Woodbury Bulletin - April 16, 2008

Pioneer Press - April 23, 2008

Star Tribune - April 22, 2008

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Woodbury-Oakdale / Woman starting food shelf

Nursing assistant inspired during time without job
By Nancy Yang
nyang@pioneerpress.com
Article Last Updated: 04/23/2008 11:31:47 PM CDT

Last summer, Tammy Jensen-Boehne became a statistic.

Sidelined from her nursing-assistant job for eight weeks because of surgery, the Woodbury woman joined the growing number of Minnesotans who get help from a food shelf.

The experience inspired her to launch A Place of Hope, a new food shelf and resource center serving the Woodbury-Oakdale area. She and other volunteers are looking for space and hope to have the food shelf open by August.

Use of food shelves is "growing more and more with gas prices (rising) and the economy the way it is," Jensen-Boehne said.

She's right, said Colleen Moriarty, executive director of Hunger Solutions Minnesota, a partnership of organizations fighting hunger.

Last year, there were 1.9 million visits to the 300 food shelves in Minnesota, the group reports. That's up nearly 60 percent from 2000, when food shelves recorded 1.2 million visits.

It's not just the homeless or those on welfare getting assistance, either. A 2006 Hunger Solutions Minnesota report said food shelves in such suburbs as St. Louis Park, Golden Valley, Minnetonka and Eden Prairie have seen the greatest increases in use.

"In many cases, these are people working one to two, sometimes even three jobs to cobble together enough money to afford health care and child care and the things they need to make their family whole," Moriarty said. "These are your neighbors who are experiencing the downturn in the economy and have fallen down on hard times."

Jensen-Boehne began working on A Place of Hope about a month ago, with the idea that it would help alleviate stress on existing food shelves. Members of Woodbury Women of Today have joined the effort, as have several of Jensen-Boehne's co-workers at St. John's Hospital and other community members.

"From the very start, we thought it was a good cause for our group to volunteer with," said Tina Altman, president of Woodbury Women of Today and vice president of A Place of Hope's board of directors. "A few of our members have used the local food shelf. We are all aware of budgets being tight."

Some of the basics have been taken care of: A Place of Hope has been registered as a nonprofit, and a Web site, placeofhopefoodshelf.org, has been built.

The biggest task now is finding 500 to 2,000 square feet of space in which to operate.

Volunteers also want to make A Place of Hope a source of more than just food.

"We want this to be a resource center to get (people) back on their feet," Jensen-Boehne said.

Plans call for a bulletin board with information about other nonprofits that may be of help (or need help). People who use the food shelf will be encouraged to give back by offering whatever services they can to one another, such as baby-sitting or rides.

The tentative plan is to have the food shelf open at least once a week, one Saturday a month and one evening a month. It also would be open by appointment for emergency situations.

To Help

Anyone wishing to volunteer, donate or learn more about A Place of Hope can call 651-239-8598 or go to placeofhopefoodshelf.org.

Food shelf planned for Oakdale
KEVIN GILES, Star Tribune

Reacting to home foreclosures, sky-high gas prices and other signs of economic distress, several Woodbury residents are rallying to open a new community food shelf that would include other kinds of help like ride shares and child care.

"With the economy and the way it's going, everybody's getting overloaded," said Tammy Jensen-Boehne, who's organizing Place of Hope, a food shelf that she hopes to start this summer in Oakdale. The food shelf would serve residents of Oakdale, Woodbury and Maplewood.

Directors of food shelves already serving the three target cities question the need for another one.

They say they've worked hard to find donations and carve out resources to serve their clients as demand at east-metro food shelves grew in 2007 from the previous year.

"There are needs out there, but why double up and make it harder for the rest of us?" said Linda Zick of North St. Paul Area Food Shelf, which serves much of Oakdale. "The problem when you have too many food shelves is that you're duplicating clients or skimming resources."

Christian Cupboard, which has served Woodbury, Landfall and parts of Oakdale and Maplewood for 25 years, hasn't run out of food since its second year of operation and will grow to meet new demands, said Dick Wolfe, who runs the food shelf with his wife, Sharon. "We don't honestly feel there's a need," he said of Place of Hope.

Jensen-Boehne, a former client at Christian Cupboard who also volunteered there, said she's starting Place of Hope to help the community at a time of escalating financial misfortune. She said Place of Hope won't compete with Christian Cupboard.

"My goal from the beginning has been never ever to take from the current food shelf because that would be defeating our purpose," she said.

Food shelves throughout Minnesota are busier than ever, said Jill Hiebert, a spokeswoman for Hunger Solutions Minnesota. In Washington County, which includes Woodbury and Oakdale, food shelves saw 10 percent more clients in 2007 than in 2006, according to Hunger Solutions figures. Carver County in the southwest metro had the largest percentage increase at 22 percent. Elsewhere in the east metro, Ramsey County had a 6 percent increase. Dakota County fell 4 percent.

Some of Dakota County's decrease, Hiebert said, might be attributed to more food-shelf clients applying for government food stamps and therefore shopping elsewhere.

At Washington County's largest food shelf, Friends in Need in St. Paul Park, clients include "middle-class families now that aren't making it," said Director Michelle Rageth. The nature of people's economic struggles is outwardly more serious, such as sudden homelessness, and "it's just been really severe," she said.

1.3 million pounds of food

The demand is evident in the amount of food given out at the five Washington County shelves that Hunger Solutions tracks: 176,000 pounds more in 2007 than the previous year, for a total of nearly 1.3 million pounds of food distributed.

"Budgets are definitely being strained," said Hiebert, describing "food inflation" and escalating gas prices.

One of the Place of Hope board members, Tina Altman, said economic problems are becoming more and more evident in Woodbury despite its image as a wealthy city. She said her neighbors who have worked for a company for 25 years are in danger of being laid off, and three families in her neighborhood lost their houses in the mortgage crisis.

