Now it is well over 150 to 250 people a day, depending on the time of the month,” she said.
Many are families living on the edge, she said.
“Families are having to spend all of their food dollars to pay electricity costs,” Fentress said.
Not only is Matt Talbot receiving more requests for financial assistance, it is seeing an increase in the amount of money people need to get by.
What used to carry families through most of the month, is now gone within the first two weeks, Blue said.
And what used to be requests for $200 utility bills, are now $2,000 utility bills — mainly because the system allows families to receive utility assistance only once a year.
Families know the money goes fast, so many approach numerous agencies, hoping one will select them, Fentress said.
In fact staff at Voices of Hope, which works with spousal victims of rape and abuse, say they are receiving calls for financial assistance from people who are not even domestic abuse victims, said Patsy Martin, communications coordinator.
“There are so many issues. People are just trying to get on their feet, and the poor economy is making it tougher,” Martin said.
For kids the stress plays out in stomachaches, headaches and behavioral problems. At first it may be an adventure to eat at Matt Talbot Kitchen or live in a shelter, but quickly it turns to discomfort and a longing for the familiar life. By the age of 8 or 10, kids are embarrassed to be seen at places that help the poor or wear recycled clothing.
Which is why schools are offering more programs to help their families, from Clinic with a Heart free medical care, to clothes closets, to the unwavering expectations of learning.
“Kids know every morning when they walk into school they will have a hot breakfast, they will have class every day and that there are real specific boundaries and expectations. They know that the teachers love them and will take great care of them,” Dabbert said.
“We offer a predictable routine that kids will excel in. It makes them feel like normal kids.”
Reach Erin Andersen at 473-7217 or eandersen@journalstar.com.
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