Local agencies need help for the holidays

The holidays are a time of giving, but local agencies are worried about how much they can give to those in need this year with fewer donations and higher demand.

Between Sept. 7 and Oct. 28 Catholic Charities had 125 new families sign up for help this year, and Executive Director of Catholic Charities Faye Rodriguez has no idea where they all came from.
This means demand for help during the holidays has gone up, and Catholic Charities isn't the only agency feeling the demands in Odessa. 

Other local agencies such as The Salvation Army and West Texas Food Bank not only need more food, but both are extremely low on volunteers too. 

"We've heard there have already been layoffs," Rodriguez said.

West Texas Food Bank director of warehouse operations, Elizabeth Wallace, said donations this year have been less than normal.
"There will be absolutely no rice this year," Wallace said. "We would love to be able to give rice to our clients," she said.

Wallace also said she only received one truckload of turkey and ham this year - last year the Food Bank hit the jackpot with three truckloads.

She said the drop in turkey donations is really a huge difference because each truckload has 840 cases of turkeys with four turkeys in each case -so that's about 6,600 fewer turkeys to pass out.

Agencies like The Salvation Army depend on the cheap options at the Food Bank to make their Thanksgiving and Christmas baskets, but they may have to shell out more money than usual this year to purchase their goods elsewhere.

If this does happen, Maj. Carl Hughes said he may have to dip into some of the agency's spending money.
"It will affect us in some ways - we will just have to cut some other things a little deeper," Hughes said.

Hughes picked up a bell himself for the recent bell ringer kick­off event at Wal-Mart. He also said they are still short on bell ringers.

"There's a good possibility I'll be doing it myself some more," he said.

On the other hand, Meals on Wheels will be able to provide enough Turkey Day goods for their 545 clients made up of elderly, the homebound or disabled, but Meals on Wheels Executive Director Margaret Burton said she could always use more.

Burton said the agency has seen more people asking for help - she said with higher cost of living in Odessa hurts those on Social Security or fixed income.

To the same tune, Kathy Goheen with The Salvation Army said she thinks that's what is making her applications for their Empty Stocking charity look a little different this year.

"We've seen less applications, but there are more families living together," Goheen said. She said one of the applications had a set of grandparents, their two daughters that recently moved back home and their children all in one household - totaling 11 people in need.

"The needs are way up because the households are growing," Goheen said.