Eight long tables in the activity center at First Baptist Church at St. Elmo are groaning with laundry detergent, toilet paper, paper towels, cleaning supplies, and enough non-perishable food to feed a small army. The stacks of goods are higher than some of the people working to divide everything into baskets.
This has become a familiar annual sight at the church, which hosts the distribution of the supplies to widows throughout the Chattanooga area.
The goods were donated by the Greater Chattanooga Associations of Realtors, which each year holds a food drive to benefit Widows Harvest Ministries, a nonprofit that serves local widows. The necessities are then divided into Thanksgiving baskets that go out into the community.
This year, instead of collecting food, GCAR raised money to purchase the goods – nearly $2,600 worth, says Mary Carlson, a member of the organization’s 2013 Board of Directors.
“As far as I know, this is our biggest donation,” she says. “Thank you to everyone who got involved.”
GCAR raised money by renting vendor space at its annual Trunk or Treat event in October and soliciting $20 donations. Each donation secured the benefactor one entry in a drawing for an iPad.
A unique mix of people is working through the piles of pasta, spagetti sauce, and oats, among other food: some are Realtors; some are people who were simply there, and were cajoled into bringing in the supplies from two stuffed pick-up trucks; and some are widows.
Two ladies from the latter group are already elbow deep in supplies as they begin dividing them into baskets, undaunted by the task ahead of them.
Andy Mendonsa, director of Widows Harvest, says many of the items are not options for widows when they go to the grocery store. “Widows are having to choose between food and prescription medicines,” he says.
Mendonsa says widows are among the least visible low income group in the city despite their great need. “No one is worrying about a group of older, low income widows marauding our neighborhoods, or threatening property owners, or increasing the crime rate,” he says. “But widows qualify for the least amount of Social Security and food stamps.”
Mendonsa, who founded Widows Harvest in 1986, looks across the tables with gratitude. “This is for women who basically have been forgotten; no one thinks about them,” he says. “This is our way of saying, ‘We remember you, we care about you, and we’re standing with you.’”
After Mendonsa records a short video of Carlson talking about GCAR’s efforts to serve widows, he thanks her again. “We have come to count on this every year,” he says.
Mendonsa has good reason to repeatedly express thanks: He says with baby boomers retiring, the U.S. will soon have more widows than ever. “The largest percentage of baby boomers retiring today are widows, and many of them are low-income widows. We’re not going to be able to meet their needs at the current level of support.”
For that reason, Mendonsa encourages year-round support. “The small things have the greatest impact,” he says.
For more information about Widows Harvest Ministries, visit widows.org.