Paul Szmal: Let's welcome in our guest at this time, it's Rhonda Jasper from the United Way of Seneca County. Rhonda, good morning, how are you this morning?
Ronda Jasper: I'm good, how are you?
Paul Szmal: Good, good, let's start off by talking about the November value of the month.
Ronda Jasper: Sure, so this month's value is personal responsibility, being dependable and accountable and acknowledging that you're responsible for your own choices.
Paul Szmal: And how does that differ in application between youth and adults?
Ronda Jasper: Well, I think for youth it really, they need adult examples of how to live responsibly, but definitely working within boundaries adults have set. But for kids, it's being able to accept constructive criticism, it's being able to realize that they are the ones who are making the decisions about what they do and how they behave.
Paul Szmal: And on the adult side?
Ronda Jasper: Oh, set boundaries for those kids and definitely be present when they're asking for your help.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, that is very important. I want to talk about one of the keystone events that happens or cornerstone events that happens every year with the United Way of Seneca County and it's going to be coming up soon and that is the Community Thanksgiving Dinner.
Ronda Jasper: Yeah, we're excited, this is our 10th year. We are working with the House of Concern and the Seneca Falls Elks Club, as we always do, to bring this together. Like I said, 10 years. We are prepared for 1,200 dinners this year, so always looking for volunteers and donations. But this year we definitely want to make sure that everyone knows that it's open to anyone in Seneca County. We'll deliver you meals anywhere in Seneca County on Wednesday. All you got to do is heat them up and of course we do our buffet walk-in dinner on Thanksgiving Day.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, that dinner runs from 11 until 1 on Thanksgiving Day and then the deliveries and pickups are on the day before. And again, this is put on not only by the United Way of Seneca County but also through a big help from the Seneca County House of Concern. How are they holding up right now in terms of their food pantry?
Ronda Jasper: So they are doing as best as can be expected. We actually had a meeting the other day with all of the food pantries in Seneca County and as always, our community has really stepped up and donations have been good for all of them. They really need extra help, especially the smaller food pantries, volunteer-only ones, could definitely use some extra hands if people are looking to help just the sheer volume of food that's going through them now to help people. But you know, as awful as it is that they have to be able to respond in this way, you get to see how amazing our community is by everyone working together to make it happen.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, and it is good to see for sure. I know the campaign has kicked off for 2026 and we've talked about it before but it bears repeating that an unexpected challenge has come up this year for not only your organization but many other United Way organizations.
Ronda Jasper: Absolutely. So across the board, we're looking at all sorts of funding cuts and things. Specifically for our United Way of Seneca County, we were expecting to be able to start a new grant October 1st. About four days before that, we found out that it was canceled, which you know, it makes up about a third of our budget. So that's a pretty big hit that works a lot of our prevention work, a lot of our substance abuse work, those pieces. We've fortunately been able to maintain our staff because of some safeguards we had put in place but we're definitely looking for other options now. But it's definitely not something we were planning for.
Paul Szmal: Yes, for sure. And we should point out that the United Way works really without any federal support to begin with. So it's important that people give those donations to the United Way in the various forms that it's available to do so because it helps local agencies right here in the area to be able to continue with the services that they provide.
Ronda Jasper: It does and being able to work on donations like that allows us to be able to react in real time or respond in real time to what the community really needs. When we do have federal funding in place, we're pretty tied as to what we can do with that funding but like I said, when we have donations, we're able to kind of stop what we're doing and respond to, you know, the fire in Ovid or the need for masks during COVID, whatever it is for the response to the food pantries now. Being able to just respond that quickly to what Seneca County needs has been vital in what we're able to do.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, chances are if you receive some kind of assistance or maybe participate in some kind of a program, you may not even realize that the United Way has helped to make that program possible.
Ronda Jasper: Agreed, especially with a lot of the prevention work. We've done a lot of the suicide prevention and substance abuse, you know, all of the students in Seneca County and a lot of their families, you know, just because of that connection have worked with us, possibly not even knowing it, but it would definitely, I would say, you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who hasn't been touched by our services in one way or another.
