Charities trimming turkey dinners

In a sign of economic stress among nonprofits, some food shelves and other helping agencies have cut back on Thanksgiving meals this year, and some likely will change their Christmas services as well.

"There isn't any nonprofit that isn't hurting," said Therese Cain, who leads Little Brothers, Friends of the Elderly. "We're all concentrating on our core mission, and we're making choices we wish we didn't have to make."

On Thursday, her agency will not deliver hot Thanksgiving meals to about 145 frail, isolated older people in the Twin Cities, as in previous years. Instead, some clients will be invited to volunteers' homes, and others have been connected to congregate holiday meals nearby.

ICA Food Shelf in Minnetonka, which gave 900 free Thanksgiving meals to all comers last year, this year gave only turkeys to about 430 regular customers -- saving $10,000 -- "because we have to stretch our food dollars. We're struggling to keep up with demand," said Executive Director Cathy Maes.

In St. Paul, the Hallie Q. Brown Community Center's food shelf would have had no turkeys for its clients because it got none from its food bank, Second Harvest Heartland. When parishioners heard that on Monday at St. Paul-Reformation Lutheran Church, which houses the food shelf, "they went out and got us 20 frozen turkeys," said Hannah Ellis, manager of volunteers and quality assurance. "It was amazing."

Demand exceeds donations

For some agencies, the hard choices are being driven by a 43 percent increase in food shelf visits the past six months while donations remain flat, said Amy Lopez, who tracks food programs for the United Way of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

The 2 million visits to Minnesota food shelves recorded last year, a record, probably has been passed already this year.

But several agencies, including the Salvation Army, Sharing and Caring Hands and other programs that traditionally have offered free sit-down meals on Thanksgiving still are doing so -- one reason that food shelf officials felt more comfortable cutting back special services.

In addition, the Metro Meals on Wheels program, because of a national grant, will increase from 288 to 530 the number of holiday meals that five of its 40 member agencies will deliver on Thanksgiving.

Refocus

Little Brothers ended its Thanksgiving meal so it can refocus the two months of staff work spent organizing the feast to concentrating on year-round volunteer efforts instead.

"The meal didn't cost us that much, because 95 percent of the food was donated," Cain said. "But we have such a need for volunteers to visit Little Brothers clients during the year, to give them rides to doctors, to help with our peer counseling for clients who are depressed."

Little Brothers will hold its traditional Christmas dinner this year, but that may change in the future. "We don't know what we'll do," Cain said. "These days, we have to watch how we use every dollar, every bit of staff time."

To meet rising demand, the ICA program in Minnetonka got a donation to buy a truck used to "rescue" food before it's thrown out from restaurants and groceries, and opened a satellite food shelf in Hopkins.

Still, Maes' staff and volunteers often feel overwhelmed. A new client must wait about 10 days to get food, "and that's not acceptable," she said. Unlike past years, her agency will open this Friday, staffed by its board of directors to give others a break.

"We're having to be very creative, and that's not bad," she said. "Times have changed, and we have to change, too."

While food programs are making hard choices about service, "we need to remember that holiday meals are about more than food," said Joan Watkins, spokeswoman for Second Harvest Heartland.

"Nutrition is critical, but so is the emotional support for a struggling family when they can put on a traditional celebration," she said, "especially at Thanksgiving."

Warren Wolfe • 612-673-7253