Economic woes in Finland: food lines before parishes

[Tiriol]

Meanwhile, in Finland: people suffer while the economy plummets and have to seek aid from the Church and other organizations. As reported by YLE News.

More Turn To Parishes For Help

Growing numbers of people this year have turned to church parishes for food aid. The upswing in job losses and layoffs has slowed the processing time for income support applications by officials, putting many people in a financial bind. In addition to the unemployed and the elderly, more young people are seeking help.

The aid supplied by churches usually takes the form of foodstuffs and store vouchers. For example, the Lutheran Herttoniemi parish in Helsinki has already this year handed out more vouchers than it did for the whole of last year. These days, every time a church food distribution point in Helsinki's Myllypuro opens it doors, it draws close to 1200 people. Last year the usual number was around 800.

Help with rent

For those in dire need, churches are also providing rent money. Some parishes also give cash to help other bills.

"We provide rent money on a case-by-case basis as emergency aid. This financial aid also includes discussions with the applicant about his or her situation in which we try to find a more permanent solution," says Hannu Suihkonen, who is in charge of aid services for a group of parishes in Turku and Kaarina.

Hard times are usually seen in parishes after a lag. People tend to go through the options available from official welfare services before turning to churches. It is expected that queues at parish food distribution points will be even longer this autumn.

Surviving the weekend

Korso's Pentecostalist church distributes foodstuffs donated by local merchants twice a week. One of the unemployed, Ossi Sutinen, has been availing himself of the service for six years.

"I don't have the money to buy food. Nowadays food is expensive, so without help from the church, I'd be hungry," says Sutinen.

Sutinen receives 410 euros a month in support that is paid to unemployed job-seekers. He says it's not enough.

"One can't get by on 410 euros in this world, if you plan to pay your bills. It would have to be half again as much for me not to have to stand in this food line."

On Thursday, Sutinen's bag filled up with ready-to-heat pizza, cold cuts, hardbread and milk, his supplies to survive on through the weekend. The next time the food distribution centre is open is Monday, when he intends to be in line again. He plans to show up a couple of hours before the doors open to make sure he doesn't have to leave empty handed.

There were 150 people seeking aid on at the Korso church on Thursday, and the food ran out.

"Often those at the end of the line don't get anything. They always get bread, but there's not enough of the other food for everyone," explains Helga Niskanen, the volunteer in charge of the parish's food aid service.

YLE

The situation isn't grim in USA alone. While unemployment has always been tough, now that toughness has become increasingly widespread and many people STILL call these unfortunates leeches and parasites of the society who just take away and never give back, although these voices are becoming more and more isolated now when unemployment numbers grow.

It is a sad state of affairs, really. Fortunately the Church can offer at least some help, since the current state-sponsored unemployment help isn't that great (and neither is the trade unions' unemployment insurance, thanks to the exceedingly long waiting times: too many people are seeking financial aid from their trade unions now when they lost their jobs and it results in long queues).

[Darth Wong]

I'm tempted to say that the recession isn't too bad in Canada, but I'm in Toronto, which has a highly diversified economy. There are plenty of regions where it's been absolutely devastating, especially in some of these one-horse towns where the entire town is sustained by a single industrial concern. It's a real worldwide depression.

[[R_H]]

I'm tempted to say that the recession isn't too bad in Canada, but I'm in Toronto, which has a highly diversified economy. There are plenty of regions where it's been absolutely devastating, especially in some of these one-horse towns where the entire town is sustained by a single industrial concern. It's a real worldwide depression.

Calgary for example. Lots of for sale and for rent, and more unemployment of course.

[Broomstick]

But of course we can't admit this is The Great Depression II - so I keep hearing the phrase "The Great Recession".

I am glad to be as employed as I am (though I would like more money), I am glad I have a garden in the back (despite inevitable losses), and I am glad my family can help me out from time to time. There are people much worse off than I am, despite the fact I am unequivocally poor at this time.

[Aaron]

I'm tempted to say that the recession isn't too bad in Canada, but I'm in Toronto, which has a highly diversified economy. There are plenty of regions where it's been absolutely devastating, especially in some of these one-horse towns where the entire town is sustained by a single industrial concern. It's a real worldwide depression.

Fortunately (or unfortunately) the town I'm in and indeed the whole area hasn't had shit for industry or work in decades aside from retail and the odd small factory, if your lucky you have a job at the hospital (highest pay in the county) so things aren't much different. Over half the population is still on welfare, though I have noticed a large number of houses in town for sale or rent. Perhaps people are picking up and heading for greener pastures or they lost what little work there is.

[Glocksman]

But of course we can't admit this is The Great Depression II - so I keep hearing the phrase "The Great Recession".

I am glad to be as employed as I am (though I would like more money), I am glad I have a garden in the back (despite inevitable losses), and I am glad my family can help me out from time to time. There are people much worse off than I am, despite the fact I am unequivocally poor at this time.

Believe me, I'm blessing my job even though it's all I can do sometimes to drag my ass out the door and head to work.
Not because I'm lazy, but because frankly my job for the most part is fucking boring.

