Executive director Jane Trocheck Walker believes in help, but not the easy way out.
By WAVENEY ANN MOORE
Published December 10, 2003
ST. PETERSBURG - The small room is filled with people waiting for food, bus fare or help with paying utility bills or filling a prescription.
This time of year, seasonal requests also beg for attention at Daystar Life Center, a downtown charity that assists the poor.
On this brisk day, a call comes from an elderly man who can't afford heating oil. At the reception window, a worried-looking woman says she has come to sign up for a Christmas basket of food.
Jane Trocheck Walker, 48, has seen it all in more than two decades of helping the poor. Executive director of Daystar, she is one of only two paid employees at the agency that operates with an army of volunteers in a modest green building at 226 Sixth St. S.
Deciding how and whom to help requires a certain skill, Ms. Walker said recently as she sat at a cluttered desk.
"It's got to be a combination of the head and heart," she said.
That means recognizing "how much can this individual do for themselves and how much we should do," she said.
Recently that meant turning down a transient who wanted help getting a state identification card. He had no history of remaining in one place, so Ms. Walker felt it would be a waste of resources to go through the process, which would include getting a birth certificate from a military hospital.
Quietly she spoke of the people she often sees along the road trudging home with young children, laundry or a bag of groceries.
"It's hard to be poor," she said.
Over the years, she has learned to be both compassionate and practical.
"Your heart says, make it easy, but it's not going to solve anything. That's one of the things I've had to learn," she said.
"I try to stay away from the rescuing. It's easy just to do it for someone or to let them off the hook, take away their responsibility."
And their dignity. For Ms. Walker, that's an important concern. It's why she's so pleased with the year-old renovation and expansion of the building where about 12,000 people receive assistance annually. Gone is the shabby, cramped space.
Though still modest, the center now is painted in pleasing colors. Curtains and valances sewn by a friend of Ms. Walker's mother adorn doors and windows. Volunteers have made cubicles and shelves for storage.
During a tour of the building, Ms. Walker proudly showed off the diaper-changing table in the bathroom and the larger waiting room. These days, fewer people have to stand outside as they wait for help, she said.
A storeroom recently has been stocked with beans, Ramen noodles, corn, soup and other nonperishable food donated by St. Petersburg Catholic High School. Walking past a small office, Ms. Walker pointed to several bags of stuffed animals and other gently used toys given by a group of grandmothers facing their own hardships of raising grandchildren. Ms. Walker was touched by their generosity.
Back in her office, she fielded questions from volunteers. One reported that a company had just called to offer help. Ms. Walker took the telephone number.
This time of year, she said, "people feel compelled to do something. Some say they feel blessed."
Another volunteer popped her head in to ask how to handle a call from a retiree who has run out of heating fuel. His son and girlfriend live with him and don't work, she said. Ms. Walker said she doesn't want the elderly man to suffer and set about solving the problem.
She asked the volunteer a few quick questions and learned that the man recently received a government check. Ask him how much he can afford to put toward the oil, she said. He said $20, the volunteer reports. Tell him we'll help him if he puts in $25, Ms. Walker responded.
Then she asked the volunteer to call Clemons Fuel Oil Co., a local company Ms. Walker said is always willing to work with Daystar to help the poor.
She often answers calls that come into the center, said Ms. Walker, adding that it keeps her in touch with people and their needs. Recently, while shopping, she overheard a bagger telling the supermarket cashier that she didn't eat lunch because she had used her paycheck for rent. Ms. Walker handed the employee her business card.
Those who get help are grateful, she said, pulling out a thank you card from a mother.
"I guess it still astounds me that people don't understand what creates a need for agencies like Daystar," she said, going on to tell the story of a bank supervisor who refused to fill out a form that would enable an employee with children to get food stamps.
"She didn't feel that the person needed food stamps because they work full time," Ms. Walker said.
"Sometimes," she said, "we'll get donations that are just holey shirts and by that I don't mean blessed. Again, we go back to the dignity issue."
Armed with a bachelor's degree in criminology from Florida State University in 1977, Ms. Walker began work at a runaway center and then at a halfway house. She went on to train under the indomitable Sister Margaret Freeman, the late nun who guided the St. Petersburg Free Clinic for many years. She remained at the Free Clinic for more than 21 years before moving to Daystar in 2001.
Daystar has an annual budget of approximately $650,000. Accounting for about $500,000 of that are the in-kind donations of food, clothing, personal hygiene products and other gifts from organizations and individuals. Ms. Walker said the community also donates about $90,000 to $100,000 in cash. A recent audit showed that the charity's overhead is less than 8 percent, which does not include volunteer hours, said Ms. Walker, who is paid $29,000 a year. The other employee, a member of the Franciscan sisters of Allegany, is part time and receives $12,000 a year.
The charity, which began as an outreach of St. Mary Our Lady of Grace Church, 515 Fourth St. S, serves the working poor, homeless, elderly and disabled, single parents and even two-parent households, Ms. Walker said.
People can return for help, she said.
"I try to stay flexible. Just getting a job and getting their act together, it takes a while to get stabilized," she said.
She helped to start an offenders re-entry program in Pinellas County, serves on a transportation committee to help those who have to rely on public transportation and this year brought two new programs to Daystar. The agency now is a site for the Share program, the national nonprofit Self Help and Resource Exchange that lets people purchase monthly boxes of food at substantially reduced prices. The agency also is a site for the Travelers Aid program.
Again, balancing the need to help with practicality, Ms. Walker said Daystar doesn't practice "Greyhound therapy." People do not receive help to move to another location unless it can be confirmed that they have a place to go to, she said.
"The point," she said, "is not to put them on the bus and let them end up in some other community."
Though there are times when she feels overwhelmed, Ms. Walker said hers is a satisfying job.
"Giving food to someone and making sure that they are warm just seems so basic."
