Todd Wetherington, Herald Chief Photographer

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JACKSON — For anyone doubting the physical and emotional stress wrought by the current economic recession, the line that stretched in front of the Northampton County Cultural and Wellness Center Thursday morning served as sober proof of the human face behind the bleak financial numbers.

 By 9 a.m. approximately 300 people stood in the December chill waiting their turn to receive one of the food boxes given out as part of TEFAP (The Emergency Feeding Assistance Project), an income-based federal program that helps supplement the diets of low-income and needy persons by providing them with emergency food and nutrition assistance.

 Young mothers, wheelchair-bound senior citizens, the disabled and the unemployed waited stoically outside for the doors to open and tickets to be handed out. As their breath rose in plumes of cold air beneath knit toboggans, hats and windbreakers, many in the crowd voiced their displeasure with the long wait and apparent discrepancies in the information they were given concerning when they would be let into the building.

 “Right now it’s too cold out here,”  said Viola Dunn. “Ain’t nobody come out here and told us nothing. My complaint would be for the elderly standing out here in the cold. That’s who my heart goes out to.”

Conway resident Beverly Rouseaux echoed her concerns. “Since this is a wellness center and they have that big auditorium, why are people standing out here in the cold? The paper we got says they hand out tickets at 9 and start handing out food at 12. Now they’re saying tickets at 10 and food at 1. It’s been too many years for this to be happening. It makes the people feel intimidated. Everyone’s going through some stuff, everyone’s suffering from something and this just makes them feel another step down.”

Tina Liverman, who arrived at 8 a.m., also made the trip from Conway and expressed her concerns with what she saw as a lack of planning, while Brenda Marie Fleetwood Hill, director of Romans Road Ministry, was indignant over the long wait.  “To me it’s like a diversion to deter a lot of people from coming out. They can do better than this nonsense. They need better organization. They should at least accommodate the people who get here first, the people who get out here at 3 or 4 in the morning to camp out. They should have a place to accommodate the seniors and the children, so they can come in and keep warm. They don’t care.”

After a brief pushing-and-shoving incident by crowd members at the front of the line was brought under control, numbers were finally handed out at 10 a.m., and distribution of food boxes began at noon.

Inside the wellness center auditorium, volunteers manned rows of tables filling boxes with Rice Krispies, grapefruit, turkey, ham, green beans, string beans and diced tomatoes. Despite the early tensions, Debby Warren, the Northampton County Office on Aging director, was pleased with the morning’s results.

 “Everything’s going as planned,” she said, flashing a tired grin, “I’m really pleased so far.”

 Noting the displeasure among some in the crowd, she stated, “I’m not sure where the confusion came from. I don’t know where the time on those letters came from, not from us. The times are posted at the front door. This is an old program. Most of these people are repeats; they know what they’re supposed to do.”

Warren said the success of the program was due in large part to the joint effort between Northampton County Manager Wayne Jenkins and the county’s Department of Social Services, Public Works, Recreation Department, Sheriff’s Department and Emergency Medical Services.

“Everybody’s really pulled together to make this work,” she observed, before walking back into the auditorium to call out ticket numbers.

DSS Director Al Wentzy also praised the efforts of everyone involved. “I’m always amazed by the Northampton County team. No matter what they may have on their plates, everyone chips in and helps. I was just delighted.”

 As the morning faded into late afternoon, and the last of the food boxes passed through the wellness center’s doors, Warren talked about the ongoing struggle faced by the county’s economically-challenged citizens and the organizations that seek to help them. She noted that, although TEFAP is funded through the USDA Commodity Food Program, which distributes the food to Northampton County from their warehouse in Butner, supplies have become increasingly hard to come by.

 “It’s rough. Up until recently we’ve been able to deliver to people’s homes, but because of TEFAP regulations we can no longer do that. It’s first come, first serve. We were supposed to have more food today but the warehouse didn’t get it, so we didn’t get it. We’re running out of food. When we did this in September, we turned 200 people away. Thankfully, we haven’t had to do that today.”