By Breeana Laughlin
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
HUNGER HELPERS:
ACCA workers Rev. Roy Auelua, Bill and Barbara Thurman pack these items in a Thanksgiving box that hungry families
receive.
The holidays can be an especially hard time for families in need. But the folks at Anderson Cottonwood Christian Assistance emergency food program have seen just a little bit of help make a huge difference in people's lives.
Three years ago, Megan, an Anderson resident and mom, was going through the toughest time in her life. She and her husband had been doing well. They had a baby girl, and were happy to find out they had another baby on the way.
But instead of being able to plan for their new addition, the young family suddenly found themselves just trying to survive.
"We were on a piece of property in a cabin," Megan said.
But the young couple had moved in without signing a contract. It was the first in a string of hard lessons they would learn.
"The landlord said ‘You've got to go.' It was so last minute," Megan said.
With no money for a deposit, and no family to turn too, the young family no choice but to live in an old, run-down trailer.
"We didn't have electricity. All we had was a hose for water. No cell phones. No way to refrigerate food," Megan said, holding back tears.
Megan went to the Anderson Cottonwood Christian Assistance (ACCA), for emergency food assistance and met Barbara Thurman.
"Barbara was more than she knows. She was my lifesaver to help us out so much with food," Megan said. "Ever since then she was the encouraging one for me, because I didn't have a mother. She was like a mother to me."
The help of basic necessities helped the family get through their trying time — a time when they had to be creative to survive.
"We used to bathe our baby girl by putting a tub on the fire, a big metal pan, and poor it into the baby bath tub. When she got too big for that, we actually used the tub to warm the water up, and cool it outside the fire and bathe her in the tub," Megan explained. "This was all new to us. I'd never even been camping."
During that Thanksgiving the family received a food box from ACCA.
"We had no way to cook the turkey, so we cooked it on the barbecue. It was so dry, but it was food." Megan said. "Small things made a big difference. Otherwise, we wouldn't have made it."
During the holidays, the ACCA was able to help Megan's family have a real Christmas — a gift the mom wanted to able give her children.
"I was used to the turkey dinners, and the family traditions and all of the presents under the tree," Megan said. "When you can't do that for your own kids, it really hurts."
"I wish I could repay (the ACCA) for all they've done," Megan said.
Now, Megan and her family are back in a suitable home.
"From where we started, to where we are at three years later is just a great blessing," Megan said.
"It has a lot to do with the Christian Assistance program. It really benefits people like our family, when they really just don't have anywhere to go," she said. "We're not drug addicts. We're not people trying to take advantage of the system. We are just a couple trying to make it without our family helping."
Holiday help
This year, the ACCA expects to put together Thanksgiving boxes for more than 400 local families.
"They will have turkey and all the traditional foods in there, along with some extra food," said Barbara Thurman.
The ACCA has emergency food assistance year round, but have ramped up their services over the holidays.
"Hunger is an all-year problem. During the holidays it just kind of sets in a little more with people," Thurman said.
In addition to Thanksgiving and Christmas boxes, the ACCA teams up with local businesses and organizations for food and donation drives, and helps connect people Toys from the Heart, and ‘adopting a family' over the holidays.
With the trying economy, the assistance program is seeing more and more families needing help.
"There is definitely more need. We have a family that for 15 years, donated to us, and now they are on the other end," Thurman said.
This week, families signed up to recieve thanksgiving boxes.
"Each family is taken on an individual basis," Thurman said.
The program takes into account income versus expenses.
"We try to even out what they have at the end, and most of our clients have zero at the end," Thurman said.
Thurman said she's seen all kinds of situations that cause people to need assistance.
"We have several grandparents that are raising grandchildren," Thurman said.
There are people that have extremely high medical bills they can't keep up with, disabled people, families dealing with unemployment and job loss, and low wage workers, she said.
"Sometimes mom and dad are both working and with rents and utilities and gas as high as they are it's hard to make it," Thurman said.
The assistance program has help from local churches and organizations, but Thurman said the ACCA relies on help from individuals to really be effective.
"We couldn't do it if we didn't have individuals," Thurman said. "Southern Shasta County is usually a generous community."
But with the dramatic increase in the number of local families in our area needing emergency assistance, it will be imperative the people who can afford to make a donation, do so.
"They make all the difference," Thurman said. "If everyone who could got together, it would make all the difference in the world."
Donations can be dropped off at 2979 East Center St. in Anderson. On Tuesday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. For more information, call 365-4220.