By Katherine Arms, CS
Monitor, Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y.—How can you describe someone who has changed the lives
of thousands of people from the basement of her home?
It’s difficult to say no to
Pam Koner, say those who work with her: Her enthusiasm and drive are
contagious.
Ms. Koner started her
charity, Family-to-Family, in 2002 when she saw a newspaper article about
Pembroke, Ill., which noted that 51 percent of families with children there
were living below the poverty line.
She was shocked to read
that the town had little in the way of infrastructure: no supermarket, no
pharmacy, no bank. Many families lived in houses with dirt floors.
She immediately sprang into
action and found families here in Hastings-on-Hudson, a small commuter village
just 19 miles north of New York City, who wanted to help families in Pembroke.
Soon food—canned vegetables, fruit, spaghetti sauce, tuna—was on its way.
Today Family-to-Family provides
food to approximately 2,200 children and their families in 20 places around the
United States. Some 400 volunteer families participate in 32 states. Many sign
up at www.family-to-family.org.
Though the families who
receive help from Family-to-Family are eligible for federal food stamps, the
stamps are often spent before the last week of the month, forcing families to
skip meals and go hungry, Koner says. This is when the food boxes are most needed:
They can make the difference between eating and going without.
People are drawn to the
program because it demands time and effort, Koner says, a deeper commitment
than just a financial donation. “One common thing participating people have
said is, ‘I’ve been looking for something to do with my family that is not
about writing a check,” she says.
To date, Family-to-Family
has supplied more than 1.2 million meals. Each month members across the US pack
boxes filled with seven days’ worth of nonperishable food items along with a
letter to their sponsored family. The box is shipped to a volunteer in the
receiving community, who then takes it to the family in need.
Lori Ratner of Stamford,
Conn., has been a sponsor since 2004, when she read an article about Koner and
Family-to-Family.
“For the past eight years,
we have sponsored a wonderful family in Kermit, W.Va.,” Ms. Ratner says. “These
parents raised five children, and when a relative was unable to care for her
two little girls, the family took the girls in [too] and has been raising
them….
“Although they themselves
were not in a very comfortable [financial] position, they still opened their
home and hearts to these kids. I cannot begin to express how grateful I am to
Family-to-Family. We have learned that what we may take for granted, something
as simple as a jar of peanut butter, may help a family from going hungry.”
Koner also conducts a
giving program for elementary school children called Kids Can! The students and
their families collect food items and take them to the school.
“With Kids Can! the idea
was to localize our giving so schools could take on local food pantries, each
grade for a month at a time,” Koner says. “The beauty of this is that the
school has a relationship with the pantry. They can supply what is needed, not
what they think might be needed. There is wonderful interplay between the
school and the students.”
Koner is always thinking
about new ways to give. Recently she began a shoe drive, collecting thousands
of pairs of shoes for children in the poorest areas of the US.
“When I started this, I was
floored by the generosity of people in this country,” she says. “Many of the
original participants are just middle Americans.”
Even in the midst of the
current economic downturn, with many people out of work, Family-to-Family has
lost few donors.
“So many people have
sacrificed things and budgeted us into their own budgets,” Koner says. “People
have lost jobs and had to scale back, and some have said they might have to
stop supporting their families, but usually they have found a way to continue.”
In another new program,
Giving Works!, kids in Hastings-on-Hudson and other communities pack up gently
used books and send them to a school or youth center in a less-advantaged town.
Kids in that community then package the books in individual backpacks, which
have also been donated, and take them to other kids. Koner says this teaches
children who have only known going without how to give something themselves.
Despite all this activity,
Koner wants to do more. Her phone constantly rings, and the call is rarely
about her day job running after-school programs for elementary school children.
In the future, she would
like to promote financial literacy, which she sees as a key to families pulling
themselves out of poverty—or preventing them from falling into it.
“Simply put, you teach
people how to work and live with money and stay away from bad decisions,” she
says. “It’s about when and how to say no to what we want and focus on what we
need. Savings should be a part of your budget.”
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