Government shutdown rallies Catholics to aid neighbors

Homeless shelter hardest hit with lack of income for VISTA workers, a third of staff

Published: October 21, 2013

by Dwain Hebda
Associate Editor

Dwain Hebda

Students at St. Edward School in Little Rock line up for hot lunch Oct 14. The government shutdown has threatened the free and reduced-price lunch pro-gram for qualified students in 12 of the state’s Catholic schools.

Dwain Hebda

It was a note neither Jason Pohlmeier, principal of St. Edward School in Little Rock, nor pastor Father Jason Tyler wanted to send.

As part of the 17-day U.S. government shutdown, the federally subsidized free and reduced-price lunch program was being suspended. Within the scope of the Diocese of Little Rock, students in a dozen Catholic schools would be affected, including 73 at St. Edward.

“There was no way we could absorb (the subsidy shortfall),” Father Tyler said. “That worked out to $1,100 a week.”

Administrators saw no alternative but to send home a note Oct. 2 explaining the situation and as expected, it generated an immediate flurry of calls and emails — just not of the kind they anticipated.

“Right away we started hearing from families offering to help pay for lunches for the children,” Father Tyler said.

Another note went home, asking if other families would be willing to do the same. According to Pohlmeier, respondents included a parishioner who picked up the tab for all affected students for one week and a Catholic High student offering to “sponsor” a youngster. Such response, said Father Tyler, was heartwarming.

“The people stepping up are not wealthy people, they’re not living in luxury,” said Father Tyler. “These are just middle-class families who offered to spend a few dollars each week so a child could eat lunch.”

The full impact of the shutdown on Arkansas parishes is hard to grasp. In Jacksonville, home to the Little Rock Air Force base, where more than 350 civilian base employees were furloughed, little outward impact could be found. Father Frank Lowe, chaplain of Holy Family Parish, said there was “no impact at all,” on the air base’s Mass schedule or related ministries. Father Andrew Smith of nearby St. Jude the Apostle Church said affected parishioners appeared to be taking things in stride.

Patrick Gallaher, executive director of Catholic Charities of Arkansas, likewise said none of the agency’s charitable programs were affected by the Washington gridlock, nor had he yet seen a spike in the number of emergency aid requests.

But among other Catholic and Catholic-supported entities, the situation was very different. Our House, a homeless shelter in Little Rock annually supported in part by six local parishes’ money and volunteers, faced dire financial issues when the government closed, beginning with the stipend that would soon be due the 11 VISTA service members, who make up one-third of the Our House staff.

“These are college graduates, some with master’s degrees, who put their career on hold to give a year of their lives in service to the community,” said Georgia Mjartan, executive director. “Overnight, they had no idea how they were going to pay rent or student loans or buy groceries.”

Mjartan immediately appealed to her support network, starting with her Catholic benefactors. Catholic congregations were at the forefront of an effort that raised the roughly $4,400 due the 11 VISTA service members in just a few days.

“It was a big leap of faith, an amazing outpouring of support,” Mjartan said. “Even though we were founded by an interfaith group, we’re pretty much reliant on the Catholic Church for most of what we do from serving meals to sitting on the board to financial support.”

At least one school has capitalized on the educational benefits of the situation. Dr. Karen Hollenbeck, principal of St. Boniface School in Fort Smith, said the school’s community lunch window has been a living classroom in Catholic social teaching.

“The numbers have increased every week. The students track how many we feed and then we talk about it,” Hollenbeck said. “The thing that strikes them is that not everybody we serve looks ‘homeless’. It’s teaching them not to pass snap judgments. People come to us for all kinds of reasons and yes, some of them are living under a bridge, but some of them are on their way to work.”

Educational value aside, each day the government is shut down only presents bigger challenges on the horizon. At Our House, Mjartan said everything from day-to-day programs to seasonal initiatives such as the Christmas gift program — which many Catholics support through parish angel trees — are in jeopardy without additional outside financial support.

Catholic school administrators are using the October reprieve to formulate fallback strategies for free and reduced school lunches and what to do if furloughed parents cannot make their tuition payments. Hollenbeck said there’s pain in watching what these families are going through.

“One solution we talked about was everybody would be required to bring their lunch, and that sounds easy, but some families can’t even afford that,” she said. “It’s frustrating. Just because (Congress) can’t get along, it’s taking food out of these families’ cupboard. It’s more than frustrating, it’s infuriating.”