Springfield without Kevin Noonan

Kevin Noonan, Executive Director of Open Pantry Community Services in Springfield, Massachussetts for the last twenty years, has announced he's leaving the agency. I've known for a couple of weeks but promised to keep it under my hat until he went public.

I have to admit I was not excessively gracious when Kevin told me he was leaving OPCS, although I did try. I just kept thinking of what a loss it was going to be for Arise, for homeless people and for the entire city.

Kevin became OPCS's director when Arise for Social Justice was about five years old. He definitely got my attention in 1997 when he began a six day hunger fast to get then-Mayor Albano to restore funding for the Open Door, an OPCS social work program for homeless people and the poorest of the poor. Albano caved in but of course he never forgot; one characteristic I've noticed in every Springfield mayor is how personally they take any challenge to their policies, and how it brings out the worst in them. Then they pass their prejudices on to the mayor next in line.

In those days there were still a few radicals left within traditional agencies. Some of those folks formed the Affordable Housing Alliance with Arise. We tried to stop the conversion of the Hotel Charles into condominiums by getting an injunction to prohibit the city's planned displacement. We organized affordable housing conferences. We pushed the city to find a better place for homeless people than the old Armory St. shelter, a true hellhole where women were raped and men beaten. We bought the old Rainville Hotel and converted it to affordable housing. Pat Quinn from the Springfield Action Commission, Gary Richards and Faye Rachlin from Western Mass Legal Services, Peter Friedland and Bernie Cohen from HAP, and, of course, Kevin and some others were our active allies. Arise, an organization of welfare mothers and poor people, was so grateful to have some people on our side. Those people really believed in Arise's mission-- that poor people have a right to speak for ourselves about the issues that affect us.

Most of those allies had faded away, burned out or been forced out in 2004, when lack of funding forced the closing of OPCS's Warming Place shelter and Arise took on the task of organizing and assisting displaced homeless people into forming Sanctuary City. Our tent city started out on the lawn of St. Michael's Cathedral and moved to OPCS's parking lot when pressure from the Diocese got too intense. Kevin was on vacation during the move, a perfect opportunity for him to look the other way as we moved in. We lasted six months until the Warming Place was able to reopen, and was, I believe, the catalyst for the city of Springfield to finally develop a plan to deal with homelessness.

Of course there was a price to be paid politically for being in allegiance with poor people, and the Open Pantry paid it. All the "good" agencies, the ones who think of poor people as "clients," were folded in to the city's new efforts to coordinate homeless services, and it was clear pretty quickly that if you played by a different set of rules, there was no place for you at the table. The next year, the state couldn't find the funding for the Warming Place and the city was no help at all, being more than happy to see all homeless people funneled to the city-controlled Friends of the Homeless Worthington St. Shelter. Open Pantry's attempt to seek an injunction to prohibit the shelter's closing was denied. Last year, in another one of the state's "reorganization" plans, Open Pantry lost funding for its family shelter on Jefferson Ave. I can guarantee you that no one from the mayor's office or from the "Homes Within Reach" coalition picked up the phone to plead with the state to save the family shelter. Yet the state is still packing them in at motels around the region-- more than 750 homeless families today.

I think that for Kevin, that was the beginning of the end. He didn't want to be a political liability for Open Pantry. At his instigation, his agency merged with South Middlesex Opportunity Council (SMOC) earlier this year, and I knew that the announcement he was leaving the directorship could not be far behind.

I am happy for Kevin and his wife, Legal Services attorney Marion Hohn (they fell in love at tent city!) but terribly sad for homeless people and, I admit it, sad for Arise. Life-- and organizing-- will go on, but where we will ever find another ally like Kevin Noonan, I just don't know.

Just a few hours before Kevin made his departure public, I was reading an essay from Common Dreams by Derrick Jensen on the difference between personal action and political action. He ends his essay with words that immediately made me think of Kevin, because he has lived them so well.

We can follow the example of those who remembered that the role of an activist is not to navigate systems of oppressive power with as much integrity as possible, but rather to confront and take down those systems.

Memorial service for Steve Donoghue

Steve Donoghue's memorial service will be Wednesday, August 6, 1:30 pm at Christ Church Cathedral, 35 Chestnut St., Springfield.

Rev. Jim Munroe, Rev. Greg Dyson, Jack Desroches and Kevin Noonan are putting the service together, and also printing a prayer card.

Folks from the Open Door are organizing a reception with refreshments after the service in the Kendrick Room, and some of Steve's friends from Loaves & Fishes will hopefully perform some songs Steve wrote.

