Having access to mental health care is essential, but it’s hard to focus on healing and growth when your basic needs are not met.
Maddison Hawes is a School Case Manager for Nexus-PATH Family Healing. When she started meeting with families to provide mental health services in schools, she learned that many of her families were low-income and financially vulnerable. When she talked with other case managers and therapists at Nexus-PATH Family Healing, she realized they were noticing similar challenges. Their clients were coming to Nexus-PATH on empty stomachs, in dirty clothes, talking about not being able to afford food, laundry detergent, even toilet paper.
“We did not understand the full needs of the families,” said Maddison, “a lot of our kids were struggling because they weren’t having their basic needs met…if you don’t have your basic needs met, you aren’t going to be able to focus on school.”
Nexus-PATH staff did what they could to help families as they were able, giving grocery and gas gift cards, but they had no infrastructure in place to provide them consistently. There were local food drives in the area, but there were barriers for their clients to access them, like filling out paperwork, lack of transportation, and finding childcare – having to haul small children across town in a bus or by walking when you don’t have car, to get a few cans of food, is extremely difficult.
Nexus-PATH saw a need and decided to fill it. Maddison came to Shawna Croaker, Director of Community Based Service at Nexus-PATH, and they decided to start a food pantry for their families, directly in their offices, converting an available small office space into a pantry. This enables therapists and case managers to grab items that their clients needed for immediate relief.
“It’s amazing how a few boxes of mac and cheese can help get a family through the weekend,” said Maddison, “If we can send a kid home with just some peanut butter and jelly, we know they can stay fed through the weekend.”
They collaborated with Colleen Hardy, Reginal Development Director for the Nexus Foundation for Family Healing. Colleen wrote grants so the pantries could start off fully stocked, and they were able to get monetary donations to keep providing gift cards for gas and local grocery stores. Nexus-PATH clients can apply for grant funds for specific items their families may need as well.
“It [the food drive] shows that we have empathy as an agency, that we understand them,” said Colleen.
Through Nexus-PATH teams’ effort, three food pantries are now running in Nexus-PATH offices across North Dakota. The first food pantry started in Fargo; however, Bismarck and Minot offices quickly followed.
“A lot of our clients are financially vulnerable,” said Shawna, “so them being able to come here, not knowing how they are going to have supper, and being able to give them a bag full of food, for families who are in immediate need, is super helpful…it’s very well utilized…we often are a little short on items, because our families use it so much.”
These food pantries have also enabled the local community to get involved through donating. For donors, knowing what and who your money or items are going to is a great incentive to donate. Seeing a fully stocked pantry shelf is a great feeling.
“It takes a village,” said Colleen, “…and almost anyone can get involved with this.”
Nexus-PATH has used this drive to help create connections with local community members and businesses by helping to organize food drives to keep the pantries stocked. Businesses across North Dakota have donated, from a local real estate agent who enlisted her friends to help, a car mechanic reaching out to customers for donations and a motorcycle club to larger businesses like Thrivent Financial helping gather donations. Nexus-PATH has been able to create a network of connections, local and state-wide, to help provide for families in need.
“Donors are blown away,” said Colleen, “They felt like they had actually done something…it’s an easy way for people to engage with Nexus-PATH…everyone can understand how hard it is to concentrate when you are hungry.”
“My favorite thing is being able to show donors the pantry shelves after work hours,” said Colleen, “they’ll ask us what we need more, how they can do more…they try to understand our work and our client’s needs and ask a lot of questions.”
“It’s fairly simple to start a pantry, said Shawna, “once you have the items, a small room or even a closet with shelves can work well. We find that meeting basic needs really helps to build trust and rapport with families. It is also helpful for funders to see that their dollars are being spent in such a practical way.”
Providing dignity and worth
This drive goes beyond just feeding hungry people – being fed, having a roof over your head, having clean clothes are often taken for granted. When someone doesn’t have those basic needs, it hurts them beyond their physiological needs – it destroys a person’s sense of humanity, of their worth and dignity.
“There’s no movement in treatment if your basic needs aren’t being met,” said Shawna, “we are really prioritizing the entire person and family, not just providing one service…we are very family based, not just about supporting the individual.”
“We want to serve the whole person and give them back their dignity, beyond their mental health care,” said Maddison, “providing our girls with pads and tampons so they don’t bleed through their underwear…giving a single mom the tools to cook a full meal for her children to sit down and enjoy…that is dignity and worth.”
Clients who otherwise wouldn’t seek or accept help, see a tangible way that Nexus-PATH is caring for them as a whole person, not just their mental health needs.
“We have extremely distrustful families,” said Maddison, “…sometimes, me being able to just deliver a quilt and a bag of food to a family without them asking is what gets me in the door and opens up a path for building trust and a relationship with them.”
How to help
Nexus-PATH’s food pantries provide more than canned and non-perishable foods. While these items are of course needed and helpful, caring for families isn’t just food – it’s laundry detergent so they can have clean clothes, it’s soap and hair care products so they themselves can feel clean, it’s basic amenities like paper towels, toilet paper, tampons, pads – everyday items that many may take for granted, that others have to scrape and save, or go without, in order to provide dinner on the table, or a roof over their heads.
“We go into a grocery and can take for granted that we can buy things like toilet paper, dish soap,” said Maddison “…they cannot. It’s hard to imagine your life where you can’t afford a roll of toilet paper, but it happens,” said Maddison.
What else can be donated? Besides non-perishable foods that are easy to prepare (easy mac, cereal) people also need laundry detergent, socks and underwear, household cleaning items like Swiffer wipers, paper towels. Clothing items like gently used shoes, coats, hats, mittens, and gloves. Personal hygiene items body wash, shampoo, and conditioner (full size, not travel size), deodorant, plastic tampons and other menstrual products are also needed.
For babies and parents with small children, there is always a need for diapers and formula – WIC and SNAP do not cover diapers.
“I have clients with small children, and they have no way to get diapers,” said Maddison “... Laundry soap and dish soap are probably my biggest ask.”
Think of everyday items that you do not think twice about purchasing at the store when needed – to someone else, the decision to buy that or not may lead to them not having enough food or money to pay rent.
“This is all about preserving the dignity and worth of our families,” said Maddison, “…my challenge for people is give us a bag of something that can be turned into a full meal…for example if you are going to donate pasta, please donate spaghetti sauce, so we can just grab it and know whoever is getting it will have a full meal.”
Learn more about Nexus-PATH Family Healing or make a donation here. Be sure to follow Nexus-PATH Family Healing on Facebook and Instagram for updates on specific needs the pantry may have.