She helps families in need. As gas and grocery prices rise, she needs help, too

Dalene Basden volunteers at a local soup kitchen after her day job helping families who have children with special needs. Now, with gas and grocery prices rising, she's finding it hard to make ends meet herself. Tovia Smith/NPR

Tovia Smith/NPR

Dalene Basden has the kind of job where she's never really off the clock. She works supporting families with special needs children in Lynn, Massachusetts, a mostly working-class and low-income city north of Boston.

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For Basden, that means lots of hours in lots of places.

"I meet my families where they're at," she says. "I might be over at the playground. I might be at the school, or at the grocery store" teaching them how to compare prices and find deals. And several nights a week, she comes to a soup kitchen called My Brother's Table, where many of her clients are regulars.

One recent evening, she's bouncing around the dining room, checking in with one young man to see if he filled out that job application they talked about. Then she turns to anotherwho didn't show up for his volunteer shift unloading the bread truck that day. A conversation about commitment ensues.

In between, Basden helps out in the kitchen, or fills plates on the serving line.

"This is such a joy. I love my work," Basden says. "I wouldn't give it up for anything."

Thirty-plus years into her career, and with a title now as a program director at the Children's Friend and Family Services Clinic, a division of Justice Resource Institute, Basden makes a decent salary. So does her husband who drives a van for people with disabilities.

They were doing okay, making their mortgage payments and getting by. But the rising prices of food and especially gas, are straining their budget, and Basden says it's no longer enough. For example, she says she and her husband used to spend a combined $300 to $400 a month filling up their cars. Now, it's over $600.

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After spending decades helping needy people, Basden is now herself in need. At 71 years old, she's suddenly finding herself living paycheck to paycheck.

"It's crazy," she says. "It's just like overnight. Yesterday you could afford it, but today you can't. "

Basden is now among the eight out of 10 Americans who say they're struggling to make ends meet, according to a new NPR/PBS News/Marist poll. And she's well aware many are in worse financial straits than she is, contending with cuts to federal food assistance, on top of everything else.

She continues to advise clients on how to budget and save, but now she's also taking her own advice —and even taking some helpfrom a food pantry herself. She and her husband have an adult son with disabilities living with them, as well as two grandsons. And she says it's hard to keep enough food on the table.

"All we eat is chicken," she says. "I'd love to have some beef, but it's just way too expensive. But six months ago, if I wanted to buy beef, I went in the store and bought beef. Now, [we only] buy chicken because it's the cheapest."

She's cutting everywhere else she can. She recently started skipping days when she would usually drive her son to the place where he works out, even though she says, "it's keeping him healthy."

Like many, Basden was living just one curveball away from not being able to make ends meet. And then came her cancer diagnosis.

Volunteers dole out hot dinners at the My Brothers Table soup kitchen in Lynn, Mass. Tovia Smith/NPR

Tovia Smith/NPR

Thankfully, she says, she has good health insurance through her job, and is getting good treatment. But the co-pays are crushing. And so is the cost of getting to the doctor: This month she has five appointments at a hospital in Boston, which is about an hour drive away, not to mention the price of parking.

The irony was not lost on her and her husband when it felt like a relief to think that their gas costs will soon go down next month because Basden is having surgery.

"We said, 'We'll save some money then,'" she laughs. "Yeah, that's kind of crazy when you think about it like that."

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One of the worst pain points for Basden is having to think twice about how much she can help her families at work because of her own financial hardship. Normally, she'd be jumping in the car to deliver dinners, getting young women outfitted and taking them to a special needs prom, or driving one of her clients to a job interview.

"That gas is on me," she says. "So, I've had to say, 'No, like maybe you can ride your bike.'"

Back at the soup kitchen, the young man who was a no show for his volunteer shift is still brooding about people he disappointed.

Basden tries to reassure him, promising she'll fix it.

"That's what you always say," he replies.

"And don't I always fix it?" she asks.

"Yes," he answers.

As much as she loves helping, Basden says she knows that eventually she'll have to retire. But right now, she says, her work is helping keep her alive.

"I know there is going to be a time when I'm going to have to slow down, but not today," she says. "Heck no. Today is not that day!"

As the sun begins to set, Basden leaves the soup kitchen, but her day is still not done. She's heading to a meeting with one of her families that is having trouble making rent.