Lyle food shelf fills need in school, around town

It’s a small town, but Lyle is proof that solving hunger on a larger scale is possible.

It’s just one food shelf — occupying one room at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church — but the longtime shelf has seen an increased need for assistance in the past years and has risen to the occasion.

The Lyle food shelf is currently feeding about four to six families per month in Lyle. That’s a far cry from the total people the food shelf actually supports, however.

“It’s not uncommon for social workers from Austin to contact us and ask if they can come and get food for their clients who have applied for food stamps but may not be receiving them for another week,” said Pastor Barbara Finley-Shea, who has been in Lyle for more than 13 years.

She has noticed more working families need food assistance, just like many other areas of the U.S. With donations from other local churches, like Six Mile Grove and Mona Lutheran, the church has a steady stock of canned and boxed goods. It even keeps a steady amount of perishable items, as enough monetary donations allowed the church to purchase a freezer during the summer.

“I have noticed that it seems like the last couple months, we’ve been used more frequently,” Finley-Shea said.

Though Finley-Shea is often at the church and deals with the food shelf, someone else may understand local hunger better than most. Julie Jacobsen, Lyle food shelf director and kindergarten teacher, watches for hunger nearly every day. She watches children closely at the school, looks for indicators and isn’t afraid to address the issue — even if there may be a stigma attached.

“It’s not uncommon for me to approach and ask, ‘Could you use some food assistance? Could the food shelf help you out?’” she said. “And I don’t feel bad about doing that.”

Jacobsen doesn’t feel bad because she knows the need outweighs the stigma. Hunger can be particularly tough on growing kids, and she sees that, too.

“I can see a need before anyone would even ask,” Jacobsen said. “I think that’s because I am at school, and I see a lot of children over the course of the day. And I’ve been teaching here for 21 years.”

She added, “You see it in children more acutely than you see it in adults.”

But Jacobsen is sensitive to the issue. She wants to make kids, and anyone who uses the food shelf, as comfortable as possible because she knows the stigmas attached to using it.

“You always get the idea that someone is watching,” she said.

That’s why Lyle’s food shelf has a backpack program. Jacobsen sends home sheets with kids; and if they need food, parents fill out the sheet and write down what they need. Then, kids can get a backpack filled with food to take home each week.

“And the reason we put the food in backpacks is if they have to go on the bus, nobody knows,” Jacobsen said. “It’s a backpack, so it’s completely confidential.”

That program alone has highlighted the local need for food assistance.

“If there weren’t a need, that program would not be flourishing, and it’s flourishing,” Finley-Shea said.

While the backpack program allows Jacobsen to help kids and families, the food shelf itself is doing another thing: raising awareness. Finley-Shea thinks that awareness about hunger in Lyle has erased some of the stigma.

“It has made the people in our church and our community aware that there are hungry people in our midst,” She said.

Some people are still paying bills before buying groceries, though. Finley-Shea and Jacobsen both said that is why the food shelf is so important. Nearly all the people using the Lyle food shelf have jobs but are simply struggling. Using the food shelf has been a way for people to get out of that debt gap, often quickly.

“It’s not uncommon for us to help a family once or twice, and they don’t come back,” Jacobsen said.