Dear friends,
Welcome to summer! I hope this season brings you joy.
The months of April and May included both sober and joyful markers for SVdP Madison. In April, we provided food to 3,236 households; the busiest pantry month ever. In May, I shared this pantry record with guests at our Care Café fundraising breakfast. Also at the event, Chris Kane, our Senior Director of Client Services, talked about how escalating rental costs are the single biggest driver of financial stress for our neighbors right now. He explained how this kind of housing and financial stress can lead to homelessness.
The support we raised together at Care Café – an amazing $261,896 – will help neighbors like Kristine…
Kristine is a social worker for seniors at a local nonprofit and has two kids in middle school. In the past two years, her rent has increased by 40%, but her cost-of-living wage increase was only 6%.
By supporting SVdP Madison, you allow people like Kristine to stretch their budgets by using the food pantry, charitable pharmacy, microloans, or case management services to stay stable in their housing. You are actively preventing family homelessness right now and helping our neighbors in need. Thank you!
Time spent with Vincentian colleagues at a recent national gathering confirms that challenges experienced by Dane County families are reflective of what others face across the county. Here are my takeaways from those conversations:
- SVdP USA is in the process of a nationwide listening effort to better understand post-pandemic needs of vulnerable people and the best ways to help them in the months and years to come.
- The “new normal” after the pandemic is leaving more people without the resources to meet their basic life essentials like housing, food, clothing, and medicine, often leading to mounting debt and/or homelessness.
- In this effort, we need to hear from YOU! We’ll be reaching out in a variety of ways. I hope you’ll respond with your ideas and help us find new and better ways for people who care to become involved.
In gratitude for you,
Julie Bennett
CEO & Executive Director
Dear friends,
The Society of St. Vincent de Paul essential values of Gentleness, Selflessness, Simplicity, Humility and Zeal guide us to serve our neighbors every day. I know we share these values and I thank you for your dedication to caring for our neighbors in need. Take a look at the impact of your support and know that each number, each data point represents a real family or individual.
During this season of Lent, I’m intentionally taking daily time to pause and reflect on my faith journey. My Catholic tradition asks me to particularly use prayer, fasting, and almsgiving to build my relationship with God.
- Prayer… I’ve built prayer into my daily life for a long time. I pray for you and for our Members, staff and volunteers every day. I pray for our neighbors in need, that their burdens may be eased by people like you and by changes in our society that will help them thrive. I hope you pray for me too!
- Fasting… When our kids were young, one Lent we did a water “fast,” meant to be in solidarity with children around the world who have to carry water for their families instead of going to school. I don’t think we lasted a week! But fasting done right helps us differentiate needs and wants. Fasting reminds us of those who live without basic essentials, and prompts us to order our decisions accordingly.
- Almsgiving… During Lent, my husband and I try to be more generous. To find ways to say “yes” to the needs before us every day. You have been generous already. Thank you! I hope you’ll be generous again this season, perhaps in a new way.
- Will you make an extra gift, knowing that so many more people need help?
- Will you become a quarterly or monthly donor? This helps stabilize our budget year-round and might be a way for you to give a little more.
- Will you consider a legacy gift by including us in your will, as a beneficiary for an insurance policy, or making a gift of appreciated assets like stock or bonds?
This is my prayer today:
May the good you do for neighbors in need return to you in joy and fellowship. May others follow your lead in compassion, kindness, and generosity to make our community better for all, particularly those most in need. May this time be one of outward focus; seeking to give ourselves to those the world often ignores. And may you be blessed beyond measure for your goodness. Amen.
Julie Bennett
CEO & Executive Director
Do you believe in miracles? I do.
A sick child leads to a lost job leads to an eviction notice. Two Vincentians visit this neighbor at his home to see how they can help. Another neighbor overhears the conversation through an open window and organizes others in the apartment building to help cover his rent. Two loaves and five fish feed thousands in the Bible story. Two Vincentians and a group of neighbors save a family’s home. Miracles!
Nearly 3,000 households used our food pantry in September. That number grows month after month. Rent increased 14% in Dane County in 2022 and will rise at least another 5% this year. Food prices will rise 6% this year on top of a 10% increase last year. Gas and utility prices remain high. People with limited incomes cannot absorb these cost increases.
Our fiscal year October 2022- September 2023 budget included $320,000 for food and diapers. Yet nearly $900,000 was required to meet the need. Because of your generosity, no hungry neighbor was turned away.
A miracle! You are the miracle that faithfully meets the demand for food and personal care items that is nearly three times higher than it was before the pandemic. I am speechless with gratitude for you.
“The poor you will always have with you” (Mark 14:7). Unfortunately, this prophetic statement has never been more true. Yet because we believe in miracles, we have hope. Hope can come as words or gestures. Hope can also come as food, medicine, clothing, and furniture. When you help the Society of St. Vincent de Paul — Madison, you build hope. Thank you.
Because I believe in miracles, I believe in you.
Julie Bennett
CEO & Executive Director
Heartbroken, Frustrated, Grateful: a tangled ball of emotions for one situation.
I went on a home visit with my husband recently. There we met Carter*. His apartment was empty, except for some clothes on the floor for his bed, a box of berries and two bottles of water. He offered the water to my husband and me.
Heartbroken: This young man, a father in his early 30s, has cancer.