There should be a death notice in the paper soon.

Homeless win - Open Pantry funded - Thanks, everyone!

I heard the good news about 1 a.m. and received this email from Kevin Noonan. I'm unbelievably relieved. This was a very close call--

Michaelann,

We were quite surprised to learn the senate was considering each override as soon as they were voted upon favorably by the house.

So I am happy to report the senate also approved the override last night; in fact they voted unanimously.

We cannot thank you enough for your unwavering support for the people we serve. Please ask folks to take time to visit the open pantry web site: http://www.openpantry.org. They they can follow the links for contact information of legislators and a list of the representatives and senators who helped us to make this happen.
Please ask folks to send them an e-mail to let them know you appreciate their efforts on behalf of people who need their help.

This most recent experience has been a long and exhaustive struggle.

I know there are difficult days ahead but today as i enjoy the honor of completing my 19th year as executive director of open pantry community services, people might notice a slight spring in my step.

In solidarity and peace,

Kevin J. Noonan

House supports open Pantry, now call the Senate TOMORROW!

Great news on the House side: the House just voted to override the governor's veto of line item 4403-2120 which earmarks an increase in funds for the Open Pantry.

Now the issue moves to the Senate. Please call your senators and the senate leadership tomorrow, Thurday, July 31, 2008 and urge them to follow the House's lead and to vote for an override of the govenor's veto of the Open Pantry's earmark in line item 4403-2120. (It is crucial to call on Thursday because Thursday is the last day of the legislature's formal session.)

Below is a link to the Senate leadership: http://www.mass.gov/legis/leadership.htm

Letter from Open Pantry board member: why the governor's veto should be overridden

I received a letter today from an Open Pantry Community Services Board Member, and he has given permission for me to post his letter.

There is a lot of *misinformation* about Open Pantry versus Springfield's preferred provider, Friends of the Homeless, which the City and the Governor prefer to fund:

Fact #1. Open Pantry and the city's Friends of the Homeless non-profit do not compete. Open Pantry runs the biggest emergency food pantry in Western Mass; Friends of the Homeless has never run a food pantry. Open Pantry feeds poor individuals from around the city, not just homeless people; Friends of the Homeless feeds only the portion of homeless individuals who reside in their own shelter. Therefore it is unreasonable for the City to state that it is prepared to step in if Open Pantry fails. The City has no experience in the Open Pantry's missions, and no additional funds. There will be a huge void.

Fact #2. Open Pantry receives over $400,000 in private cash donations every year, and $1.5 million annually in food, clothing, and labor, which is the only way it has been able to provide the level of services it provides. State funding has been inadequate for years. If Open Pantry goes under, most of that $1.9 million in donations will be lost. How will the state or the city be able to make that up?

Fact #3. Open Pantry has put together over 30 years a huge infrastucture of churches, businesses, and volunteers it has cultivated over the years. How much of that vital infrastructure will be lost if Open Pantry goes away? How much will it cost the city or the state to rebuild? Remember, the city's agencies have never run a food pantry or a public kitchen.

Fact #4. 100% of Open Pantry's administrative support expenses are covered by private donations. Therefore every penny of state, federal, or city money Open Pantry gets goes directly into programs and services.

Fact #5. Open Pantry is more than a pantry and a kitchen. Through their Open Door program, they deliver cutting edge comprehensive case management and community resource referrals to hundreds of persons at risk of hunger and/or homelessness each year. These services, too, would have to be picked up by some other agency, unprepared to do so.

Fact #6. Open Pantry's mission does not conflict with the state's HousingFirst Initiative. HousingFirst is about housing the homeless; Open Pantry's principal services are providing emergency food for families in homes, and meals for those who are the city's poorest. Thus no amount of "HousingFirst money can be used for these working poor.

Andrew Morehouse, Executive Director of the Food Bank of Western Mass in Hatfield wrote in a message to the Springfield Control Board on July 7th that "Open Pantry has by far the largest impact in serving the poor and vulnerable in Springfield. Open Pantry's services are essential to the well-being of tens of thousands of people. I can't even imagine what would happen in Springfield if Open Pantry were unable to continue operating due to a loss of critical state funding . . ."

I couldn't say it any better. Please call State legislators today. Please ask them to help restore Open Pantry's funding.