90+% of the time I'm operating an RF guided stockpicker truck in the storage aisles, which is something a retarded monkey can do.
The rest of the time I'm either solving rack storage issues (interesting and challenging) or driving a forklift (not that challenging, but I at least interact with other people).

That said, you'd probably love to have my job with good insurance and lousy ($12.80/hr) pay right now, and speaking frankly your posts were part of what motivated me to switch from being a selfish 'I have mine so fuck you' asshole WRT healthcare into someone who thinks single payer is the end solution.

The saying is that as you get older, you become more conservative.
I'm the exception in that I've become more liberal.

Though if you think you'd qualify as a supervisor (frankly from what I've seen of management you're horribly overqualified) at the TJ Maxx Evansville DC, we're hiring.

Seriously.
All snark aside, you might get lucky and be hired as a supervisor.

If you'd actually wind up in my part of the Hoosier State, I'd frankly love to help you and your husband get settled in and learn the ins and outs of southwestern Indiana.

The one thing you might find jarring is that TJ has a 'seniority system' in place for union associates and there is no pay cap.
In other words, a brand new supervisor can and sometimes* does wind up making less money than the 26 year union worker they're supervising.

The down side to that from my POV is that I can work my ass off fixing a 26 year worker's mistakes and yet that SOB still makes $5+ more an hour than I do simply because he was hired in 1986 and I was hired in 1996.


*It depends upon how much the company feels they need to offer you.

The pay may not be as high as you'd like, but we do have a decent insurance plan and I'd be there to help you along.

[Glocksman]

Bah, that should say '23' instead of '26' when referring to terms of employment.
The plant opened in 1986 and I crossed some mental wires.

I call that 'channeling my inner blonde'.

[Broomstick]

That said, you'd probably love to have my job with good insurance and lousy ($12.80/hr) pay right now

Hell yes!

Though if you think you'd qualify as a supervisor (frankly from what I've seen of management you're horribly overqualified) at the TJ Maxx Evansville DC, we're hiring.

Seriously.
All snark aside, you might get lucky and be hired as a supervisor.

Point me towards the application - relocating would be a pain in the ass, but I'm willing to do it for a true living wage.

The pay may not be as high as you'd like, but we do have a decent insurance plan and I'd be there to help you along.

The pay is NEVER as high as I'd like - I wonder if the cost of living where you are is lower than here, though.

[Glocksman]

Go to tjx.com and click 'careers' on the banner.

I noticed they're hiring managers for the South Bend AJ Wright DC as well.
That's closer to you than Evansville is.

[Keevan_Colton]

Mike, things in Toronto arent as great as you might think, there were serious issues with food pantries and welfare services being underfunded and overloaded even while I was there. The number of people that were already reliant on food pantries for nutrition before the financial meltdown was very high in the GTA. The city council official in charge of housing and homelessness also at the time flat out said they didnt care about it since there were no votes in it for them. That was an on record comment to a journalist.

The notion of food pantries in most of the areas of europe I've visited are quite a stark change from things up until now, they were already a staple over there.

[Darth Wong]

Mike, things in Toronto arent as great as you might think, there were serious issues with food pantries and welfare services being underfunded and overloaded even while I was there. The number of people that were already reliant on food pantries for nutrition before the financial meltdown was very high in the GTA. The city council official in charge of housing and homelessness also at the time flat out said they didnt care about it since there were no votes in it for them. That was an on record comment to a journalist.

Toronto is where literally every homeless person and juvenile runaway in the entire province of Ontario comes for succor. Of course there are homeless shelters and food banks. But the economy of the city is still fairly healthy overall, and Canada is doing better than most EU countries in terms of weathering this recession.

Frankly, half the problem with supposedly underfunded welfare services in Toronto is the fact that so many of the welfare people insist on trying to live here, and "here" is the most expensive city in the country to live in. They could buy a bus ticket to any of a hundred small communities away from here and live fairly comfortably on the exact same amount of welfare money. So quite frankly, why should we give the welfare people here any more money?

The notion of food pantries in most of the areas of europe I've visited are quite a stark change from things up until now, they were already a staple over there.

There have always been food banks and there will always be food banks. The real question is how work-qualified the people using those food banks are. When you start seeing large numbers of people at food banks who have healthy work qualifications, that's a really bad sign.

[Solauren]

With Toronto's economy, it's also the easiest place for a homeless person to make money.

Either via panhandling, or doing 'off the clock' odd jobs. I recall reading a Reader's Digest article (many years ago) where the author 'went homeless' for 2 weeks and came home with $200 in his pocket from odd jobs and pan handling.

Then of course, there was Shakey lady....

[Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba]

Not to brag, but in Regina we barely even seemed to notice that there was a Recession, and, much as our local-new paper is a pro-business, pro-development rag, I seem to recall it reporting that here housing prices were back to healthy levels all the way back in January and have climbed since. We're going through a bit of a miniature boom right now, in fact.