Along with financial analysts and retailers, Patricia Wrice is busy forecasting this holiday season. But she’s not concerned about Black Friday results or the season’s top toys.
The number she is tracking, however, may reveal as much about the economy as iPhone sales or lines at Wal-Mart: demand for fuel assistance. And that demand, Wrice says, is growing.
As executive director of Operation Fuel, Wrice oversees an independent statewide nonprofit that provides year-round fuel assistance to low-income families living at 200% of poverty level — roughly $44,000 a year for a family of four.
Last year, her organization served more than 5,000 Connecticut families — a number Wrice expects to see increase this year, with statewide unemployment at 8.7 percent and a 50 percent reduction in federal support for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. That’s a separate, federally-funded fuel assistance program that helps families at or below the poverty level. Last year, that program benefited more than 118,000 Connecticut families.
To partially address those cuts and meet the escalating demand, Operation Fuel has increased its annual campaign goal, which launched in November, by $300,000. “Our goal this year is to raise $2 million,” said Wrice, “with half coming from the state and half raised privately.” Private funds include gifts from individuals, which accounted for 30 percent of funds raised last year.
While many cash-strapped families may have limited capacity to make large donations, Wrice points to opportunities to make nominal contributions to Operation Fuel throughout the year, such as the Add a Dollar campaign, a year-round fund-raising effort in partnership with the state’s utility companies, that allows people to give a small donation — typically $1 — each month with their utility payment. Last year, that campaign alone raised more than $400,000 for fuel assistance — with 100 percent of donations supporting the cause.
And that assistance is increasingly needed beyond Connecticut’s urban centers. “In Avon, for instance, there were 46 families who turned to us for assistance, in Ellington, we helped 20 families” Wrice said. “We’re seeing more traditionally middle-class families looking for help.”
Wrice is quick to point out that her organization is about crisis help, not entitlements. Those who are served — predominantly the elderly and families with children — are still required to pay their utility bills. Operation Fuel provides one-time fuel assistance up to $500 annually per qualifying household.
“With current oil prices, that [amount] may not even cover a full tank of heating oil for the winter,” said Wrice. That’s a concern because during the course of her 15 years with Operation Fuel, Wrice has seen seniors and families forced to make dangerous decisions to reserve heat. “Some people, particularly seniors, will turn their thermostats too low and risk hypothermia.” And in some situations, Wrice explains, families are forced to choose between heat and food. “People shouldn’t have to live like that.”
If Operation Fuel exceeds its campaign goal, those may be decisions many Connecticut families aren’t forced to make. As her organization solicits support over the coming months, Wrice hopes that the one million state residents who suffered through the power outages from Winter Storm Alfred in October, will remember how it felt to lack heat and electricity and will help those less fortunate. “For many low-income working families, being without heat is not a temporary situation,” Wrice said.
For now, she’s busy trying to calculate how many families that will be this year. Ultimately, her organization’s ability to raise enough dollars to meet rising fuel assistance demand may be more important than Black Friday results or the latest retail sales figures.
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In brief
For the third consecutive year, Farmington Bank is hosting toy collection efforts for Toys for Tots at all of its 16 branch locations. Donated new and unwrapped toys are being collected through Saturday, Dec. 17. Also, the Farmington Bank Foundation — the charitable arm of Farmington Bank — is donating $10 for every toy collected, up to $5,000, to the Marine Corps Reserve for the purchase of additional toys for less fortunate children. The Marine Reserves will deliver the toys to children in Hartford and Litchfield counties, as well as those in the western section of Tolland County and the City of Waterbury. … ABB Inc. of Windsor has made a $4,000 donation to the Windsor Independent Living Association, a group that supports adults with cognitive disabilities live full lives. The grant is the continuation of a close relationship the maker of power and automation technologies formed with the nonprofit long before Zurich-based ABB purchased Combustion Engineering and its Day Hill Road campus in 1989… The Weichert Realtors-Four Corners Real Estate office at the Holiday Mall in Storrs is a drop-off center for the No Freeze Hospitality Center of Willimantic’s annual warm bedding collection. The office is accepting donations Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. — 4 p.m. through Jan. 1. New pillows and new (or gently used) twin-sized bedding are needed at the shelter.
