SOUTH BEND - Three local shelters have lost the ability to acquire food from the Food Bank of Northern Indiana because they charge fees to certain residents or accept their food stamps.

It could create a financial pinch for the shelters: the Center for the Homeless, the YWCA of St. Joseph County and the Salvation Army's Adult Rehabilitation Center.

Food Bank CEO Lisa Jaworski says she regrets that those ties had to be severed, but she says her “hands are tied” by the strict federal and nonprofit rules for the two kinds of food that were provided.

It all came about after a story ran in The Tribune on April 25 about the Center for the Homeless charging a fee to certain residents. Beginning April 1, guests at the center who stay there more than 45 days had to pay $1 per day for housing.

The center also began using its guests' food stamps to pay for food. If they don't have food stamps, the guests are charged up to $5 a day for meals. In lieu of that, guests can do chores.

There are no fees for kids.

“The fees were truly not in response to the economy,” says center Director Steve Camilleri. “It's part of a strategic plan to make our guests more accountable.”

The story alerted Jaworski and her agency relations manager - both relatively new to their jobs - who suspected that may not be allowed. So, Jaworski began speaking with officials at the center to see what had happened.

She says agencies that receive the food may not charge residents for food or ask them to work for it. The rules come from two sources:

—the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which provides commodity foods, and

—the food bank's parent organization, Feeding America. This governs the food for which agencies pay a “shared maintenance fee” per pound: a nickel for bread and produce, 18 cents for most other products. In this program, the YWCA reports spending about $4,000 in nine months for food that would have cost $21,000 in stores.

Jaworski says the Food Bank is checking all of the other shelters it serves in six counties. It has covered four of the counties so far and hasn't found the same dilemma with fees.

Calculating the loss

Camilleri says his staff had believed the fee structure was allowable, having checked with the YWCA, which has been using a fee system for five years.

The center should have checked with the Food Bank, too, Jaworski says.

Mention of the YWCA led her to look into fees there and found the same problem. But YWCA Director Linda Baechle says that when it began the fees five years ago, the Food Bank's CEO at the time, Bill Carnegie, assured them it was allowable.

It's unclear how the rules were misinterpreted at that time - or by whom, including state officials who oversaw the program.

Jaworski says the rules haven't changed in that time.

The YWCA charges $1 to $2 per meal, a fraction of the roughly $6 to serve them, Baechle says. The fees applied to only 10,000 of the 50,000 meals served last year, she says. It's only for women in the shelter's “transitional housing.” Mostly, they are women who are working who have completed the domestic violence or addictions program.

“It's another way to help them budget their money,” Baechle says. “It's good for them to feel good about themselves and take care of themselves.”

The YWCA doesn't charge for kids' meals.

Jaworski then found that the Salvation Army's Adult Rehabilitation Center also collects food stamp money from the men who eat there, a practice it has done even longer than the YWCA, says Major Timothy Best.

About 63 men stay there at a time for drug and alcohol rehab. If they have a food stamp card, they swipe it through a reader when they check in for a meal. If they don't have food stamps, they can still dine.

Best says he can't afford to give up the source of revenue.

He understands that the Food Bank was just doing its job. But he says this may force the center to appeal to the community for help. Most of its budget is covered by sales in the Salvation Army thrift stores that are scattered between Michigan City and Elkhart.

The rehab center has just started to calculate how much of a loss this will be. For the government commodity food alone, it starts at $1,000 a month but likely is more, Best says. That doesn't include the food paid for by the pound.

Baechle says the loss means that the YWCA will have to spend about an extra $30,000.

Camilleri downplays the loss at the Center for the Homeless. If the center needs to, he says, it will hold a food drive.

Altogether in 2008, a total of 55,531 pounds of food went to the Center for the Homeless, 35,964 pounds to the YWCA and 48,340 pounds to the rehab center, according to the Food Bank.

Another way?

Jaworski says she offered all three agencies the opportunity to charge a fee that the rules would allow. But it would have to be a general fee for all services - not just food - that applies to all residents, she says. Shelter directors didn't pursue that.

Baechle says it isn't feasible because it would conflict with rules for other government money the YWCA receives.

She's been talking with state and federal officials to see what could be ironed out. She hopes she might be able to separate food costs and charge a fee for just part of it. That will be tough, Jaworski says, because the rules state that whatever Food Bank food is offered to one must be offered to all.