R. Patrick Henry, Jr.
Volunteer Board Member
Open Pantry Community Services

Services for Steve Donohue

Several people have asked me if i know if there will be services for Steve Donoghue, who was murdered Sunday night by another homeless man. Kevin Noonan, Open Pantry Community Services director, has been talking with Steve's mother, and it's really up to her what happens. Services will probably be next week, although possibly at the end of this week. In any case, as soon as I find out, I'll let everyone know.

Lack of attribution a problem at the Springfield Republican

Someone commented today on my most recent story about the Open Pantry, in which I decried reporter Stephanie Barry's coverage of the OP's press conference where director Kevin Noonan spoke. She used phrases like "Noonan's detractors" and "homeless advocates" without ever attributing their opinions to any individual.

At the time I thought (and it may still be true) that what I saw as the article's bias stemmed from a negative attitude toward Noonan from city officials that the reporter picked up on and reflected.

Today, though, my commenter pointed me toward a Sunday story by Barry on district attorneys' salary that makes me wonder what's going on at the Republican.

Barry's story is coming along fine; she talks about salary disparities across the state and then lists the names, job descriptions and salaries of Hampden County's assistant district attorneys. Then she goes back to the last name on her list, Assistant DA Maria F. Rodriguez-Maleck.

Of Bennett's top 10 earners, only Rodriguez's salary raised any eyebrows among courthouse insiders. Most agreed the remainder had paid their dues with time and service, or both.

Though no one would speak publicly, several said Rodriguez - who came with Bennett from his private sector office when he was first elected in 1990 - has virtually no caseload and has never tried a case. Her function is largely, if not solely administrative, according to other lawyers and court employees.

Bennett dismissed those criticisms as unfair, arguing workload isn't measured solely by caseload.

"Courthouse insiders," "most agreed," "no one would speak publicly," -- all without attribution, all inuendos.

If Barry couldn't get anyone to speak on the record about Rodriguez, she shouldn't have written about her at all. Don't we have the right to face our accusers?

What could Barry have done instead, if she wanted to follow up on these leads? She could have investigated the caseload of each ADA on her own, to see how the caseloads compared. She could have found out more about Rodriguez' duties. She could have talked to Rodriguez herself. But if she did any of these things, it didn't show in her article..

Some of you may have followed the soul searching of the New York Times after its too-lenient attribution policy allowed the Bush Administration to lead us into the Iraq War. Obviously the Springfield Republican is no New York Times. But here in our community, the fate of an agency that serves the poor and the reputation of a public servant matter. They deserved better than they received.

I will be keeping my eye on the Springfield Republican from now on, and I'm asking my local readers to do the same.

Open Pantry backstabbers: bad reporting assists cowards

I was at the Open Pantry press conference yesterday, where the agency asked for the community's help. We were asked to help convince legislators to override Gov. Patrick''s veto of funds for the agency.

After the press conference, when some of us were milling around talking to each other, there was an odd moment when I realized that the agencies and individuals who had come to support the OP-- not the best-heeled groups in the city-- had gradually been infiltrated by people from the community who were there to get food. We were pretty indistinguishable from each other.

This morning I went to MassLive to read the Springfield Republican's coverage of OP's plea. Why I should be surprised at what I read I don't know, but several paragraphs referenced 'homeless advocates" and Noonan's "detractors" without ever saying who those people were! What kind of reporting is Stephanie Barry's piece supposed to be?

"Noonan's detractors say he should not be seeking "new funding" from a barren state budget. Moreover, others say the $400,000 Noonan is seeking is simply an attempt to recoup funds he lost when the Open Pantry's Warming Place shelter at the former York Street jail closed last year.

"We're not able in this fiscal climate to provide funding for services that are not being rendered," Patrick spokeswoman Cynthia M. Roy said."

Barry only quotes Patrick's spokesperson Cynthia Roy-- who gets it wrong. Wonder where Roy got her information? And who are those "detractors" and "others?" Could Barry be referencing those anonymous posters on MassLive? Or is she talking about Springfield officials who lack the guts to go on the record and prefer to do their backstabbing behind closed doors?

"While funding to feed the needy and homeless may seem an unassailable pitch, homeless advocates say there is a statewide movement afoot to standardize help and move away from so-called emergency services such as temporary shelters and the like.

To that end, the Patrick administration is discouraging additional funding for emergency services and is devoting any new funding to prevention and a longer-term approach to homelessness, experts say."

