Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Keeping up the mortgage payments and heat in the house takes precedence over buying groceries in many budgets.
When that budget is fueled by two or three part-time minimum-wage jobs, there's little money at the end of the month for food.
Food pantries operated by Combined Community Services, the Salvation Army and Our Father's House, all in Warsaw, offer a way to fill hungry bellies.
"The fact that there are people in this county without food is the definition of obscene," said Pat Brown of WRSW.
Brown, the radio station's general manager, will host a 36-hour "Food-A-Thon" Nov. 12 and 13, asking for contributions of packaged and canned goods and donations.
Last year, the program raised more than $11,000. Four truckloads of foodstuffs were collected.
"Last year we had people from various agencies who focused on the different programs they offer during the broadcast," Brown said. "What they don't do is just hand food out - they empower people to feed themselves."
The state has lost more than 95,000 jobs in two years, the most of any state, according to the Indiana Business Research Center at Indiana University.
Northern Indiana has been especially hard hit by factory closings and layoffs. Charitable organizations are seeing more and more people, folks who've never asked for help before, asking for assistance.
"To date, in 2002, we've helped 5,133 individual households," said Darlene Redinger, CCS' director of development. "In September, we had 2,841 clients, a 2 percent increase over last year; 416 families needed food."
In the job market, Redinger said, people are under-employed. People with higher skills are taking any work available, often undemanding jobs usually held by people with lesser skills.
"The edge people are being edged on out," she said.
CCS assistant director Dan Clay agreed.
"People have less expendable cash," he said. "If we're really busy at this time of year, its going to be a really bad winter."
Keeping the food bank filled is a continual challenge, said Ken Locke of the Salvation Army. He thinks it's going to be a hard winter, too.
"There are more people in need than anyone is aware of. People who don't normally go for help will be asking.
"This year it's been interesting. Just keeping things on the shelf has been a real challenge. We saw 160 people last month, coming in with requests for different reasons. Many of them are new, we've never seen them before."
The Salvation Army serves as a "clearinghouse" for the organizations so services and programs aren't duplicated or artificially inflated.
At the CCS and Army pantries, the staples are available - canned meats and vegetables, powdered milk, spaghetti, rice, soup, peanut butter, jelly, cereal and bread.
Our Father's House takes a different approach, preparing complete meals, which are then frozen. The food is donated by area restaurants and grocery stores.
Separate items - eggs, gallons of milk and the like - are available, too.
"The working poor pay $400 for an apartment, more to live in a house, and utilities can be $500," Roz Morgan, of Our Father's House, said of the kinds of demands facing many people. "It's getting pretty serious."
She just happened to have statistics for one day this week when 25 families came for food between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Another 25 came in between 3 and 5 p.m.
"We see about 60 families each day sent by the welfare department, clerks and trustees, the Salvation Army and CCS," she said.
"I'll put the generosity of [people in] Warsaw, Ind., up against any town, anywhere," Morgan said of the donations she receives regularly.
The WRSW man agreed.
"We live in a generous community," Brown said. "People always turn out and help people in need, but you can't assume that, and sometimes they need a reminder."
