FALL RIVER —While days like Veterans Day can bringthe challenges facing veterans to the front of many people’s minds, the local veteran’s outreach center faces lean funding and cuts to services 12 months out of the year.
“Around the holidays, we get remembered a lot. As soon as February, March, April come around, who thinks of us?” said Kim Wagner, administrative assistant at theVeterans Association of Bristol County.
The Veteran’s Association runs out of a low brick building across the street from Ruggles Park that it shares with the local chapter of Disabled American Veterans and the Fall River War Veterans Council. It operates a food pantry that typically serves more than 300 clients a month, 600 people includingtheir families, and a clothing donation center. It also offers services like counseling and help finding and applying for jobs. Veterans sometimes come from as far away as Boston and Cape Cod.
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'Scrambling for money'
The center receives about $100,000 in state funding each year, a number that has remained constant for at leasteight years. They also receive donations from private sponsors like BayCoast Bank and United Way.
Dennis Almeida, president of the organization's board of directors, said they're grateful for the funding they receive. But, it's not enough.
“Each year, we’re out there scrambling for money,” he said. “It’s a very vibrant place that runs on a shoestring budget.”
The center is struggling to maintain salaries for their three employees, he said. They are interviewing for a new executive director because the current one is leaving the position, in part because they ultimately could only pay him a fraction of his annual contracted salary of around $60,000.
Early last year, the center dropped down from being open five days a week to four because of funding concerns.
The city of Fall River allows them to use their building on Pine Street for free, but the space has its drawbacks. There’s no loading dock or any devices like pallet jacks or forklifts to help carry the tons of food that comethrough the center. Instead, they use shopping carts to wheel the food into the front door.
They recently found out that the box truck that they use to ferry food donations from the Greater Boston Food Bank to the center needs repairs that would cost nearly $8,000, a prohibitively expensive amount, organizers said. Until they can find an affordable replacement, they’ll have to rent a U-Haul truck once or twice a week instead.
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State Sen. Michael Rodrigues, D-Westport,serves as co-chair of the state legislature’s Committee on Ways and Means, which controls the levels of state funding for veterans outreach centers like the one in Fall River. He said the approximately $100,000 in state funding the Veterans Association of Bristol County receives is more than any other private nonprofit he knows of.In 2020, he successfully advocated for the center to receive a one-time extra $150,000 in state money for infrastructure improvements, and recently helped them win a $20,000 grant from the SouthCoast Community Foundation.
As a private group, the center needs to have multiple strong sources of funding, he said.
“It’s an amazing support organization for our veterans, which is why we’re happy to support them,” he said. “They are not a state organization.”
Pandemic took toll on nonprofits
Kim Wagner, the center’s administrative assistant, says she frets all the time that the organization might be forced to close by funding issues. She herself saw her hours cut when the center switched to opening only four days a week, meaning she now brings in about $300 less every month than she was before.
“I live and breathe for my work. I don’t even call it work, for me," she said. "I'd do it for free if I could, but I can't."
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The pandemic has created tough times for nonprofits in general, and the Veterans Association has been no exception, Wagnersaid. The Greater Boston Food Bank recently docked how much food the center receives, from 8,000 pounds a month to 7,000. The food bank is replacing some of the missing food with grocery store gift cards, but it doesn’t make up the difference, Wagner said. The U.S. Postal Service has canceled its annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive, usually a huge boon for the center, for two years in a row now because of the pandemic.
How to help
Wagner said any donation, whether it’s money, nonperishable food or clothes, can go a long way. Businesses can sign on to sponsor their annual car show, scheduled for July 30, and private individuals can donate through their website, in person or through mail.
“What are the 300-plus veterans and their families gonna do every month without the food pantry?” she said. “The need is huge to keep these doors open. We have to do whatever we can.”
Audrey Cooneycan be reached atacooney@heraldnews.com. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Herald News today.