By Marie Mulvenna

The economic crunch has been a fact of life for Americans for many months. Included in that category are the poor and the groups that serve them. Here in Atlanta, the St. Vincent de Paul Society found that efforts to expand operations as well as maintain current operations were severely hampered by the economic plight.

Joe Flanagan, director of the local society, said the groups found that the poor who are their customers were unable to afford anything beyond the bare essentials of food and shelter. "They had no extra dollars to spend on clothing or furniture." Flanagan said the Society now sees a slight and hopeful upturn on the economic chart but added that the store operations of the society had lost over $2,000 this current calendar year.

"The tight money picture really put a dent in our budget and we had to borrow from the central office budget of the local council to continue to operate."

Flanagan said the first half of the year was "just terrible" and sales declined accordingly. The average number of sales remained about the same, he said, but the average amount of a sale dropped to about one-third of the usual amount. "The poor had soaring costs for utilities, gas and oil, food -- all the things needed to merely survive."

"Now," he said, "things are beginning to rise and the pinch does seem to be lessening. I'm pretty confident that our operations will pick themselves up from here on in."

The society picked a bad time, economically, for expansion efforts but found that out only after opening a new store near Greenwood Avenue in East Atlanta. "Our philosophy," Flanagan said, "was to begin service in a mixed community. Unfortunately, we moved at a time when things were abnormally bad for the poor and they were unable to utilize our goods. We wanted to serve the area, but economic conditions forced us to reconsider our efforts."

The process of reconsidering store services brought about a new policy for the Little Blue Shop which is attached to the society's central office location behind Georgia Baptist Hospital at Parkway. Now, the store will be open to the public daily, Tuesday through Saturday, from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m.

The Little Blue Shop first opened to the public one day a week, then expanded its services to two days weekly. With daily operations now a fact, the Society has undertaken a massive "shift" of areas within the sprawling location, moving goods to create more floor space and store room and cutting down on storage space.

Flanagan said the Society stores will provide goods for all people, the middle class family as well as the poor. He explained that the middle income family has also felt the budget pinch and added that many items handled by the Society operations "have a lot of life in them yet. We've got some really good buys for anyone counting the dollars."

In addition to expanded hours at the Little Blue Shop, the Society will continue its operations at the two other sites: McLendon Avenue and Edgewood Avenue.

"Donations have held up nicely," Flanagan commented, saying people still, oddly enough, buy new things and "give us the old." He noted an increasing demand for used gas stoves, pointing out that most poor people do not have the connections necessary to use electric stoves. The Society stores, he said, have a good supply of electrical appliances that "look pretty good."

The biggest need for the local efforts of the society is the crying need for volunteers. "We desperately need people to help sort clothing donations and for people who could fix some of the many appliances we receive." He said the income of the group just would not provide enough to hire the help they need so badly.

He said the local operation had fewer than 10 regular volunteers. "We need people who want to witness their Christian concern for the poor by helping us." Their volunteer activity is directly involved with our ongoing services to the poor of Atlanta."