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If the Allied Churches of Alamance County doesn’t raise a substantial amount of money quickly, the organization will need to reduce services.

The agency needed to raise $16,000 in revenue by June 24 or be forced to close its doors one day a week starting Friday, Executive Director Bill Adams wrote in a fund-raising letter dated June 15.
Year to date, he said, monthly expenses have been about $10,000 more than revenue.

“There is always a drop in giving during the summer months for Allied Churches as well as most other non-profits,” Adams said in an e-mail. “We normally are able to hold on stretching our monies through the summer months, (but) the bad economic conditions have hurt everyone, including the churches that support us.”

The organization operates the Good Shepherd Community Kitchen, the Emergency Night Shelter, the Christian Assistance Network, and a daytime Drop In Center.

“Our shelter houses, on average, 42 individuals per night,” he said, “In 2008, we housed between 500 to 600 different individuals.”
Those numbers include men, women and children.

The kitchen serves a hot meal every day for about 115 people, and the assistance network provides financial assistance to people who are uninsured and need medication or in danger of having their utilities turned off.

“Our decline in earnings began last year with the worsening economy,” Adams said.

Even if the group raises $16,000 by June 24, another $16,000 is needed before July 8 for the agency to continue uninterrupted services.

“This year, our monthly revenue has been lower than past years,” Adams said in the e-mail.

While monetary donations are needed and encouraged, Adams says there are other ways to help the people the agency serves.

“We accept food for our kitchen program and toiletries, socks, towels, wash cloths for our shelter program,” Adams said.

“We have been blessed year to date on non-monetary giving. We are well supplied with food and items needed by our shelter program.”

In the letter, Adams said that if the agency reduces services, “our guests will be exposed to the threats of hunger, dehydration, hypothermia, heat-stroke, robbery, physical and sexual violence.”

Contact Tiffany S. Jones at 373-7157 or tiffany.jones@news-record.com