Saline Area Social Services Aiming For Half Million Budget To Serve Community

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Saline Area Social Services estimates that they will need about $554,000 to serve the community this year. Only one percent
of that goal has been raised so far this year, but there are numerous ways to help out.

The food pantry dominates almost every room of the old house they are set up in at 224 West Michigan Avenue. Purchased by the non-profit for $1, it is full to bursting with non-perishable food items on its ground floor and especially its basement.

The tree in the lobby of Saline Area Social Services.

Businesslike volunteers and staff shuffled from room to room when the Sun Times News took a recent tour of the building; the paper bags SASS buys in bulk rustling as they were filled with the food, toiletries and toothpaste. The main entrance is dominated by a local piece of art; a tree that goes up the wall and has artificial “leaves” from the ceiling; representing past donations by community members.

The bark of the tree.

“It helps to demonstrate who we are as a community. We wanted to demonstrate that to donors and their clients when they step in through our doors,” Anne Cummings, the SASS Executive Director, said. “The bark of the tree represents all of our many donors who have donated volunteer hours to our many programs. The leaves help demonstrate the larger donors who have given five thousand or more, whether it is through monetary donations or in kind donations, to help us establish who we are today.”

The leaves of the tree.

About 80 percent of what is donated goes to donations benefiting SASS customers, according to Cummings. Food donations for families and individuals in need take up most of SASS’s budget; but they also provide other necessities like toiletries, feminine hygiene products and toothpaste. They also provide help for school supplies, winter clothing, student financial aid and counseling.

Donations can be delivered at any time on their website, but there are specific events too. SASS is teaming up with the Ann Arbor-based truck and Jeep accessory company Truck Hero, which has promised to match up to $10,000 in donations to SASS between now and March 31.

The basement among Saline Area Social Services.

Goods can be donated instead of cash. On the SASS website, they even have a list of what specific foodstuffs are most needed.

“I hesitate to think what would happen to some of these families if we were not there,” David Bowen, a retired Saline resident who has been volunteering at SSS for three years, said. “We have a core group that we see every single week, and then there are others that come and go as they need it. But you think of that core group – their cabinets, their refrigerators would be empty. There are so many families with kids … and food insecurity is such a major issue that you wouldn’t even think in Slaine that we have that much of it. But there is a lot more than people realize.”

Saline Area Social Services sources its food from stores like Busch’s, distributing food that might otherwise be wasted. Food Gatherers, a Washtenaw County-wide anti-hunger charity based in Ann Arbor, has worked with SSS for a decade. Food Gatherers Chief Development Officer Helen Starman the Sun Times News that in their fiscal year that ended in the summer of 2021, Food gatherers provided SSS 65,977 pounds of food for free.

“We deliver food each week to SASS to serve approximately 60 households. Deliveries include the following food items: fresh produce, meat, milk, other dairy products; cheese, yogurt, eggs – etc. – bread, baked goods, non-perishable food items – pasta, canned goods, etc. – and beverages; water, juice, etc.,” Starman said in an email. “SASS is an important part of our network of partner programs, agencies, and food distributions strategically located throughout Washtenaw County to ensure that our neighbors facing food insecurity can more easily access food resources.”

Saline was clobbered just like the rest of the world was when the Coronavirus hit. SASS had to adapt by temporarily not allowing customers within its building. Instead, customers stay in their car in the parking lot at the corner of Mills Road and the food is delivered to their vehicles.

“The COVID-19 pandemic caused an immediate and significant spike in food insecurity in Washtenaw County and our partner programs reported a 30 to 300 percent increase in need for food resources. Over the last 18 months the rate of food insecurity in our community has begun to decrease, but today the overall food insecurity rate is still 7 percent higher than pre-pandemic rates and child food insecurity is 12 percent higher,” Starman said.

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