Written by
Lynn Monty, December 16, 2011
Christine Cousineau, 62, of Burlington sees this first-hand every week.
“For a long time, I had a habit of giving people the food right out of my cabinets,” she said. “Now, I ask them to meet me at the food shelf.”
Cousineau has volunteered at the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf for five years.
“People go hungry because they are embarrassed, or they didn’t realize the food shelf was there, or they didn’t know they could go,” she said.
The Giving Season campaign is a tradition at the Burlington Free Press. It is designed to bring awareness and financial support to local nonprofits, such as the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf, which provide crucial assistance to those in need. This campaign continues through New Year’s Day.
The food shelf operates with about 1,000 volunteers and 1 million pounds of donated food throughout the year.
The number of Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf volunteers and food donations are down, director Rob Meehan said. The holiday season usually brings in about 30 percent of the food shelf’s annual $1 million operating budget. But with the influx of people in need of food this holiday season, the food shelf is having a harder time keeping its shelves stocked, he said. People are being urged to donate time, food and money.
Since Thanksgiving, the Giving Season has generated $670 in donations.
Meehan said the situation is dire. The food shelf does not receive federal funding and depends on community support to help feed about 12,000 Vermonters annually.
According to the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf website, from 2005 to 2007 the U.S. census three-year average indicated that 68,700 Vermonters, lived in food insecure households, and 12,290 Vermont children depend on food shelves each month.
Single parents in line at the food shelf are a common occurrence, Cousineau said. She met a single father on the job recently.
“His whole life fell apart,” she said quietly. “He lost his job. His wife left him with the kids, and his mother died. He had no idea what he was going to do.”
The reasons why people need the food shelf vary, but one pervasive theme is a break in the family unit, she said. “There are so many young women with children coming in, it makes me cry to think about it.”
Cousineau can relate because she was a single mother raising four children. She often depended on the food shelf to put a balanced meal on the table for her family.
Cousineau wore a blue sweater decorated with whimsical animals as she spoke of leaner times. Her mouth curved into a slight smile between each sentence, as if those times also carried a bit of joy along with them. She’s a grandmother now, with a list of Christmas goodies to bake and decorations to erect.
It sometimes felt like a loosing battle all the way around, she remembered.
“But I don’t like to complain. What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger, I always say.”
Cousineau grew up in South Burlington, across from the airport, in a time that was a lot different than it is now, she said. She was proud to note that she was raised in a culture of caring and giving. It was how things were done in her family.
Since then, she’s seen the world grow a little greedy, she said.
Cousineau said people today are working hard when there is work but the economy makes it harder to stay employed, and to pay for the necessities of living.
A recent analysis by USA Today of the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey for 2006 to 2010 showed that in greater Burlington metro area — about 211,000 people — the middle class’ share of income decreased 3.9 percent from 51.6 percent to 47.7 percent, during that four-year period. At that rate, the decrease is faster here than most of the rest of the country.
So many people in Burlington are just one disaster away from poverty, Cousineau said.
“If you’re not pulling in massive money, you probably are feeling more than a pinch right now,” she said. “People are coming in for help that you never would have thought would be needing it. Most everyone who comes in has a job, but can’t make enough money to make ends meet. Vermont is an expensive state to live in with what they pay us around here. Now with the economy, it’s even worse.”
Vermont’s minimum wage is $8.10 per hour. According to The National Center on Family Homelessness website, the income needed for a two bedroom apartment in Vermont is $17.70 an hour. Experts recommend one-third of a person’s income be spent on housing. In Vermont, 22 percent of households pay more than 50 percent of their income on rent.
When life gets a interrupted, the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf is there to help, Cousineau said. “It doesn’t even matter what walk of life you come from, we are here,” she said.
“Makes me feel great to be there and help people get what they need,” she said. “There are people coming in like I was years ago, embarrassed. I am there to make them feel better about it. There are so many of us that need help from time to time. I’m not so bad off now, but boy, there were times when I would have no idea what to do without the help.”