Again, just who are those "homeless advocates" and "experts?". And another point here-- just because Patrick is moving away from emergency funding, does that mean it's a good idea? I'm a homeless advocate, and I have seen Patrick's 'either-or" approach as short-sighted and ill-timed. I'm all in favor of prevention and long-term approaches. But let's call a euphemism a euphemism. If there was ever a time when our local, state and federal governments needed to maintain emergency services, this is it.

Remember that line from Airplane!, when Lloyd bridge's air traffic controller character says, "Looks like I picked the wrong day to give up smoking?"

Shame on the cowards for not going on record and shame on Stephanie Barry-- and her editors-- for allowing it.

Budget cuts drop in bucket compared to Big Dig debt

You can connect the dots yourselves.....the Republican published a sad list of budget cuts targeted for Western Mass. I've been focused on Open Pantry Community Services, but the OPCS is not alone in its pain. I'd assume that even the most avid supporters of law and justice recognize that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Thus cuts for Girls Inc, Dunbar Community Center, youth programs in Easthampton, Palmer and westfield and AWAKE's entire funding make little or no sense.

Now compare the entire amount of budget cuts-- $122.5 million-- to the STAGGERING debt Massachusetts has incurred from the Big Dig Project-- $7 billion in interest. Boston Globe.

What's wrong with this picture?

Open Pantry: One chance left to override Governor's veto

Why do some people hate poor people so much?

Yesterday there were folks posting on Springfield's forum MassLive who were rubbing their cyberhands with glee over Governor Patrick's veto of funds for Open Pantry Community Service. You can read more about it here:

Today an apartment building in the South End caught fire and thirteen families were displaced. As one MassLive Poster says, "One less low income ghetto the tax payers have to keep funding."

Sometimes it's hard not to hope that these people get a chance to find out firsthand what poverty is like, not only to be poor, in fact, but to have to put up with the slurs and assumptions that others will make about them.

If the Open Pantry has to cut back services, it will cut holes in our already tattered safety net.

Last year the Legislature overrode many of the governor's vetoes; this year, with everyone tightening their belts, it won't be as easy But poor people can't go without much more and still survive.

Readers of this blog who have been following the Open Pantry's saga remember the struggle to preserve shelter for homeless people. Now, its trying to keep the Food Pantry open its current four days a week and the Loaves & Fishes Soup Kitchen still serving twelve meals a week.

You may have called on behalf of the Open Pantry before, but please-- one more time. If you live in Massachusetts, please call your legislator, senators and representatives alike, and ask them to restore funding for the Open Pantry. You can find out who your legislator is and his or her contact information here:

Stand up for poor people.

Another homeless man dies in Springfield, MA

Two days ago, a man was found dead near the riverfront-- almost surely a person without a home, I knew at once. This morning, I called the Springfield police and found out that his name was Wayne Martin. He was, I believe, in his late 40's or early 50's. The detective told me that his death was not being treated as a criminal matter; that he appeared to have died of natural causes.

By describing Mr. Martin's death as not a criminal matter, of course the detective meant that no other person murdered him. In every other way, though, the fact that a man can die in a nearly public place because he has nowhere to go is criminal in every other sense of the word.

I admit I barely remember Wayne Martin; others knew him better. I know he stayed at Sanctuary City for quite a while. He stayed at the Warming Place (when it was open) a few times at most, and probably never stayed at Worthington St. Shelter. Some people just can't hack shelters. Either they don't like rules, hate crowds, fear being robbed, can't sleep with the noise or, for those who are emotionally fragile, feel pushed to the edge and sometimes beyond.

Open Pantry Community Services has an informal tally of the names of homeless people who have died. Facts about a homeless person who dies can be thin sometimes; other times, everybody has a tale about the poor dead soul. The one common truth about all of them: they died without a home.

I must take this opportunity to remark upon the extraordinary dignity with which OPCS has always treated the homeless and poor people who come to them for help. They need the city's help to get through a rough patch. Give Mayor Sarno's office a call at 787-6100 and ask him to support the Open Pantry.
Illustration: Michael Leunig

Set up at the Control Board

Angry and disgusted. Furious and cynical. Bitter and determined. Not surprised and yet somehow still blown away at the machinations of city government.

I went to the Springfield Finance Control Board meeting this morning to show support for the Open Pantry in its current struggle to feed the poor people of this city, along with Behzad, Ellen, Liz and Doug with Arise.. The Open Pantry was there to ask for some short-term financial help from the city I saw Bill Miller, Director of Friends of the Homeless, Paul Bailey, Director of Springfield Partners for Community Action and Gerry McCafferty, deputy director of Springfield's Homeless and Special Needs Housing across the room.