Frustrated: His treatment has left him unable to work. He used his savings as long as the money lasted, then sold his belongings and moved in with a friend until he couldn’t stay any longer. For five months now, his disability claim has been “backlogged.” He has no income.
Grateful: When he was homeless, he was able to qualify for an apartment. He moved into his new home about three weeks ago.
The end of COVID-19 pandemic programs, combined with rising prices, make it harder for people like Carter to afford basic life necessities. Of the 100 largest cities in the USA, Madison has the fastest rising rent (14.1% in the past year and 30.4% since March 2020**). To survive, more and more people turn to programs like our food pantry for help.
In Dane County, a quarter of renters spend more than 50% of their income on housing. Those on the margins, those we serve, spend even more. A new book, Poverty, by America, by Matthew Desmond, describes public policy decisions that cause entrenched poverty in our country. Poverty in America is higher and deeper than any other developed country in the world. While I don’t agree with all that Desmond proposes, surely, we can do better.
You are already doing better for those in need in our community. Your generosity gives food, clothing, beds, furniture, household goods and medicine to neighbors like Carter and his kids. You are helping thousands of neighbors with your faithful support. In addition to these material items, you give Carter hope.
Heartbroken, I pray for Carter. In my frustration, I advocate on his behalf. In my gratitude, I say, thank you, for helping our neighbors in need.
Julie Bennett
CEO & Executive Director
* Name changed to protect privacy
**https://www.apartmentlist.com/research/national-rent-data
Dearest friends,
Lent is upon us. For Catholics and many other Christian denominations, Lent is a time for self-examination. Am I living up to the purpose to which I have been called. Are you? Whatever our faith beliefs, most of us want to believe we are on this earth for a purpose. And most of us want to make the world a better place for ourselves and others. Through your generosity, you have shown that is the world you want.
In the Christian tradition, Lent is a time to use the spiritual practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving to grow in holiness. These practices, followed intentionally, should also grow our capacity to love one another. Lately, I’ve been reflecting on fasting.
Isaiah 6-8 tells us:
“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter — when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.”
It occurs to me that fasting is largely the privilege of those with means. You can’t fast from what you don’t have. I’m reminded of a prayer that my mother-in-law taught our children when they were very young.
Thank you Lord for enough and some to share.
The concept of “enough” seems contradictory to our culture. Rather, accumulation and materialism reign supreme. But if we are to think about justice for our neighbors in need, we must grapple with what is enough. Intentional fasting helps us recall the difference between wants and needs. It softens our hearts towards those who can only choose between need and need without the option to choose a want.
This Lent, whether or not you are a person of faith:
- Will you join me in fasting?
- Will you spend time contemplating the concept of enough?
- Will you share with those in need?
I’d love to hear about your experience with fasting and how – or if – you grew in goodness through it. Please stay in touch.
You remain in my prayers of gratitude,
Julie Bennett
CEO & Executive Director
Thank you for everything you do for Dane County neighbors in need.
There is so much that the staff and volunteers here at the Society of St. Vincent de Paul — Madison do to help our neighbors in need. But it’s only possible because of the support from people like you.
Today, I’m writing to thank you for all your help and to update you on some of the recent achievements made possible by you, as well as challenges for the year ahead.
Families who are financially struggling are often hidden in plain sight. Many work multiple jobs to pay the rent, feed their families, and keep their cars running. Some have chronic health conditions compounding their challenges with limited mobility and isolation.
In the three months since I’ve been CEO, I’ve personally seen an alarming number of our Dane County neighbors hungry, without proper winter clothing, sleeping on floors, and failing in health because they cannot afford their prescription medications.
My recent letter about struggling families featured Roy and his son Jackson who needed help with groceries, clothes, beds, and life-sustaining heart medication. Roy and Jackson’s story moved many of our supporters.
I want to thank you for your donation to help our neighbors in need. Thanks to your support, I am very pleased to share that we surpassed our December goal of $400,000 to help Roy and the many families in Dane County who struggle to make ends meet. Your generosity is extraordinary!
Every dollar will be used as we acquire food and medicine from the most cost-effective sources and distribute clothing and household donations provided by generous supporters.
Thanks to people like you, we have been able to reach more neighbors in need than ever before with our food pantry, clothing and furniture vouchers, charitable pharmacy, and housing programs. I continue to hear from neighbors who are so grateful to turn to us during difficult times.
With your help, we have already achieved much for our neighbors in need. However, I know there is much, much more that we must do.
Working in step with the board, our staff, and volunteers we are adapting and strengthening our efforts for neighbors in need. I know how much we can improve the lives of many more struggling families.
My top priorities in 2023 are:
- Providing an alternative to predatory loan companies which prevent neighbors from achieving financial stability.
- Expanding customer choice by restoring the indoor food pantry along with operating the outdoor drive-through, online ordering, and delivery options.
- Stabilizing single custodial adults raising children through individualized support services.
- Increasing the number of patients without prescription drug coverage served through our Charitable Pharmacy.
These efforts would not be possible without your support during the past year. Thank you for everything you do to help our neighbors in need.
If you have any questions about the work you enable us to do please feel free to contact me directly at (608) 278-2920 x32 or jbennett@svdpmadison.org. I’d love to speak with you.
With the deepest gratitude,
Julie Bennett
CEO & Executive Director