On the day her family sought help at Crisis Assistance Ministry, Jennifer had to use her gas card at the convenience store to get bread and peanut butter to feed her three young children. It was the only way. They were completely out of cash and she did not have anything else to help them get by any longer.
It had been two months since they ventured across the country to Charlotte for her (then) husband’s new job. The plan was to get settled in time for school to start. They were prepared to handle the moving expenses, pay the rent and utility deposits, and have enough to get by until his first paycheck. But nothing went as planned. His start date kept getting delayed and day-to-day expenses kept coming. School was looming and the kids would need supplies, fall clothes, and lunch money.
Jennifer remembers feeling a deep sense of shame.
“It feels awful to not be able to take care of your children the way they deserve,” she recalls.
So, on that same morning back in 2006, her husband Dan gathered the bills and headed off to Crisis Assistance Ministry where he had heard people could help.
“I was so relieved when he came home,” Jennifer says. “I asked him when we needed to pay it back and I couldn’t believe it when he said, ‘we don’t.'”
The rent and utility assistance they received that day got them through until his job started. Soon she started work, too, and they were able to get by again. As her children grew, Jennifer kept stretching her income through a divorce, job changes, a recession, a pandemic, and all the day-to-day challenges of raising a family.
“Charlotte on the Cheap was our best friend,” she quips.
“At one point we lived in a two-room apartment, and I shared bunk beds with my daughter while the boys did the same in the other room,” she says. “We would put little bits of cash into an envelope to save up for a vacation. That made it so much more rewarding once we could take the trip.”
As she moved through her professional life, the people served at Crisis Assistance Ministry stayed close to her heart. Jennifer connected teams to volunteer opportunities as part of several roles. Her children volunteered there. And two years ago, her middle child, Hannah, joined the Advancement team where she works with the fundraising, volunteer, and communications teams to secure the support needed to help today’s struggling families.
Jennifer still leads teams of Wells Fargo volunteers who help inspect and prepare donated items for Free Store shoppers.
In a way, she’s paying the community back. Or at least she’s paying it forward.
“People are surprised when I say I got help too,” she says.
“They have these ideas about who comes for help. But the truth is, most people are there because they have done everything they can to make it on their own, and they just need a little help to get through a terrible time.”
Four years ago, Jennifer bought her first house. She was fifty-one. It was a long climb, but she is still grateful for the help she found here to keep her family safely housed and moving forward to that day.
“I know what it’s like to need help,” Jennifer reminds us, “and I’m glad I can help make sure it’s still available for people who need help now.”
After all, she says, “Most of us are just one bad day away from needing help.”
