May 6, 2008 6:04 pm US/Central
High Gas Prices Make Business More Efficient
(WCCO)
The folks at Store to Door shop for food for folks who can't do it themselves, because of age or disabilities. It's full-service shopping, from the store to their door, but the rising cost of gas is hurting both the organization and the folks who volunteer there.
Penny Bond and her friend Janet drove from Wayzata to Cub Foods in Crystal to go grocery shopping -- not for themselves, but for folks who need a little help.
They're regulars at Store to Door, and although the drive is costing more and more, that's not going to stop them.
"Now that gas is over $3.50, I do watch when I drive more," said Penny. "I find that I'm coming into the city from Wayzata many times a day, so I tend to now get together with other people."
Ron Bogle runs the program. He's noticed a change in gas prices -- up $1.50 a gallon over the last 3 years -- but no change in the volunteers, who keep showing up to help.
Volunteers like Meredith Iken-Madson, handle deliveries with their own car and own gas.
Iken-Madson said she's not going to let the rising cost of volunteering get her down.
"We'll do it regardless of gas prices," she said. "I'll cut corners in other areas, but not here."
Store to Door makes most of the deliveries with its own vehicles. Gas costs are up 12 percent in the last few months, so they had to get creative.
"We've tried to minimize the amount of driving that we do," said Bogel, Store to Door's volunteer coordinator. "We have our routing set up so we deliver to a certain area one day of the week, a different area another day of the week, to cut down on the amount of driving that we do have to do."
"We're squeezing it out of our other resources," said Mary Joe Shifsky, Executive Director of Store to Door. "We're definitely paying for this gas by not paying for something else."
The folks who use Store to Door's services are finding their own way to help out with the gas bills. They pay for their own bills, and get the receipts, but when those receipts include gas coupons, they've been donating them right back to the organization.
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