Chairman Chris Gabrieli phoned in to say he was stuck on the turnpike in a rainstorm, so the meeting, which was supposed to start at 10:30, didn't get going until after 11 am. By then I was close to having to leave for another meeting, so OP Director Kevin Noonan gave his spot to me and he took my spot later on. Finally the public speak-out began.

Most of the people who eat at Loaves and Fishes and get food from the Food Pantry are not homeless, I said in part of my three minutes, just too poor to avoid hunger on their own-- nothing very profound, just the truth-- and that we as a society are judged by how we provide for those who have the least. Then Liz and I had to leave, though I wanted to stay.

As I was pulling out on the parking garage onto Columbus Ave. to the first red light., Bill Miller pulled up beside me in his car.

"Did Chris Gabrieli ever show up?" he said. So I knew he had left even before the speak-out.

"Yeah, he got there," I said. "Says he'll have to start staying overnight in Springfield." Then the light changed.

My sister gave me a look.

"Somehow, in spite of everything, I've managed to keep a civil relationship with Bill Miller," I said.

The rest of this story I've reconstructed from people who stayed at the Control Board meeting,

Kevin presented to the Control Board (in the speak-out, even though he'd asked to be on the agenda) about who the Open Pantry serves and what kind of help the agency needs to keep going.

Then James Morton called on Gerry McCafferty, who said that if the Open Pantry was no longer able to serve, that other agencies would step up and provide the services. She said that Friends of the Homeless serves 300 people on Sunday (?) and would be able to handle the Soup Kitchen. She said that Springfield Partners for Community Action would be able to take over the Food Pantry. (SPCA currently rents space to the Open Pantry for the Pantry) and Paul Bailey confirmed that. then she said that of course, if FOH and SPCA were to do so, they would need to get money. Gabrieli agreed and said the city would have to put out a Request for Proposals.

So let me get this straight: They won't give the money to the Open Pantry but they will give the money to FOH and SPCA to provide the same service.

If this doesn't completely indicate the malice of the city toward the Open Pantry, I don't know what does. And agencies, which once upon a time stood in solidarity with each other, stab each other in the back.

Of course the city would be more than thrilled to have the Soup Kitchen out of Christ Church Cathedral and as hidden away as possible. (Carol Costa, who lives at the Classical Condos right across the street from the Cathedral, was also there, chatting away with Gerry McCafferty.)

FOH's eating space is quite small and its kitchen underequipped. Will people eat in shifts? Will a queue stretch down the stairs and into the parking lot? Will the people who eat there have enough time to chat with each other, or be rushed right along? How many people won't be able to get there at all, given that FOH is less central? And, let's face it, will families with children be comfortable going to a setting dominated by homeless adult males?

I see James Morton quoted on Channel 3 tonight saying the city can't give the money to the Open Pantry, because of an "Anti-AID" amendment that supposedly prohibits the city from giving money to non-profit agencies. How will the city then get the money to whichever agencies apply to the Request for Proposals? Is there not even one non-profit which has received city money in the past? I doubt it.

I won't write more now. There's a lot to think about.

Control Board Monday: Save Open Pantry/Loaves & Fishes

I heard from Kevin Noonan, Director of Open Pantry Community Services, yesterday. I knew the funding situation for two of the OPCS most important programs, the Food Pantry and the Loaves and Fishes Soup Kitchen, had not improved. Money was not allocated by the House of Representatives and although it's technically still possible, the odds are very much against it. I wrote some about what a catastrophe for Springfield's poor that loss or reduction of these programs would be this last April. Nothing has improved since then.

Kevin has been trying for a month to follow up with a presentation to the Springfield Finance Control Board and thought he had succeeded for this Monday but it turns out that that presentation must be made at the public speak-out-- three minutes only, thank you.

If you care about the well-being of poor people in Springfield, please come to Monday's Control Board meeting at 10:30 at City Hall. Let the Control Board know how important it is to maintain these services.

I know things are getting worse for almost everybody but when you get right down to the basics-- being able to eat, keep a roof over your head, and keep your place heated and lighted-- many poor people are already going without. One hundred gallons of heating oil is almost $450. Food prices are still going up, and the cost of rental housing certainly isn't going down. I wrote this before, but think again: last year more than 27,000 people-- in a city of less than 150,000!-- came to the Open Pantry Food Pantry for help. People ate a meal at the Loaves & Fishes Soup Kitchen more than 100,000 times.

