Over his wife’s protests, Pastor Jim Stevens hardly ever passed anyone by the side of the road who needed a ride without stopping to pick them up, or putting a couple bucks in the pocket of someone down on his luck, his daughter recalled recently.
Growing up as she did in a series of small towns in Idaho and Eastern Washington, Debbie Christian learned a lot from her big-hearted dad and his countless, unsung acts of kindness. And as director of the Auburn Food Bank since 2005, Christian finds herself calling every day upon the simple virtues and rock-solid faith she learned at his feet.
Directing a food bank can be a challenge in the best of times, and these are certainly not the best of times.
The Auburn Food Bank is seeing 3,300 more families than it did last year at this same time.
“Instead of seeing what we see on a normal day of 87, we are at 150. We hit record numbers every day. We’ve got a record going out there right now,” said Christian, gesturing to the crowd outside her office. “And regardless of the weather, they are getting here somehow. Today, we thought would be slow because of the snow, and we are knee deep.”
For the first time in memory, Christian said, the food bank’s warehouse is empty. And everyone is hearing stories of hard times they haven’t heard before.
While every client is not out of work, employers everywhere are cutting back hours. And there is a lot of illness going around.
Yet somehow, with the support of volunteers, an active board of directors, the generosity of the Auburn Community, the grace of God and staff members, Christian finds a way to make it happen every day for needy families.
And for that, the Auburn Reporter has chosen her to be its Person of the Year.
“I am absolutely overwhelmed,” Christian said of the honor. “I don’t deserve it. I am blessed by my job. I am blessed by the people of Auburn. I didn’t want to take this job at first, and I tried to talk them out of it. But the President of the Board that year found a few people to arm twist, and I have not been sorry, not one day.
“… I just figured this out the other night. I think I have an addiction to connecting people with resources. I thrive off of solving problems, and this is a job that allows me to solve problems all day long. I like that. If it weren’t for my faith, I don’t think I could come every day. My faith gives me the strength to get up in the morning and come to work and face needy, hungry people who are so far down sometimes that they can’t see up. If I didn’t know that there is a better way, and there is a bettor life for them, I don’t think I could do it. They just need to be given a kind word and a smile and the hope for tomorrow to get them through.”
From morning to night, the job keeps her on the go.
She estimates she spends about 45 percent of her time attending meetings, getting the food bank’s face out there. Another 10 percent, she said, is spent on administrative tasks.
“It’s not like I couldn’t really walk away and let the staff handle a lot of it. But at the same time, when you are running 150 families through a day, they don’t have time to stop and manage the administrative piece either. And there is a lot of fundraising, and the fundraising comes in with just talking.
“It feels like I don’t sit at my desk before 2 p.m.,” Christian continued. “The phones are ringing off the hook before we walk in the door. So while we’re trying to get the messages from last night, we’re trying to answer the calls from today.
“During December, people mostly want to know how they can get here and sign up for food and toys,” Christian continued. “Pam Johnson, our program minister for financial and energy assistance, always has new people in her office. Then it’s a matter of getting our checks cut and hopefully getting the people out the door again with that.”
Great support at work
She said Johnson, volunteer program director Kayla Sargent, administrative director and bookkeeper Gretchen Willard and truck driver John Cutler actually have the harder jobs.
The Auburn Food Bank has a lot going on.
Four years ago it took over the long-running community supper at the First United Methodist Church.
Starting this year it has partnered with the Northwest Family Church on a new Wednesday Night dinner.
And it runs a backpack program, choosing the neediest children on the free-and-reduced-lunch program to receive backpacks of food for the weekend.
But in the current economy, Christian worries about keeping it going.
“We are really concerned about the budgets that are coming down from both the King County Council and the state,” Christian said. “They are probably going to cut our funding. I don’t get so much state funding as a whole, but the places that I do get food from, they do get state funding. So if their grants are cut, then it just trickles down to us. The King County Council has had a program where they have funded us the money every holiday in what they call the Lollipop Fund. We weren’t able to get that this year. That was a $5,000 one.”
Christian said the community is responding to answer the needs.
“We are seeing a lot more companies defer Christmas parties, and spend that money by giving it to us instead of taking their employees out to dinner. So, in their employees’ names, they are donating money. One group of employees apparently always takes up a collection for their boss, and their boss said ‘Please, give that money to the food bank.
“Somebody stopped me at the grocery store the other day and gave me $10. “’This isn’t much,’ she said. “And I wanted to cry – it is much. Ten dollars is a lot over here. Then the next person walks through the door and hands you $1,000. Which one was more important? Neither one. Really, the person who gave me $10, that was all they could afford. The blessing of the $1,000 is beyond belief. Today, somebody walked in and said, ‘This needs to go to your holiday basket money.’ I have a $4,000 bill sitting in there. That is going to pay a fourth of it. Can’t get any better than that!’ ”
