Nonprofits rally to support community at time of greater need

Nonprofits typically provide services through a combination of federal and state grants, community donations and volunteer work. Nonprofit directors said federal funding from COVID-19 relief legislation has waned. Yet the increased community need for assistance has remained higher than pre-pandemic levels.

With rising prices throughout the economy, nonprofits are also experiencing a decrease in donations and volunteers, although it’s not at a point where it’s detrimental to their operations.

Food bank shortages

In Albany County, food banks are fighting to keep up with increased demand and limited supply.

Laramie Soup Kitchen Executive Director Ted Cramer said the organization has not had an issue with providing enough food for those who come in. It has had to adjust menu planning to account for shortages, however.

Cramer said there often isn’t enough of one item to make it through an entire meal-serving time, but there is enough food to offer different dishes or sides when the first one runs out. The group is not always able to get something it would regularly have.

“We’ve just adjusted the way we’re doing things, but so far, we’re still receiving enough of other things to still make meals,” Cramer said.

For example, Cramer said egg salad is popular among soup kitchen regulars. So when there was an egg shortage, the soup kitchen had to plan around that and find substitutions. While it’s not a big deal that the kitchen serves potato salad instead of egg salad, it’s a unique circumstance it has never really seen before.

Lina Dunning, the community engagement coordinator for Feeding Laramie Valley, said it, too, is having trouble getting enough of one kind of food. Her organization is not having shortages like the soup kitchen or like Laramie Interfaith, another local food pantry, because it grows a lot of produce and has a partnership with the Big Hollow Food Co-Op.

Supply chain issues are causing Feeding Laramie Valley to struggle with obtaining paper products to provide hot meals. Dunning said her group hasn’t been able to buy milk in cartons for nearly two years, so it buys disposable cups, lids and straws to give kids milk instead.

Dunning said demand for services has more than quadrupled over the last year and a half, which causes her to worry about their ability to sustain services. She said the Kids Out to Lunch program, which provides free meals to children under 18 during the summer, served more than 100 children a day during its first week, which is much higher than normal.

“If our level of funding and donations stay the same, and inflation continues ... then that is a worry for us,” Dunning said.

One reason the Laramie Soup Kitchen has not received as many food donations since the pandemic began, Cramer said, is because people are taking fewer trips to the store and opting to use the curbside pickup options that require online ordering.

“If you’re not going to the grocery store as often, you’re less likely to go drop off at a nonprofit, either,” Cramer said. “Before the pandemic, we had a number of people just coming by the soup kitchen, on average, every couple of hours ... to drop off food that they wanted to donate.”

When supply is limited at retailers, people also only buy what they need, Cramer said, instead of buying extra items to donate. Cramer said the soup kitchen has partnerships with area retailers, which also are selling out of product, so there is none left over to donate.

“In a perfect world, that’s actually kind of cool,” Cramer said. “It’s great that there’s not a huge amount of surplus. Now, the drawback ... (is) that there’s a huge demand for food, and sometimes there’s not enough food for everyone in town to buy. That means there’s also not enough food for our guests.”

St. Joseph’s in Cheyenne

Not everyone is experiencing a food supply crunch.

In Cheyenne, St. Joseph’s Food Pantry is not reporting any such shortages, Director Eva Estorga said. She did say the organization is seeing a lot more need in the community.

“A lot of new people are starting to come for the first time,” Estorga said.

Estorga said their average day sees 140 to 150 people or families. The food pantry is open from 10 a.m. to 12:50 p.m. Monday through Thursday. She said the new people coming in have mentioned that they knew the food pantry was there, they just never had a need to use it until now.

“We had a record day last week of 205 families in one day,” Estorga said.

St. Joseph’s Food Pantry receives donations from community members, major retailers, and other agencies and churches. Estorga said financial donations allow this local food bank to buy in bulk from the Food Bank of Wyoming, and she isn’t worried about a decrease in donations, despite high inflation.

“The need keeps going, 365 days of the year,” Estorga said. “Our greatest gift is for people to give. Whether it’s food, money or their time.”

Expense assistance

Many nonprofits also help people pay rent or utility bills.

This is where Community Action of Laramie County has seen the largest increase in need, said CEO Tim Ernst.

Ernst is confident CALC will be able to keep going, because most of its funding comes from federal programs. He said the group needs to be careful about how its money is allocated.

My Front Door Executive Director Brenda Birkle said she is also not overly concerned about the ability to continue operations, and it has always had a lean budget. She said she is not sure if it could increase its community impact as the need for services expands.

My Front Door provides financial literacy courses to families and works with them to help them become first-time homeowners. Birkle said the group serves people whose annual income is in the range of 50% to 80% of the area’s income; the goal is to break the cycle of poverty through homeownership.

Family Promise of Albany County also works to keep families from becoming homeless. Josh Hopkin, the executive director, said it is serving more families who might have been just fine one year ago.

“(Inflation has) made it so people’s rent goes up by $300, and now they can’t afford the place they’re in,” Hopkin said. “They’re going to get evicted, and now they’re in a really rough spot where they might not be in that rough position a year ago.”

Community support

Funding does not go as far as it used to, and more people in Albany and Laramie counties need assistance with basic living expenses.

If one organization gets to a point where it cannot provide help to everyone who comes to them, another nonprofit is usually willing to step in.

“Our nonprofit communities (are) coming together to leverage their respective expertise and to coordinate resources so that we are offering the best we can to the community without duplicating services,” Birkle said. “You would be surprised at the network nonprofits have created to really maximize every penny they get.”

Ernst said CALC has received a lot of support from groups like the Rotary Club of Cheyenne, the Kiwanis Club of Cheyenne and the Cheyenne Noon Lions Club.

“They’ve been very generous in donations,” Ernst said. “As fast as we get those donations, they go right out the door for assistance.”

Some nonprofit directors said it’s difficult to ask for donations from people because everyone is struggling, and residents can try to help out in whatever way they can.

Almost all of the nonprofits in the area can use volunteers. Places like the Laramie Soup Kitchen accept food donations from gardens, as well.

“It’s a hard ask for folks to donate, but if people do have extra materials – food, cleaning supplies, clothes, appliances – there are places in town where people can donate,” Hopkin said. “Someone can volunteer for a couple hours. Maybe it’s (at the) soup kitchen or with (Family Promise) or with Interfaith or one of these places. I think that goes really far.”

Meanwhile, the United Way of Laramie County, which disperses funding to more than 20 local nonprofits, will be starting its fundraising season soon. Executive Director Vernon Dobelmann said the money it is currently working with was pledged last year, so it won’t really experience the current economic impact until the fundraising campaign begins in August.

“The broader community has to understand these kinds of needs and decide how they want to support and help people – their neighbors and community members,” Dunning said.

Dunning said it’s important to remember people who have jobs and have been doing financially OK are now feeling the difficulties of high prices. People utilizing nonprofits’ services are often picking up multiple jobs, but still not feeling financially secure.

“It takes a whole community to come together over times like this,” Dunning said.