I'd hate to think we'll need to rely on Food Not Bombs to feed our city's hungry.

No soup kitchen? They'll never know what hit them

Four of us from Arise-- Lamont, Liz, Don James and I-- went down to the Loaves and Fishes Soup Kitchen during supper tonight to talk to folks about the possible scaling back or maybe even closing of the soup kitchen. Liz had flyered at the noontime meal so folks knew we were coming, and that we were encouraging anyone who wanted to speak out about why the soup kitchen (and the food pantry) are so important to them to do so.

Some time this week-- maybe even tomorrow-- the Massachusetts Legislature will vote on an amendment to provide funding for the parent organization, Open Pantry Community Services. The amendment will be bundled in with dozens of others, and what will actually happen feels more like a crap shoot. I wrote about the amendment numbers and who to call here, and if you live in Massachusetts, haven't done so already, please call.

Open Pantry is broke and the city of Springfield isn't making any appreciable effort to help them. I know many agencies that help the poor are hurting. But no one can replace the role the OP plays among the community of the poor.

I saw a lot of people I know at the soup kitchen and at least one of them had good news-- he'd gotten an apartment through the city's Housing First program. Three years ago he'd been living at our six-month tent city. I saw my old friend Patrick, though, and he didn't look so good-- lost weight. I almost didn't recognize him.

The tables at the soup kitchen are not segregated, of course, but folks do tend to sort themselves out. Most of the elder Puerto Ricans sit near the kitchen and are very quiet. Single guys and women tend to sit at the tables down the middle. I saw one man I'd never seen before-- quite elderly, quite thin, in a wheelchair. I saw another guy who I'd paid to help me paint my apartment and we made arrangements for him to pick up the CDs he'd left at my house. A half dozen children sat with their parents.

The young people, those 25 or younger, sit at the tables on the sides. I don't think most people realize how very young and how very the old people who eat at soup kitchens can be. I was admiring some of the art work on the walls that is the product of Tuesday and Thursday art classes where another one of our members, Linda, is one of the teachers.

"I've been thinking of going," a blonde girl surely no more than 20 said.
"Yeah, do it," I said.

Some people who eat at soup kitchens have absolutely no food at home-- if they have a home. They might be camping or stopping for supper on their way to the shelter. Or they have a home but it's just empty. Some people who eat at the soup kitchen actually do have a little food in the cupboard. Sure, they could eat that can of creamed corn they're so sick of looking at, or the fruit cocktail. But they'd rather go down to Loaves and Fishes where they are less alone, where they can be among friends.

Maybe I just haven't been hanging out with homeless people often enough recently to see the strengths and endurance I can usually see in the community, but I must say tonight's people looked fragile and shell-shocked. Still friendly (or not), still smiling (or not) , the outlines of their bodies seemed less distinct, almost smudged. Maybe that's just me. But I'm afraid.

Springfield's Open Pantry needs help now

To be blunt: Open Pantry Community Services is in trouble and may not be able to avoid deep cuts in essential services. It's not hopeless but it's pretty bad, and what's bad for the Open Pantry is bad for the poor and homeless people in this city.

Last year the Loaves and Fishes soup kitchen prepared over a hundred thousand meals for people in need of food and friendship, lunch and supper, seven days a week. When staff and guests were discussing which of the two meals should be cut if it came to that, the answer was the lunch meal-- because a lot of children eat supper there with their parents.

Last year the Open Pantry provided groceries for more than 27,000 people, half of them children. Now the pantry may have to cut back days they're open from four to two.

Last year 1,200 homeless people went to caseworkers at the Open Door with help ranging from getting I.D. and applying for veteran's benefits to looking for an apartment.

Last year the Commonwealth of Massachusetts cut more than 400,000 from OPCS's budget after its Warming Place shelter for single homeless was forced to close. Three area legislators have introduced amendments restoring that funding, but success is far from automatic.

If you're in the district of
Rep. Puppolo - amendment # 304 Tel. (413) 596-4333/(617) 722-2011
Rep. Swan - amendment # 936 Tel. (413) 739-8547/(617) 722-2680
Rep. Coakley-Rivera - amendment # 1034 Tel. (413) 739-1503/(617) 722-2011
Call them and thank them for sponsoring these amendments.

If you live anywhere in Massachusetts, call your legislator! Ask them to sign on to these amendments and to vote for them if/when they get to the floor. Calls to members of the the House Ways and Means Committee will help, also. The main number for the State Representatives is: (617-722-2000) or you can follow this link: http://www.mass.gov/legis/memmenuh.htm for a complete list of State Representatives with their contact information.

