HOW CARROLL COUNTY SERVICE CENTER ASSISTS FAMILIES DURING INFLATION
The Salvation Army of Carroll County provides feeding and pantry assistance that is in high demand in Carroll County. Brass Hat Café provides complimentary, restaurant-style meals to all people from all walks of life no matter what their socioeconomic background is. You can be a student, work minimum wage, or be unemployed and you are treated to a home-cooked meal. Brass Hat Café first opened it’s doors on April 2017. Our Director of Social Services, Nina Christian, created Brass Hat Café to give respect to the poor who deserve to eat with class and dignity.
The Salvation Army of Carroll County not only provides meals but also pantry and hygiene product assistance for families in financial need. The Salvation Army also provides prayers, support and employment assistance with red kettle ringing job opportunities for people. What some people may not know is that The Salvation Army of Carroll County has a Pathway of Hope program, that supports a family with financial assistance as members get a new job opportunity or go back to school.
With The Salvation Army’s Pantry on the Go program, a strong relationship has been cultivated with The Maryland Food Bank, to provide fresh produce to families once a month. Every third Wednesday of the month, people can take home a box of produce (carrots, cucumbers, onions, cabbage, whatever is seasonal) home. Each box can feed a family of 4 for an entire week. From March until now, Brass Hat Café has distributed 900 boxes of food that has fed 3,600 people and provided 10,800 meals. From March until April, we gave out 150 food boxes, but that number grew to 180 boxes in May, and now we have reached capacity with 200 boxes being given out. There’s a much stronger demand for grocery and food assistance now in Carroll County due to inflation.
Wanda, a 7 year volunteer for The Salvation Army of Carroll County, brought her grandson out today to pack grocery boxes. She used to volunteer at Brass Hat Café daily but the pandemic reduced her volunteer times to just Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays each week. “With Pantry on The Go, for the past couple of months, I have seen an increase of families coming in. It’s different then what it used to be. We used to give out more canned goods but now we’re focusing on giving out fresh produce. Instead of people waiting in line to pick up grocery bags, we have people pull up in cars. We’re seeing over 200 people today pick up groceries” said Wanda.
With an increase need in food, there has been an increase in need of volunteers for Carroll County Service Center. “I love volunteering for Pantry on The Go,” said Wanda. “Everyone gets along and it’s just two employees here and Peggy and I and the rest of the volunteers just love what we do.”
Alma Balsamo, Director of The Carroll County Service Center, is floored and amazed by the turnout this month. “We’re giving clients 20 pound boxes of produce containing Summer veggies like cabbage, potatoes, zucchini, peppers, and cucumbers. A couple months before, we were just giving out 150 produce boxes per month but as of today, we have given over 240 grocery boxes to Westminster residents,” said Balsamo. “We think the turnout will only increase next month and the following month because inflation is playing a major role in today’s turnout.”
We predict that this 62% increase with produce box give aways will only increase as inflation deepens in Carroll County. For the state of Maryland, gas prices are hovering over $4.41 a gallon; Maryland’s GDP growth has decreased by -0.3%, and minimum wage of $12.00 isn’t supporting families that have to make decisions between paying bills or providing meals on the table. According to the U.S bureau of labor statistics, area prices are up 2% from the past two months, we are up to 10.6% percent from a year ago. Energy prices have gone up to 13.5% and food prices have gone up 12.3 % in the past year. This is the largest price increase on food in the past 20 years, according to the U.S Bureau of labor statistics.
To learn more about The Salvation Army of Carroll County, visit. www.sa-md.org