Editor’s note: Over the past eight months it has been my privilege to spend one hour a week doing food prep at Iron Gate, one of Tulsa’s largest and most active food assistance programs. I invited Connie Cronley,  Iron Gate’s Executive Director, to discuss their work.

Iron Gate is a soup kitchen and food pantry in downtown Tulsa. It was started 26 years ago by parishioners of Trinity Episcopal Church who made sandwiches for the downtown homeless. The food was handed out in the church’s cloister garden which had a decorative iron gate.

The word quickly spread: If you’re hungry, go to the church with the iron gate. The name stuck.

The organization is still located in the basement of Trinity, but it has grown into a separate 501 ( c ) (3) nonprofit organization.

Our mission is simple: We feed people. Read the rest of this entry »

Today we released the 19th issue of our monthly Numbers You Need bulletin, which tracks monthly and quarterly data for key economic indicators. As in many recent months, the overall economic news was mixed: a slight increase in employment and rebound in state revenues, offset by continued high numbers of bankruptcy filings. But while we have seen  fluctuations in many indicators of the state’s economic well-being over the course of the economic downturn,  one constant has been an increasing number of Oklahomans turning to public programs for assistance with food and medical care. In March, participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly food stamps) rose for the 24th consecutive month (it has since risen again in April and May). Meanwhile, enrollment rose for the 15th straight month in March in SoonerCare (Medicaid), the federal-state health insurance program for low-income individuals in various categories.

This chart (which is based on DHS monthly statistical bulletins available here) shows monthly participation for both programs going back to January 2008: Read the rest of this entry »

From time to time, we use the OK Policy blog to post submissions we receive from Oklahomans who have interesting perspectives on important policy issues for the state. This entry is from Sara Waggoner, Executive Director of the Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma.

I have been in Food Banking for 28 years and just finished my 20th year as executive director of the Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma. I have never seen the need for emergency food programs so prevalent or the increase in requests so high.

Emergency food programs were originally established to provide food for a short period of time to families who temporarily lacked enough money to meet all of their basic needs. Providing food allowed them to use their resources to pay a utility bill, put gas in the car to get to work or buy medicine. Families usually needed help two to four times per year, occasionally six times. Over the last two and a half years, not only has the number of people requesting help increased by 40 percent in the 24 counties served by the Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma, but, more and more families are relying on these emergency food programs to make it through each month. Read the rest of this entry »

The New York Times this weekend ran an important feature on one important and disturbing sign of the impact of the recession – the large and growing population of food stamp recipients that report zero household income:

About six million Americans receiving food stamps report they have no other income, according to an analysis of state data collected by The New York Times. In declarations that states verify and the federal government audits, they described themselves as unemployed and receiving no cash aid — no welfare, no unemployment insurance, and no pensions, child support or disability pay. Read the rest of this entry »

This week we released the November issue of Numbers You Need (PDF), our monthly look at key data on the state’s economy  and budget. As we reported in the bulletin, one of the clearest signs of the depth and length of the economic downturn is that participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps, rose for the seventeenth consecutive month in August. The program provided benefits to 524,536 people in August, an all-time high, and an increase of 27.3 percent compared to March 2008. Read the rest of this entry »

Note: Occasionally we are re-running blog posts on topical subjects that you may have missed the first time around. Last week, the Tulsa World reported that DVIS (Domestic Violence Interventions Services) of Tulsa has been awarded a $426,335 grant from violence prevention funds that were part of the federal stimulus bill to assist clients with emergency needs. In June we ran this blog post about the important role of federal stimulus funds for domestic violence shelters facing increased demands for services from families in distress: Read the rest of this entry »