I try to picture Springfield without the Open Pantry and it's a pretty grim picture. Don't let it happen.

PS-- Forgot to say, money is totally welcome! You can send a contribution to Open Pantry Community Services, P.O. Box 5127, Springfield, MA 01101-5127.

Open Pantry's crisis local; global food crisis grows

This morning I turn on the TV and see Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich warning about a depression. I go to the NY Times and read the world is in a food crisis. I open the local paper to see that Open Pantry Community Services may have to cut back on its services in April unless the public can pitch in to help.

Last year more than 27,000 people-- in a city of less than 150,000!-- came to the Open Pantry Food Pantry for help. People ate a meal at the Loaves & Fishes Soup Kitchen more than 100,000 times. More than 1,000 homeless people received assistance from Open Pantry's Open Door case managers. And three shelters put a roof over the heads of teen mothers, women in recovery and homeless families.

Having an impact on the global economy is not impossible, but billions of people are affected and billions will have to be part of the solution. But if you donate money or food to the Open Pantry, you can pretty easily picture that money converted to a meal for a hungry family.

Please-- if you are not hungry right now, others are. You can send a contribution to Open Pantry Community Services, 287 State St., P.O. Box 5127, Springfield, MA 01101.

38 names at today's Homeless Memorial

Cold. Old faces, new faces. 38 candles were lit and 38 names were read.

Rev. Dyson coordinated this year's memorial. It was tender and moving

A half dozen of us from Arise came down. I got to meet an Iranian man who is a frequent poster on our listserve AriseAction and we talked about peace.

I saw Kevin Noonan, the Director of the Open Pantry, and he told me that he'd found a place for the food pantry just today. It's up State St. in a building owned by Springfield Partners for Community Action, right across from Arise's old office. And our new office is only two blocks further down State St., opposite the community college.

I'm 60 years old today. I've always liked my birthdate-- first day of winter, nearly the solstice, and yet the days grow longer from here. But on the darkest night of the year, in cities across the country, we stop to remember those who have died without a home.

Where will the Food Pantry go?

First Church at Court Square is closing at the end of December and the congregation is disbanding, for all the same reasons so many older churches have closed. I really can't picture Court Square without First Church, established 1819, although I'm sure the building will be preserved.

Since 1977, First Church has also provided a home for the Open Pantry's Emergency Food Pantry, and hosts the Loaves and Fishes Soup Kitchen on weekends.

The Food Pantry is an essential food resource for low-income people in Springfield, providing them with a balanced meal for a few days. Last year the pantry served nearly 28,000, half of them children. A third of the households that come to the pantry have at least one working member. 10% of pantry recipients are elders.

This is going to be a rough winter for poor people. It'll cost $200 to $400 more to keep warm this season. Food prices are rising. And there's less of everything to go around.

So the Emergency Food Pantry needs a new space, affordable or donated. Any offers?

On a related note, I see that the old St. Francis Chapel on Bridge St. is going to be the overflow shelter for the Worthington St. Shelter operated by the Friends of the Homeless. Wasn't it only this past April that the Open Pantry asked for use of the same site as a home for the Warming Place shelter, about to be evicted by the city from the old York St. jail, and was denied? Why is it that the city (and Friends of the Homeless) can catch the ear of Bishop McDonnell and the Open Pantry can't?

Danger! Drama! Laughter! Tears!

Minor key, mostly, just life...except for the tears (rage, sadness) from last night, listening to Homeland Security Adviser Fran Townsend being interviewed on CNN. She absolutely denied that the U.S. uses torture and absolutely refused to deny that waterboarding was one of the techniques used by U.S. interrogators. From AFP:
"We start with the least harsh measures first," Townsend told CNN television. "It stops ... if someone becomes cooperative."
But witness statements from former prisoners held in secret CIA jails or in the US military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have all testified to the use of systematic, and at times unchecked, of alternative interrogation techniques.
Former detainees, most of whom have been released without charge after several years in detention, have told of being held for months in solitary confinement.
They complained of being denied sleep, barred from seeing daylight, left naked in tiny, suffocating or freezing cells, forced to stand for hours in painful positions or being subjected to the onslaught of loud music."
I just can't believe this is my country, and that we've been so POWERLESS to stop this evil.

