Reflecting an ailing economy, a record number of children are seeking toys, clothing and food in the Salvation Army of Greater Baltimore's annual holiday gift program. And the organization - like many other charities - is expecting a struggle for donations to meet the rising need.
Parents and grandparents have registered 11,129 children in the Angel Tree Program, up 20 percent from the 8,894 who received gifts a year ago, Salvation Army officials said.
Unlike past years, when most seeking help from the Salvation Army were unemployed and on welfare, people requesting help this year are minimum-wage workers who cannot afford to buy presents and still afford rent and food, said Peggy Vick, the organization's director of family services.
Among the working poor applying for help for the first time is Gaynitha Conway, a 31-year-old single mother with five children. A housekeeper at a Days Inn motel, Conway learned of the Salvation Army program at the city social services office where she sought help after a fire destroyed the house that she was renting last February.
"This program will help provide something for my children this Christmas," Conway said. "It's taking everything we have to make it. But we're making it. Barely - but we're making it."
The Salvation Army is also seeing rising numbers of grandparents requesting gifts for grandchildren who live with them and from applicants who say they are victims of domestic abuse, Vick said. The organization requires all applicants for its programs to provide proof of their income and expenses and verification that their children are 12 or younger.
"All these families find themselves in a crunch of some kind," Vick said. "They are all just trying to hold everything together and provide something for the children at Christmas."
Other charities also anticipate heavier than usual demand for services in the next two months. The Maryland Food Bank's executive director, Bill Ewing, said many of the 900 organizations statewide that provide meals to the needy are expecting they will need more food this Thanksgiving and Christmas, despite recent reports suggesting a national economic recovery is in the offing.
"It's not a scientific survey, but the word on the street is that the providers are serving more people," Ewing said.
