37% of Lebanon County households can’t afford basic necessities. Your monthly donations to Lebanon County Christian Ministries are critical.

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The holiday season is a time of giving, reflecting and renewal.
 
For many people it’s a time to be surrounded by family and friends in a warm home, giving and receiving gifts, feasting on delicious meals and giving to those who need it most.
 
And Lebanon County Christian Ministries is one of the local organizations that helps those who need it most.
 
Nearly 37% of households in Lebanon County lack the income to cover the costs of basic necessities such as food, housing, transportation and child care, according to the United Way of Pennsylvania.
 
The United Way calls them “ALICE” households — short for “Asset-Limited, Income-Constrained, Employed."

ALICE is a new way of defining and understanding the struggles of households that earn above the Federal Poverty Level, but not enough to afford a bare-bones household budget, according to the United Way.
 
As the United Way explains,  ALICE is your child care worker, the cashier at your grocery store, the retail employee at a big box store, a warehouse employee, waitress, home health aide, and so on.
 
While more than a third of households in Lebanon County struggle to afford basic necessities, 59% of households in Lebanon city are struggling to make ends meet – 37% of which fall into the ALICE category and 22% are living below the Federal Poverty Level.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate in Lebanon County in September was just 3.5%.

Read about the Consequences of Insufficient Household Income
 
This means Lebanon County’s underpaid workforce – which is filling a critical need in our local economy – is struggling because the cost of living is outpacing what they earn, according to the United Way.
 
As the ALICE report puts it:
 
“Working families are still struggling due to the mismatch between the basic cost of living and the wages of many jobs across the state, exacerbated by systemic inequities in opportunity and wealth.”
 
By making an affordable, automatic tax-deductive gift each month, you can help Lebanon County Christian Ministries address the immediate needs of thousands of Lebanon County residents who are struggling to make ends meet.
 
And LCCM’s new Love Your Neighbor campaign allows you to do just that.

LCCM has a vision of creating a community of passionate, monthly givers who want to make a lasting commitment to provide emergency services to individuals and families in Lebanon County.
 
This mission includes providing food, shelter, clothing, heating and water bill assistance, the summer food program for children, sponsoring the daily free noon meal, and administering the USDA’s federal government surplus food program (TEFAP) and the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP). As a monthly donor, you’ll know that your contributions are not passive donations. You are making a huge, local impact and providing lifechanging – and sometimes, lifesaving – assistance to Lebanon County individuals and families going through some of the toughest times in their lives.

"LCCM serves to provide the basic necessities. We are committed to support our community and rely on those who are able to give to support our organization. We do not take the responsibility of being good stewards of your financial resources you so willingly share with us lightly," said Bryan Smith, LCCM's executive director. "We also believe it is important to know that many individuals are one bad day away from going from donor to receiver of our services. We believe in God’s call for us to collaborate with many to support the individuals in need in our community. We believe in the need to hear everyone’s story and to ensure we meet those individuals where they are and to build them up to be self sustaining." 

Read the ALICE report in its entirety 

Alice Report by Sean Sauro on Scribd

Written by Andrea Gillhoolley, Lebanon County Christian Ministries development manager. Contact her at [email protected]