Sometimes, when you’re struggling through a hard time in your life, what you need most is a carton of eggs. Sometimes, you need a smile from a person who cares. And sometimes, a colorful bouquet of flowers.
All those things are available in Shoreline at Hopelink Market, a food bank designed to resemble a grocery store: Visitors push shopping carts past fridges and shelves labeled in English, Spanish, Russian and Chinese, then select their own items to take home, including fresh fruits and vegetables.
Fresh flowers, too. Because a bouquet can brighten your spirits, like a hearty omelet or healthy salad can nourish your body. Betty Gall, who stopped by the market for groceries recently, knows that from experience.
“Every time I come here, I get them,” said Gall, 44, adding flowers to a cart of food items stocked at the market by Hopelink, one of 13 nonprofits that benefit from readers’ donations to The Seattle Times Fund for Those in Need.
The annual holiday-season campaign has raised over $33 million for Puget Sound nonprofits since 1979, supporting agencies that care for a range of community members, including domestic violence survivors, youth in foster care, older adults and refugees. This year’s effort, which aims to collect at least $3 million, presents donors with the chance to assist thousands of families at a crucial moment, said Alan Fisco, president at The Times.
COVID-19 has waned and unemployment rates are low, so one might guess fewer people would be living on the edge in the Seattle area. But the opposite is true, agency leaders say, because consumer prices have soared, child care is scarce, rents remain high and pandemic-related protections have lapsed, putting pressures on families and impeding their attempts to recover from an array of medical, economic, social and psychological traumas.
The Fund for Those in Need is meant to help. Throughout the holiday season, The Times will share a series of stories about the organizations making a difference in our region and about the impact that donors can have.
“It’s a great example of our community-service mission and also a great example of the trust our readers place in us,” Fisco said about the Fund, “knowing that every penny they give goes directly to one of the 13 agencies.”
More than ever, that matters.
At Kindering, which provides physical, occupational and speech therapies to children with special needs in Bellevue and beyond, enrollment is swelling, especially among families who can’t afford to pay. Surging demand for youth-focused behavioral health services at Atlantic Street Center has forced the Seattle-based nonprofit to start a waiting list. And supercharged gas prices are sucking up precious resources at Sound Generations, which uses shuttles to bring older adults to meals and appointments across the area.
In line at Hopelink Market in Shoreline, each client has a tale to tell. Gall, a health care worker and single mother, had to stop working recently due to a medical issue, she said. Karyn Michaelson, 59, a retiree and busking musician, said she began visiting the food bank this year after her wife passed away. Money is now tight and, “I’m trying to make my way,” she said.
Most people who receive help from Hopelink have jobs, but wages have lagged behind cost increases, and many households remain buried in rent debt incurred when the pandemic was raging in 2020 and 2021, said Meghan Altimore, vice president of community services at the agency, which also operates markets in Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland and Carnation.
“You can go to work at Fred Meyer and make $20 an hour. But that’s still not enough to meet your obligations” in one of the most expensive regions in the U.S., particularly when you have children at home, Altimore said.
Stepping stones
“Mandarina!” was a word of the day in a Spanish preschool class at Kindering in Bellevue this month, as six toddlers learned about the little orange fruit.
Kindering’s Stepping Stones classes serve kids with and without special needs, integrating various therapies into ordinary activities like singing, play time and snacks. There are multiple teachers and therapists in each class, so the kids are extra supported, and their parents join them for part of each day.
“You might have an occupational therapist helping them climb a ladder or take a slide,” said Alison Morton, chief advancement officer at Kindering, which also provides in-home services. “The kids don’t know that it’s therapy.”
The agency is enrolling more children and families than ever, reaching about 10,000 last year, and budgeted a record-breaking $2.7 million this year toward “uncompensated care” for families that can’t afford to pay, Morton said.
That isn’t surprising, she said, considering that studies have shown correlation between the pandemic and various delays for young children, according to Kindering, with kids born during the high-stress, restrictive period taking longer on average to talk, walk and solve problems.
Researchers are calling them the “COVID generation” because they had to deal with so much turmoil as babies and because 85% of brain growth occurs before age 3, Morton said. Early learning is key, agreed Guadalupe Pareja, who brings her daughter, Teresa, to the Spanish preschool class in Bellevue.
Pareja contacted Kindering about a year ago, guided by a pediatrician, because Teresa, then 18 months old, wasn’t yet saying any words. Teresa enrolled in speech therapy and later joined the Stepping Stones program.
“She’s doing better” and her personality is shining through, said Pareja, 25. “She’s using her words. She’s very independent. Her favorite word is ‘no.’”
New faces
The agencies that benefit from the Fund for Those in Need showed resilience after COVID turned the world upside down, finding new ways to reach and serve clients under intense strain. Now, leaders at the nonprofits say they’re counting on donors to understand that the work continues.
Sound Generations, which operates by-appointment shuttle rides for older adults and adults with disabilities in more than a dozen Seattle-area cities, repurposed its vehicles for meal deliveries after countless senior centers and lunch programs shut down to prevent the virus from spreading.
Today, the good news is that the shuttles are again transporting passengers. Sound Generations even launched a pilot project last month to provide some shuttle service to several Eastside cities for the first time, said Phirun Lach, transportation director at the agency.
The bad news is that gas prices have soared, Lach said. Meanwhile, thieves regularly steal gas from the agency’s shuttles, sometimes by drilling into their gas tanks, which causes expensive damage, Lach added, saying the practice has spiked recently. Sound Generations, he said, expects to spend nearly $600,000 on gas and vehicle maintenance this year.
“That definitely has affected our bottom line,” Lach said.
Atlantic Street Center, which offers youth programs, behavioral health counseling and support for survivors of gender-based violence, also has adapted. The 112-year-old nonprofit with sites in the Central District and Rainier Beach opened a third in Kent not long ago, partly to serve people pushed south by housing cost increases and other factors.
Meanwhile, the agency has responded to a behavioral health crisis among kids by experimenting with video game therapy, said Executive Director Pela Terry. That may sound odd, given concerns about kids spending too much time interacting with screens, rather than outside in the real world. But nonviolent, cooperative games supervised by therapists can help kids understand and talk about their emotions, Terry said.
“This is a unique way of getting kids to open up,” she said, with Atlantic Street Center providing behavioral health services to over 250 last year.
The major challenge, Terry added, is hiring and retaining enough therapists to meet the immense demand among local kids. Insurance plans and Medicaid can be billed for counseling sessions, but the agency is on the hook for things like competitive vacation and retirement benefits, she said.
“There’s a worker shortage and that’s starting to have an impact,” Terry said.
Up in Shoreline, Hopelink has long depended on donations from large stores to provide clients with groceries at no cost. Those contributions have recently dipped, however, requiring the agency to buy more supplies, said Mike Hatada, a program manager. It’s a reality that makes cash donations and efforts like the Fund for Those in Need important, especially because the number of visits to Hopelink markets seems to grow each week, he said.
“There are,” Hatada said, “new faces every day.”