News You Can Use

For Your Church Newsletter - Prepared by Steve Tindall

From Lutheran Community Services  February 2014

Editors: This information is prepared for church newsletter editors, secretaries and pastors. Your help in getting the word out is appreciated and will help LCS achieve its mission of “Sharing God’s blessings by helping others in need.” Comments about timing or content are welcome. Contact Steve Tindall (stindall@lcsde.org). 302 654 8886.

Female Headed Households Under Pressure

Over 30 percent of the population of the city of Wilmington lives below the poverty line. That means, for example, a family of three is making no more than $19,530. What’s really eye-opening about this is that 77 percent of the city’s poor are members of single female-headed families.  This has been abundantly clear over the holidays when we saw many many women in need. For example, we assisted a 49 year old woman with two kids in early January with her back rent. She got behind in her rent after she had a heart attack. Because of her low paying job, she could only afford to take off ten days of work to recover, which illustrates how poorly prepared many low income people are to handle an emergency – like a heart attack.

More Female Headed Households

Vy and Claire don’t know each other, but their stories are amazingly similar. Both have two kids, owned their own homes, and were foreclosed upon after their relationships broke up and they became single. Both became homeless after that for about a year and lived with family, in cheap motels, or in shelters. Both told of the terrible impact this had on their families. The biggest barrier to obtaining independent housing is to be able to save up enough money for both the security deposit and the first month’s rent (approximately $2,000). LCS couldn’t provide that much, but was able to help with the security deposits so that both families could move into their own housing. We also helped with furniture and food to ease the transition.

Corporate Support

LCS received several wonderful grants recently. The first was from BJ’s Charitable Foundation -- $5,000 to purchase food for our clients. Another $5,000 came from the Thrivent Foundation to UD’s FISH (Fellowship in Serving the Hungry) program, which provides a grocery club for low income people out of St. Paul’s in Newark. LCS is a partner in this ministry. The award money will be used to increase participation and nutrition. Thrivent also gave us a challenge grant through the Matthew 25: Neighbors in Need program.  If we raise $10,000 by March 31, we will receive a $5,000 match. Your help is much appreciated!