Over the past year, one of the high points for me each week has been the hour I spend early Wednesday mornings in the kitchen of Trinity Episcopal Church in downtown Tulsa helping with basic food prep tasks for the Iron Gate soup kitchen. As Iron Gate Executive Director Connie Cronley wrote in this guest blog, Iron Gate is a 26-year old organization with a simple mission: To feed people. As a kitchen volunteer, I’ve known that the food I help prepare goes to the roughly 1,500 to 2,000 guests who receive a hot meal at Iron Gate each week. This past Tuesday, Election Day, I decided to finally spend a morning with those Iron Gate serves – and to take some notes for the blog .

I arrive at the Church at 8:30 just as a line-up of some 75-100 people is being led through the outside doors to the medium-sized dining room. Iron Gate actually serves two meals each morning: a breakfast at 8:30, followed by a lunch starting around 9:00 (on weekends they serve a single morning meal). The guests – as they are always called – eat well at Iron Gate. I am quickly put to work dishing out large helpings of  Cream of Wheat and biscuits for the first meal, which goes along with sausages and applesauce. Once the sausages run out, the second meal quickly materializes – chicken pot pie, a green salad, and a croissant, along with fruit salad and a donut for dessert. Their food comes from a variety of sources – baked goods and fresh produce from Reasor’s, canned goods from the Food Bank, meat and other supplies from donations. Read the rest of this entry »

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 »

This week we released the July edition of Numbers You Need, our monthly bulletin of key economic and budget trends.  The monthly report contained some glimmers of good news, as the state’s unemployment rate rose by a relatively modest 0.1 percentage point to 6.3 percent in May, while rising energy prices (of benefit to Oklahoma) contributed to a modest increase in the Consumer Price Index. However, if we step back and compare where we are now to our situation 12 months ago, we get a sense of the extent of the  economic downturn’s toll on the state’s economy and population. Compared to 12 months ago, we find (numbers compare May 2009 to May 2008, except where otherwise noted):

• 39,900 fewer Oklahomans employed;
• A 77 percent increase in the number of unemployed;
• More than three times as many Oklahomans receiving Unemployment Insurance benefits;
• Over 51,000 more people receiving food assistance (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly food stamps) benefits and almost 26,000 more people on Medicaid (April 2009 vs. April 2008);
• State General Revenue collections down 30 percent (June 2009 vs. June 2008)

The weak economy continues to place great strains on both our private and public safety net support systems.  Fortunately, the federal stimulus bill included increases in both Unemployment Insurance and food assistance benefits, as well as help for states to protect Medicaid health insurance coverage and avoid layoffs of teachers and other public sector employees. This  provides crucial help to families in need and keep dollars circulating through the economy at a time when state resources are declining.

We hope you’ll check out Numbers You Need and post a comment sharing your thoughts.