Editorials - 10/04/01

Community Table needs emergency help

The Community Table, which provides four hot meals weekly, is at a crossroads. Without an increase in funding and volunteer participation, this grassroots effort to feed the county's hungry may have to close.

Open for the past two years, the Community Table operates with volunteer labor - there are no paid staff members. To date the Community Table has provided more than 25,000 meals using more than 20,000 hours of volunteer labor. It serves some 60 to 75 people nightly and is open Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Statistics from the 2000 census should make us ever more mindful of the necessary and vital service the Community Table provides to Jackson County. Local wages have not kept pace with inflation, and many elderly residents and young families sometimes have to choose between buying food or paying their bills.

According to figures from the Jackson County Department of Social Services, it appears that about 16 percent of Jackson County residents live in poverty. Data from the school system tells us that 42.3 percent of local students qualify for free lunches. That's up almost 10 percent from just four years ago.

Since its inception, the Community Table has operated as a community-wide effort. Much like a family takes care of its own, Community Table organizers envisioned a place where hungry people could find a nutritious meal without fear of shame or embarrassment.

Feeding Jackson County's hungry cannot be accomplished by one or two people; it takes many determined, caring individuals working together to achieve a common good.

A group of compassionate volunteers who saw a need for a place like the Community Table, have brought it this far. It's time for individuals, church groups, Scout troops and civic organizations to follow their lead. Donations of time, money and food items are desperately needed.

If the Community Table closed its doors, where would that leave our county's working poor, our single mothers with children to feed, elderly on fixed incomes, the homeless and the unemployed?

Let's all pitch in and help the Community Table remain open to feed hungry people in Jackson County.

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