Opinion
You’ve seen the commercials about starving children in other parts of the world, but did you know that there are starving children right here in Lake County?
According to a Food and Nutrition Survey in 2010, 18 percent of Lake County residents are living in below poverty conditions and do not have access to a stable source of food throughout the year.
They cope in various ways, including the use of food stamps, free meal programs for children and by using church or community sponsored food pantries.
United Christian Parish (UCP) does not have the only food pantry in the county but I would like to share a little about how it functions as indicative of needs and service in our community.
UCP has always had some kind of food ministry to feed the hungry and we have been proud participants and supporters of the Free Kitchen Project since its inception, but in 2008 we determined we needed to do something more.
As with many other churches, prior to that time we tried to help people on a case by case basis but always felt we were falling short of what people needed.
In response we decided to open a food pantry that would provide one week’s worth of food for any family that needed it.
Further, we would let the families have some choice in the kind of food they received, but they would be limited to using the pantry once every three months.
We offer this service all year round, by appointment Tuesday through Thursday.
In 2008 when we first opened we provided one week’s worth of food for 196 adults and 128 children for a total of 324 people.
By 2011 that number grew to 272 adults and 180 children for an annual total of 452 people.
How were we able to provide a week’s worth of food for 452 people last year, and how can you help feed even more next year?
Our food pantry has in the past been stocked solely by members of the congregation. This year we received several large group donations that enabled us to significantly increase our giving ability.
Students and staff at Terrace Middle School completely stocked our pantry through a food drive before the holidays and throughout the year we received food donations from the Early Lake Lions Club, Kiwanis, Strong Financial customers, Weight Watchers, Konocti Christian Academy and through partnerships with groups such as the Free Kitchen who received grants and food from Sutter Lakeside and Grocery Outlet in addition to others.
In short – we did it through community partnerships.
All this month the “Stop Hunger Now: Lake County CAN!” food drive has been collecting food to help fight hunger not just in Lake County but around the world.
In addition to stocking food pantries around the lake we will be preparing 20,000 meals to ship overseas to a country where the people are not only “food insecure” but are actually dying from starvation.
On Friday, March 30, and Saturday, March 31, the seven United Methodist churches throughout the county will organize all of the food received and distribute it to food pantries in Lakeport, Upper Lake, Clearlake Oaks, Clearlake, Middletown, Lower Lake and Kelseyville.
You can still participate in Stop Hunger Now: Lake County CAN! by bringing a donation of food to the Upper Lake United Methodist Church, 604 Clover Valley Road, from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Friday, March 30, or to Clearlake United Methodist Church, 14521 Pearl Ave., from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, March 31.
You can deliver your food and go, or you can stay to take part in special events planned for the day.
More information is available at www.lakecountycan.org .
Can Lake County make a difference and help stop hunger now? Lake County CAN!
Shannon Kimbell-Auth is pastor of United Christian Parish in Lakeport, Calif.
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- Written by: Shannon Kimbell-Auth
I am going to leave out most of the story. And, I would add that my troubles were not caused by speculation or risk taking; au contraire, I was trying to consolidate and move to a defensive position financially when I got caught in the housing market debacle.
I pick up the story at the point of my attempt to do a “short sale.”
I contacted a local Realtor, and after entering the date in her company’s computer program, she came up with a value of $140,000. This was about half of my cost for the house and property. However, I had to accept the fact that something is worth what someone else is willing to pay for it.
Fortuitously, I received a cash offer for $120,000, which was just within the 15 percent of appraised value required.
However, The Bank had a separate appraisal for $170,000. The Bank nixed the sale and demanded the Realtor raise the price to their appraisal value, which of course we did.
And, not another person looked at the house, and the short sale period timed out.
I was curious as to why and how The Bank appraisal was so out of line with the market.
The representative for The Bank would not return my calls.
I asked my Realtor to ask the representative why he did not return my calls. He told the Realtor that he was too busy and he would not talk to me by phone, email or any other way. He was just too busy.
I tried to get help from HUD. They could offer no help in this situation.
I emailed my grievances to my Congressman: No word.
After dozens of calls to The Bank, I gave up and attempted to take the next step available: deed in lieu of foreclosure. So, I filled out all the paperwork and submitted it to The Bank.
I was assigned a representative, and was told to vacate the property by Sept. 20, 2011, which I did.
I was told to wait to be contacted for a “walk through.” That call never came.
I called The Bank several times, and my representative finally stopped calling me back.
After three months I called The Bank and was told that my file was with a law firm because there was a lien on the property.
I called the law firm in question and found out that the lien was from Sunrise Bank. So, I got on the net and found that Westamerica Bank had purchased Sunrise Bank.
I called Westamerica and got through to someone who was sympathetic and she promised that she would try to resolve the situation.
This took me, without hyperbole, 10 minutes. It took the person at Westamerica two days to get the error corrected.
Now I figured, I was back on track. So I called The Bank again, and I was told that my paperwork had a “perishable date,” and needed to be redone.
I immediately got the forms and resubmitted the paper work. I did not hear anything for a week and so I called the bank and was told that my file had been closed, and that, according to her computer, I was denied “deed in lieu of” last September. Case closed.
The problem is that my daughter co-signed and, of course, she would like to get the “clock” started for the seven-year period it takes to clear her credit.
So, I called The Bank and they said foreclosure is in the works, and that there is no way to expedite the process, and no way to know when it would take place.
I had accepted my fate and just wanted the nightmare to end. I just wanted to give back a three year old house that was in perfect order.
I asked for nothing, just closure, after a total of two and a half years since the debacle began.
The Bank was rescued by the taxpayers because it was “too big to fail.” I am thinking now that The Bank should have failed because it was too big.
The Bank, by the way, is servicing the loan, they have no stake in the outcome, they are churning fees no matter what, and the government, which is the ultimate guarantor of the loan, is footing the bill.
Those of you who have preached laissez faire (government non-intervention), I would suggest that if you ever had to deal with The Bank, you would start thinking about another French term: guillotine.
Nelson Strasser lives in Lakeport, Calif.
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- Written by: Nelson Strasser
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