Economy puts strain on local nonprofit > General News > Stories > Parker

RECENT STORIES

Salons Civiques: Global warming ( Kristin Hayek )
Douglas County Literacy Summit ( Kristin Hayek )
Nine organizations awarded $793,861 in CDBG funds ( Douglas County )
Veterans Affairs can furnish medallions for graves ( Douglas County )
Take the citizenship test ( Joyce Rovetta )

share a story | more postings »

YourHub.com \\ Parker \\ Stories \\ News \\ General News

Economy puts strain on local nonprofit

e-mail to a friend | print this | link to this

NEXT › ‹ PREVIOUS

Contributed by: Steve Shultz/YourHub.com on 7/22/2008

The declining economy has led to a significant rise in the number of residents asking for help at the Parker Task Force/Food Bank.

Parker Task Force co-chair and volunteer Clark Hastings said the group has experienced a 31 percent increase in the number of families needing help in 2008 over the numbers of client families in 2007 asking for assistance.

"Obviously, the economy is crushing the middle class right now," he said.

During its 2006-07 fiscal year, which runs from July 2006 to June 2007, the Parker Task Force offered help to a total of 1,529 families; during its 2007-08 fiscal year, 1,999 families asked for assistance.

Jan Hastings, Clark's wife and Parker Task Force publicity coordinator, said, "(The struggling economy) is bringing people to our doors, but it's really hurting the people who live on the edge anyway."

The Parker Task Force is a nonprofit organization formed to assist residents of Parker, Franktown and Elizabeth who are in need of short-term assistance. Clark Hastings said the Parker Task Force is a homeless prevention agency. Aside from collecting food and household items for families in need, Clark Hastings said the Parker Task Force will offer other assistance like getting the lights turned back on and paying rent.

"We try to intervene early in the family's crisis," he said.

Food is provided through local food drives by churches, schools, businesses, social organizations, grocery stores and donations from individuals.

The organization holds a food drive at the King Soopers and Safeway stores in Parker every third Saturday of the month.

During its July 19 food drive, the Hastings said the Parker Task Force collected about 185 boxes of food and other household items, which equates to approximately 7,400 pounds. They also collected around $1,300 in cash.

"These monthly food drives are literally our life blood," Jan Hastings said. "They account for 80 percent of the non-perishable food we have on our shelves. Most importantly, all of the food collected on these drives is shelf-ready with good expiration dates."

In contrast to the increased number of families needing help this year, Clark Hastings said donations are regularly slimmer during the summer.

"People think about charity the closer we get to the holidays," he said. "Crises don't just happen around Christmastime." He added that Parker is a very generous community.

Click here for more information about the Parker Task Force/Food Bank.

[Report this as objectionable content.]

SUBMIT COMMENT

Rate the above story

Current Rating

Based on 1 user ratings.

Talk Back : submit comments to the story

*Note: you need to log-in to add a comment or rating.

Thank you! Your comment has been updated.

SAVE AND SHARE THIS STORY

digg	Google
del.icio.us	Yahoo!
reddit	Newsvine

What is this?

STORY RSS FEEDS

All stories

All stories in Parker

All stories by Steve Shultz

WANT TO WRITE FOR YOURHUB.COM?

Want to see the stories you write and the photos you shoot featured in the YourHub.com Thursday print section available all over the Front Range and with home subscriptions of the Rocky Mountain News and The Denver Post? All you have to do is register, then post a story or column, start a blog or tell everyone what events are happening in town. We will print the best stories, columns, event listings, photos and blog entries in our print sections.

Loading Ad