Lending a Helping Hand

story by Jill Dutton | photographs by Kevin Anderson

Lori N. had two elementary school-aged children when she found herself in dire straits. Going through a divorce, she had found a place for the three of them to live, but there wasn’t money left over to furnish the new apartment. She credits Shawnee Community Services, a not-for-profit agency in Shawnee, with coming to her family’s aid by providing a couch, clothing, food, and other necessities. Even after moving, Lori says she would frequently stop by the store to pick up free bread, desserts, and produce when available, and go through the clothes bin to find items for herself and her daughters.

“When I really needed them, they were there,” she says. “We had nothing to move with and for them to be there and help us during a time of need, that was amazing.”

Shawnee Community Services has been helping people in emergency situations, like Lori, for 40 years.

Shawnee Community Services was founded on the vision of Evelyn VanKempseke. After her passing in 2015, her daughter Sylvia Terry, who had worked for the agency full-time since 1992, has carried on as president and CEO. Terry says her goal is to “keep Evelyn’s vision alive, while adjusting to the current times.”

Step inside the store area at Shawnee Community Services and the small size of the shop belies the magnitude of help provided. The original building also had a small shopping area, but since a complete teardown and reopening in 2013, there’s a front shop, a massive storeroom filled with pantry items for food boxes, and a loading and storage area for donations. The pantry boxes require an appointment, but there’s still plenty to be found for free—or at most a few dollars—in the store. One wall is filled with baker racks that hold free bread and desserts from local bakeries. There’s another rack with some fresh fruit or other free food items. Then there’s the thrift store where visitors can choose from jackets, purses, clothing, and bedding—depending on what’s available— some items for free, others for a dollar or two.

In addition to the free food and clothing, Shawnee Community Services offers help through additional programs. One new program, started because of the rising gas prices, offers fuel cards. Late summer brings backpacks filled with school supplies for children. And during the holidays, there’s a free Christmas party for children with games and prizes, and every child leaves with a wrapped present. There’s a free raffle for a Christmas tree and a lot of activities packed into the two-hour event. This year’s event is scheduled for December 18 at the Shawnee Civic Center.

Then there are extra food distributions around the holidays, providing 250 to 300 holiday meals at both Thanksgiving and Christmas.

While the majority of the families they work with are “one away”—meaning they are one paycheck away from homelessness—the agency has also provided bags of food in conjunction with Johnson County Mental Health to distribute to the homeless.

The needs are as varied as the individuals, and Shawnee Community Services does whatever possible to meet individual needs, whether it’s a cell phone and prepaid phone card, or a bus ticket.

“Another client got a job through a temp service and he needed steel-toed shoes and work gloves,” Terry says. “It was after hours when I got the request, so I sent Anna (with Johnson County Mental Health) a $50 Walmart gift card and she went to Walmart and bought the steel-toed shoes and work gloves.

“We call that ‘direct client assistance.’ And while we don’t normally work with homeless people, we target the people who are one away. ‘One away’ is any one incident that’s going to cause you to be on hard times.”

Direct assistance, Terry explains, involves providing whatever a client needs in the moment. She says while other organizations may have steps they must take because of grants, Shawnee Community Services is donation based, freeing them from requiring certain criteria for clients to qualify. “That gives us more ability to help out in a crisis—versus someone having to wait weeks for an appointment only to find out the agency can’t help them,” she says.

Because of this, she says they’re not typically helping with expenses such as rent, but more immediate items like fuel cards, or even prescriptions. “Whatever they need right now.”

One example of the agency working with individual needs involves helping people travel to funerals in other states.

“I’ve given a number of people money to go to a funeral out of state, and then the only thing I ask is that they send me the obituary, so I know that’s where the money was spent.

“Another time, there was a veteran who wanted to go home to Washington State. We got him a bus ticket and gave him food, a phone, and money to get back to his family,” she says.

Although they’ve always been located in Shawnee, their aid isn’t reserved solely for Shawnee residents.

“Everything we do is available to anybody, so we’re not exclusive to Shawnee. And there isn’t an income qualification, either,” she says. “Our limits are to what is available, such as food. So the food boxes need to be reserved and picked up so we can be sure there is enough.”

While the free items inside the store are available daily to anyone—Terry says about 150 families come through each day— anyone wanting a food box must call and schedule an appointment (they currently serve about 97 households per week).

To further the organization’s mission to give away food, clothing, and shoes for free to anyone who walks in the door, volunteers staff the shop, work in the loading area and pantry, and pick up bread and dessert donations daily from various bakeries that include HyVee, Price Chopper, Sprouts, Walmart, and Target.

Between those working inside the building and those picking up bread products, there are about 45 volunteers currently, but Terry says they always need more help. Volunteers work for two, four, and even six hours each week, depending on their availability. Terry says one woman volunteers daily and comes in about 40 hours each week. “She’s the exception,” she says, “as most volunteers come in a for a few hours once per week.”

The agency’s needs have increased since the COVID-19 pandemic began. While donations increased substantially in the early part of the pandemic, this year has seen a drop in donations. As a 501c3, Shawnee Community Services is primarily funded by individual donations— cash, food items, household goods for the kitchen and bath, and clothing are always in need (they no longer accept furniture donations).

“The current need is just to make it day to day and have enough to help the people who are coming in the door because one of the things you might have noticed is there’s quite a few shelves out there that are pretty empty. And so right now, that’s our bigger challenge: How do we take care of the people today? And then going forward, our ultimate goal is to continue with these new programs such as the fuel cards,” Terry says.

Like the pantry boxes, the fuel cards are distributed based on availability. “Again, there’s no application process—all anyone has to do is call me and ask if I have any. I’ve had to cut back though because I was giving out so much. Last month, we gave away $3,000 worth of $30 fuel cards, helping about 90 clients. This month I could only give away $1,900 because that’s the funds I had,” she says.

Just as Shawnee Community Services came through for Lori during her time of need, Terry says they’ll continue helping those with emergency needs. “We’re trying to keep our main vision alive— to try to help as many people as we can with as much as we can.”

For assistance, visit the website at www.SCSKS.org or to help support the organization, to volunteer, and to donate items.

SHAWNEE COMMUNITY SERVICES

11110 W 67TH ST.

SHAWNEE, KS 66203

913-268-7746

WWW.SCSKS.ORG