Local community steps up to help Jackson House help others in need
The COVID-19 pandemic adversely affected many household finances, leaving some people unsure of even finding their next meal, but community members stepped up to donate to Jackson House, which has been able to feed those in need and end the year by providing holiday gifts for over 1,000 local children and seniors.
“It’s been an interesting year, that’s for sure,” Jackson House Executive Director Janie Smith said. “I’ve always said that Jackson House was like a vessel. It’s a place where all the good in the community can go out to the ones that need it. I think that’s still true, no matter what we’re dealing with in the nation or in the region, that still stands true. We have definitely seen an increase” in the need this year.
“I would say probably about 25%, maybe as high as 25. It hasn’t been that pace all the time. As the federal programs came in, like when the unemployment thing kicked in, and when the stimulus kicked in, we saw our numbers go back down to kind of normal. But they would go up and down as people were having issues, and it wasn’t the same people all the time,” Smith said.
With the pandemic still in full swing and only one more stimulus check of up to $600 currently on the horizon, the need is not anticipated to decrease anytime soon.
“I’ve had people come to me … to walk in and say ‘ Hey, I need help because I’ve donated to you before and now I need help myself,’” Smith said. “It’s just been really tough, and if you’ve gotten sick and had to be hospitalized you can imagine the terrible medical bills that you may never be able to pay back, and we’re seeing some of that as well.”
Despite serving more community members than usual throughout the year, Jackson House was still able to add a bright spot to people’s holidays after the trying year. Its annual Christmas program provided gifts to over 800 children and about 250 seniors in the community, Smith said.
“We really had to reach out to the community this year,” she said. “I mean individuals, businesses, churches, other organizations like Lions Clubs and Rotarys and so forth — a lot of people came together to help us with it this year. … I’ve seen our community like this before, back during the hurricanes they really came together and helped and helped and helped, and I’ve seen them do this — this is the second recession I can think of — where they really realized that other people are struggling, and people that are able to, they will donate.”
In fact, community donations have come in to Jackson House at an increased rate since April, when people “really started accepting the pandemic,” Smith said.
“In the new year, we’re not going to stop,” she said. “I’m pretty proud to say, even with COVID, we have not closed our facility; we’ve stayed open. Now we did have to close our thrift stores for a period of time because of the governor’s orders, but other than that, I mean we never stopped our feeding program, we never stopped our grocery program.
“We have taken off for a couple of weeks here at Christmas, but it’s not a true closure. We’re monitoring the phones … so if anybody needs any help we’re not going to not help them. It’s just that normally this time of year, between the churches and other agencies like The Salvation Army, and us, usually families are pretty well taken care of,” she said.
“Our staff, everybody’s pretty exhausted. It’s been quite a year to say the least.”