Teaming to give presents and food to families in need this Christmas, the Woodland Action food bank and the city’s Rotary club have found more people asking for a little help this year.
In the past month, the two groups have collected donations of toys, clothes and food for holiday meals to deliver to families in Clark and Cowlitz counties just before Christmas for their Holiday Giving Project. This week, they’re dropping off care packages to more than 1,200 people in the two counties, hundreds more than they helped last year, said Susan McAdams, a spokeswoman for Woodland Action.
“We’ve been getting lots of new signups as food bank clients in general, as well as the Christmas list,” McAdams said. “And what we continue to hear is people have lost their jobs or, more frequently, have had their hours cut back … or have found a job but at a much lower wage.”
Employment has actually shown positive signs in Southwest Washington this year, said Scott Bailey, a regional labor economist for the Employment Security Department. Both Clark and Cowlitz counties have seen a healthy growth of about 5 percent in jobs, he said. But a large number of long-term unemployed adults — those who’ve dropped out of the labor market — remain, and in most cases, wages have stayed frozen, Bailey said.
“What we’re seeing mostly is stagnant wages, but not a drop in wages,” he said. “And while there’s certainly more part-time work than there used to be, that’s been improving, as well.”
When families signed up for a little help around the holidays from the food bank this year, they weren’t asked to provide any proof of low income, McAdams said. Woodland Action members were simply pleased to provide a free Christmas dinner no matter what their situation happens to be, she said.
“It’s a full meal,” McAdams said. “It really makes us happy to do that.”
The Rotary club members met in a couple garages Monday morning in Woodland to pack hundreds of boxes before making their first round of deliveries. Each food box had the makings of a Christmas feast: enough for several hearty helpings of meat, mashed potatoes, vegetables, dressing, oranges and apples.
Pulling everything together on time has been a daunting task, said Joy Snead, a Rotary member who organized the gift collection portion of the project this year. In all, Snead said the club is delivering boxes of presents and food to about 240 families this week. The tally includes about 660 children.
“I have not slept in days,” Snead said. “Every kid has a clothing item and a toy. I try to make sure that 660 kids have the right size shoes and the right size sweatshirt.”
