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At its annual corporate breakfast last week, one of Montgomery County's most recognized nonprofit outreach agencies thanked its corporate contributors and volunteers whose work has become that much more essential and difficult in a national recession.
Interfaith Works' services — aimed at helping the county's lowest-income residents with services that range from temporary shelters to providing clothing — are at a premium, with the organization seeing many more needy residents than in the past, Executive Director Rebecca Wagner told a roomful of business executives and county leaders.
As the economy has declined, Interfaith Works, which helps more than 30,000 people a year, has seen a 48 percent increase over last year in the use of its clothing centers. Utility and rent assistance requests have risen 50 percent in the past six months, and more than half of the 65 clients at its women's shelter are first-time homeless, Wagner reported.
The organization's revenue goal for the current fiscal year is $4 million, with another $4 million expected in donated goods and services. But as with all areas of the economy, the recession has hurt the organization's coffers, and Wagner projects a 3 percent loss in revenue by the end of March.
More than 7,000 volunteers, 140 religious congregations and 60 corporate sponsors — including original breakfast sponsors Lockheed Martin, Marriott and The Gazette Newspapers — help fund and carry out the work of the Rockville-based organization, formerly known as Community Ministries.
Two of those volunteers, Germantown residents Chris and Sue Matthews, were recognized at the 12th annual breakfast as 2009's Volunteers of the Year. The couple began working with the nonprofit's shelter housing program through their church in 1991. Over the years, Chris Matthews served on the organization's board of directors, and both continue to bring members of their LDA Seneca-Stake congregation to Interfaith's volunteer opportunities.
In accepting the award, Chris Matthews recited the quote from famed UCLA basketball coach John Wooden, "You can't live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you."
"We are you," he told the audience.
Attorney and businessman Warren Rosenfeld was recognized as Humanitarian of the Year for his financial support of Interfaith Works, as well as establishing the Hans Rosenfeld Upcounty Clothing Center in honor of his father.
"No matter what I've done for Interfaith Works, it cannot compare to what it's done for me," Rosenfeld said, dedicating his award to his parents, his wife, his rabbi and to Wagner. "Being at Interfaith Works made me a better person."
In her annual update, Wagner recited the statistics that echoed the service requests reported by the county's Department of Health and Human Services. The county figures also show increasing child abuse calls, homeless shelters at capacity and increasing food stamp caseloads.
Budget cuts at the county level and the recession have strained the safety net of social services throughout the county.
"Our work is an act of leveraging: leveraging dollars, volunteer time and skills, energy and desire," Wagner said. "We work at the edges, stretching and struggling to find that place where fiscal responsibility and community needs are met."
Then in assuring those in attendance, Wagner said, "You should know this: We are simply going to work as hard as we can, with what we have, to improve the lives of those who come to us in need."
