Fuel costs reducing volunteers at agencies
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Bob Myers has a dilemma.
As director of Emergency Disaster Services for the Salvation Army's Western Pennsylvania Division, he has 12 vehicles ranging from vans to a 48-foot-long semi-trailer that provide support services for disaster relief work.
With gasoline prices rising almost daily, he's being battered not only by budget busting fuel costs but also by their fallout on volunteers.
"Every time we do our job, it's impacting us significantly," he said. "In the past week-and-a-half, three or four volunteers have told me they can't come in as much. They just can't afford the gas to come in.
"If they can't come in, it makes it difficult for us to do our job. That's my biggest fear now."
It's a double whammy that's affecting social services in Pittsburgh, the region and the rest of the country as gas prices have soared past the $4-a-gallon barrier. According to GasBuddy.com, the average price of gas in the Pittsburgh region was $3.975 a gallon, compared with a national average of $4.031 a gallon.
In Washington, D.C., it reached the point where members of a Seventh Day Adventist Church conducted a "pray-down" at a gas station near their church, supplicating for lower gas prices.
A recent survey by the Meals on Wheels Association of America found that 58 percent of its programs around the country had lost volunteers because of gas prices. The loss of volunteers has forced some programs to eliminate routes or consolidate meal delivery routes.
Such drastic changes haven't yet surfaced in Pittsburgh, but some local Meals on Wheels programs are gearing up for the possibility.
The program for Hazelwood and Greenfield offers drivers gasoline gift cards. At the Perry Reserve program, site manager Sister Norma Weigand offers volunteers baked goods and fresh fruit to keep them in the fold. In Aspinwall, the program's cook was given a raise from $150 to $200 a month to defray her driving costs while shopping for food bargains.
"I know she spends more than that," treasurer Jack Houston conceded.
The West Hills Meals on Wheels has been compensating volunteer drivers since September 2005, said Joe Arnold, the secretary-treasurer. Today, the program, which delivers 55 meals a day to clients in Neville, Moon and Coraopolis, is paying $2,000 a year more in compensation to drivers than it did three years ago.
"We're not trying to pay for gas," said Mr. Arnold. "We're trying to compensate them for the [price] increase. We didn't want to lose anybody."
Part of the problem is that higher fuel costs are being passed on to the programs. Mr. Arnold said his program is charged a $4-per-trip fuel surcharge by one food provider, while another charges a similar surcharge unless a certain amount is purchased.
Last month, the American Red Cross Southwestern Pennsylvania Chapter spent $450 for fuel for its vehicles, 50 percent more than in May 2007. But the impact on the nonprofit agency is deeper when viewed more broadly.
For fiscal year 2006-07, the chapter spent $11,362 for gas for its vehicles and $12,735 for fuel to heat its building, a total of $24,097. This fiscal year, which still has three weeks to run, about $18,000 has been spent for gas and $17,000 for heating, about $35,000.
For an agency that depends completely on donations for its operating budget and averages a disaster response once every 22 hours, the extra costs must be incorporated into fund-raising efforts.
Mr. Myers said his department at the Salvation Army has already used its fuel budget for this year, since it was based on gas prices that a year ago were more than a dollar-a-gallon cheaper.
First Published June 9, 2008 12:00 am