"Hard times can fall on anybody," said Altman, who supported her family after her husband and 3,000 other employees lost their jobs in cutbacks at St. Paul Travelers Companies Inc. three years ago.

Jensen-Boehne, who was unable to work after having surgery, went to Christian Cupboard for food and then volunteered there. She said Christian Cupboard's persisting growth in clients -- Wolfe said it's been 5 to 15 percent a year -- convinced her that another food shelf is needed. Place of Hope will offer other services, such as a free flu clinic, she said.

"The bottom line is you can feed them, but until you give them resources to get back on their feet, it's only a matter of time until they're back in the same circle," she said of food-shelf clients.

Altman is a member of the Woodbury chapter of Women Today, a fellowship and service organization that is backing Place of Hope. So are several churches, she said.

Jensen-Boehne, a Brainerd native, has lived in Woodbury for nine years. She is a certified nursing assistant at St. John's Hospital in Maplewood. Planning for Place of Hope began a month ago, she said, and the group is looking for a location in Oakdale.

Wolfe said that Christian Cupboard provides other services, too, including Thanksgiving and Christmas baskets for families, Christmas gifts for 800 children, and backpacks and supplies for schoolchildren. Christian Cupboard helps operate a financial crisis line for people experiencing foreclosures, evictions, utility shutoff or transportation problems, he said.

Zick said she wished that Place of Hope organizers had asked the North St. Paul food-shelf representatives if a dual arrangement would work in Oakdale. She said food shelves have to abide by boundaries to know who they're serving and how money and food will be donated.

"All of a sudden they're infringing on an area we're covering," she said.

Jensen-Boehne said that more people will turn to food shelves as gasoline and food prices continue to rise.

"It's to help people in the community," she said of Place of Hope.

Kevin Giles • 651-298-1554

Photo by Hank Long, Woodbury Bulletin
From left to right - Natasha, Tina, Flo, Tammy, Kim and Matthew

Looking for a Place of Hope
Hank Long
Woodbury Bulletin - 04/16/2008

Tammy Jensen-Boehne knows what it’s like to need a helping hand. So the Woodbury resident is offering a “Place of Hope,” a food shelf she hopes to open soon in the Oakdale area.

Last year the Woodbury wife, mother and grandmother, who works at St. Joseph’s Hospital as a nurse’s assistant, underwent a surgery that kept her out of work for eight weeks. The loss of income during that time had a financial affect on her household of seven, which, for a short time benefited from assistance with groceries provided by the local Christian Cupboard.

“It’s not something we thought we would ever need, but we were very grateful for the assistance,” said Jensen-Boehne, who has also volunteered at the Christian Cupboard, which Dick and Sharon Wolfe have been running in Woodbury for 25 years.

“In today’s economy there are just so many people you might not think need assistance, but all the sudden they’re faced with foreclosure, job loss or an illness,” she said.“Then they have to make a decision to either pay the rent or mortgage or to buy food for their family. A lot of these people are hardworking and this is America. They shouldn’t have to make that decision,” Jensen added.

Complementing the need

Jensen-Boehne said her own experience woke her up to the reality that the need for food shelf assistance among many families in the east metro is on the rise. She plans to open A Place of Hope in Oakdale to supplement the assistance that the Christian Cupboard, which is run out of Woodbury Lutheran Church, has already been providing to residents in and around Woodbury.

“We don’t want to duplicate the help they’re providing, but we know that the need has increased significantly, the last few years,” Jensen-Boehne said. “Especially the last year or so.”

The Wolfes can attest to that.

Sharon Wolfe said the recent downturn in the economy has driven up the numbers coming to the Christian Cupboard for help on a weekly basis.

“We generally serve between 80 and 100 families, but it’s gone up during our peak periods,” Sharon Wolfe said.

Dick Wolfe said the increase in need is coming from residents of Woodbury and its neighboring communities including Landfall, south Maplewood and Oakdale.

“Many of the people we serve are not the people who are necessarily at the bottom of the income levels,” Dick Wolfe said. “It’s people who are basically in the middle class, and then something happens, like a job loss. These are the type of people we are helping more and more in the last few years.”

Wolfe said the increase in numbers using the Christian Cupboard is not more than they can handle, but Jensen said she’s looked hard at the numbers and knows the area could use another food shelf.

“We’re confident we can make an impact on people in need,” Jensen-Boehne said.

Laying the foundation

Jensen-Boehne started plans for A Place of Hope earlier this year . She was able to find partners in her project in the Woodbury Women of Today (WWT).

WWT president Tina Altman said her group is excited to get on board to help in the venture.

“Everyone we’ve been talking to about this project, is a little surprised at first that there is this need right here in the community,” Altman said, “But then they get to thinking about people they know, who could really benefit from it.”

Altman and Jensen are members of the executive board that has been formed for A Place of Hope. The organization recently submitted its 501c3 forms to file for non-profit status. It has been in talks with donors and organizations willing to collect food on a regular basis.

But before A Place for Hope can open, it needs to find a physical space in Oakdale, Jensen-Boehne said.

“That’s our biggest challenge right now,” she said. “We’re getting willing volunteers, we have a board and some donors established. We just need the space.”

The plan is to make A Place of Hope just that, said Altman.

“When we first started meeting as a board, we really talked about the whole concept of it being more than a food shelf,” Altman said. “We want it to be a resource center to help people get back on their feet and not feel ashamed about that.”

Anyone interested becoming a partner to help establish a Place of Hope can reach Tammy Jensen-Boehne at (651) 702-3910 or www.placeofhopefoodshelf.org.  

FOX 9 News - Saturday April 26, 2008 9:00 pm newscast with Tom Halden