==================

Started out this morning running just a little behind, heading for a meeting in Holyoke. As I pulled onto Rt. 91, I noticed the air smelled like gasoline/oil. By the time I got to Rt. 391, I started wondering if I'd put my gascap back on the night before. (But of course I had, I knew that.) Pulled over on Main St. in Holyoke, puled under the car, gas was practically pouring from somewhere.

What to do? Triple A expired, or I'd have called them from there, but I don't have a cellphone anyway. So I decided to head back to Springfield as quickly as possible, before I ran out of gas, and made it (barely) to my garage. I'd grabbed the first book I put my hand on off my bookshelf this morning, so I sat outside and smoked cigarettes and read Sherlock Holmes VS. Dracula, or the Adventure of the Sanguinary Count, while my car was fixed (leak in the gas line).

"You might get sunburned sitting there," a familiar voice said, and I looked (way) up to see my friend Billy. I knew him from Sanctuary City. He looked great-- khakis with a sharp press, clean white tee-shirt tucked in, hair cut (as usual) a half inch from his scalp.

"Last I heard, you were in jail," I said.

"I did end up going back-- served out my time, so it's for the best," he said. "I'm still with Sandy," he said, some ruefulness in his voice; he knows I don't think she's good for him. "In fact, I'm on my way to see her now, she's in the hospital, she got a brain infection from shooting up."

"And you?" I said.

"I'm clean," he said, which might have even been true; he's gone long periods with his addiction inactive.

"Where are you staying?"

"I'm camping out," he grinned. "I know, doesn't look like it, does it?"

We talked a bit more and then the guy came out and said my car was ready, so we hugged and said goodbye.

Got in my car, which still reeked, and headed for the closest gas station.

"Hey, how you doing?" someone said from the next pump up.

"Hey!" It was Sonny, who I'd also known from Sanctuary City. When Sanctuary City closed, Sonny had moved in with a friend, gotten a little job, then got a beat-up pick-up truck, and now he supports himself doing carpentry and odd jobs. We chatted a couple of minutes, I got another hug, which was nice, then I headed for my office.

I have not stopped thinking about homeless people; I keep up with what's going on, and seeing Billy and Sonny freshened my thoughts. Of course I thought first of both of them, what different places they're in, how one has seemed to succeed while the other is still in the shadows. Yet Billy, like all of us, is on a journey, and the journey's not finished, and I'm not willing to think I know what his end will be.

Worthington St. shelter is full; people are sleeping on cots in the kitchen. A lot of folks are still camping out, thanks to global warming. The city forced the Open Pantry's Warming Place shelter to close but now is trying to get $40,000 out of the state for an emergency overflow shelter, seeing as plans to house homeless people have not developed quite as quickly as publicly promoted. (That's sarcasm.) I can't predict this winter, although it does seem the city is determined not to leave any opening for criticism.

Finally I got back to my office. Miss Lizzie, my senior aide, had left by then, but I had an odd feeling I was not alone. A few minutes later I heard what I thought was a bird-- possibly above the dropped ceiling? I started straightening up and when I picked up a small bag of grapes off the table, a creature flew out from behind and dashed under a desk so quickly it took me a few seconds to realize it was a chipmunk.

The chipmunk did not emerge even though I moved boxes and rattled papers all around, so I left my office door to the outside open all afternoon but as far as I know, the chipmunk was still inside when I left. (I'd put out a bowl of water and a few crackers; better a live animal than a dead one on Tuesday.)

Much organizing to do this weekend.

Homeless man to seek his own injunction against the city

I was down at the Warming Place tonight and talked to a number of people-- much sadness, confusion and disbelief that the shelter is really closing.

Open Pantry's director Kevin Noonan was there and had a Cease and Desist order from the city in his hand when I saw him. It had been delivered that afternoon from someone from the city (forget who) who had then proceeded to take pictures. He said if the shelter didn't get out, Kevin would be back in court on Thursday.

I guess somehow we thought there'd be an official deadline set by the city. Guess the city thought it would be the other way around. In any case, Kevin has decided that Wednesday night will be the official last night of the Warming Place. My sister Liz, who works at the Warming Place, will order some party-sized pizzas for the guests.

Meanwhile, yesterday one of the guys who stays at the Warming Place wrote up a statement about why people should not have to move to Worthington St. shelter, got everybody but one guest to sign it, and brought it down to Housing Court! He has a hearing Thursday at 2 pm.

I'll report as I find out more.

Painting by a homeless man taking part in Leicester, UK's Homeless Art Show, part of Homeless Service Day - BBC.