Paul Szmal: We're talking with Rhonda Jasper from the Seneca County United Way here on FLX Morning. We're talking about the annual campaign and one of the statistics that comes up that we talk about is that 44 percent of households in Seneca County, that's getting close to half, live at or below what is called the ALICE threshold. What does ALICE stand for and what is that threshold?
Ronda Jasper: So ALICE is Asset Limited Income Constrained Employed. So it is the households that are working and have income, however, still are unable to pay the cost of living. So a lot of programs are based on the federal poverty level, which is a number that is one number across the whole country that the government has come up with. ALICE is actually based on the cost of living in a specific area. So when we say ALICE numbers, it's actually based on the cost of living in Seneca County. And what we know is that realistically, it costs probably about $25,000, $26,000 for an individual person to maintain a household in Seneca County. And there's a lot of factors in with that, you know, that's, you know, assuming you have a decent housing cost and things like that. But that would be the basic to be able to meet your needs. And the federal poverty level says about that much you should be able to raise a family of four. So when you're looking at the services that are approved through that, there's a huge gap between the people who are able to receive services and the people who still really need them.
Paul Szmal: Yeah. And one of the things about this, this ALICE formula, is that often people that are within that threshold, they make too much to qualify for public assistance or financial programs, but they still need those safety nets and opportunities that are available to them.
Ronda Jasper: Exactly. It's a lot of times, you know, and people can be making it, I mean, like you said, it's one out of two people. So, you know, you can make it paycheck to paycheck for a really long time. But without having savings, you know, you start looking at when you get a sudden really high heating bill, you know, and it comes down to whether you're going to pay that or go grocery shopping or car repair. You know, that's a huge one that hits a lot of us that aren't necessarily able to respond to. And the fact that a lot of the jobs around here are, you know, part-time, so they don't benefits, or if your kid's sick, you have to take time off without pay. You know, there's a lot of factors in it, but it's the reality for, I would say comfortably probably more than half of our residents.
Paul Szmal: And the United Way of Seneca County, unlike some others that may have merged into larger organizations, is still rooted in Seneca County. Your office is right there in the Finger Lakes premium outlets.
Ronda Jasper: Absolutely. We will continue working for Seneca County. We are only responsible to Seneca County. We remain completely autonomous in all we do, you know, and we really take pride in being able to sit at these larger regional tables and remind people that we may be small and we may be rural, but we have just the same issues and our residents are just as important and need the same attention.
Paul Szmal: Now, if people want to donate to the United Way of Seneca County, there's a bunch of different ways they can do that.
Ronda Jasper: Absolutely. The easiest way would be to just go to our website, which is www.uwseneca.org. Click on the link there and there's all sorts of options. You can always call our office 315-539-1135. We're happy to talk you through whatever, but we have lots of options from, you know, obviously, you know, cash and checks all the way to Apple Pay and Venmo and all those new technologically advanced ones.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, and those are easy to do, simple to do. Do you do the payroll deduction program there for this United Way office too?
Ronda Jasper: We absolutely do. We have, you know, we still have several workplace campaigns aren't what they used to be across the board. It's not just here, but we certainly can do that. So ask your employer if it's something they do. Even if your employer is outside of Seneca County, you work as part of a bigger group or something, often they can do it and you can designate it back to us. And if it's something that you would like your business to be able to do, it can be a small business, it can be just a handful of employees, we're happy to talk to you and make it as easy as possible.
Paul Szmal: All right. As always, Rhonda, I appreciate the conversation. We'll check back in with you next month.
Ronda Jasper: Sounds good. Thanks so much. And don't forget the Community Thanksgiving is coming up on Thanksgiving Day. The dinner is served 11 to 1 at the Seneca Falls Elks Lodge. There is pre-registration required if you want to do either delivery or pickup. The number is 315-539-1135. 568-2433. That's 315-568-2433. It is 826 on FLX morning.
