WINNIPEG — As if facing a $25,000 deficit for its kosher meals-on-wheels program wasn’t enough in the way of tzuris, the Gwen Secter Creative Living Centre has just been dealt another financial body blow.

Gwen Secter executive director Marilyn Regiec

On April 7, the day before Pesach, the Gwen Secter’s executive director, Marilyn Regiec, received a letter from the north Winnipeg Jewish senior centre’s major funder, the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW), Winnipeg section, notifying her that as of June 1, it will no longer pay for the bulk of the centre’s operating costs.

“Our operating costs for our building [utilities and taxes] come to $50,000 a year,” Regiec said. “The National Council has always paid 80 per cent of those costs. Their withdrawal of support means that we have to find as much as $40,000 more a year to replace their contributions.”

The NCJW has been supporting Jewish seniors programs in Winnipeg since 1949. Gwen Secter’s was one of the first seniors drop-in programs in Canada, said Diane Glass, speaking for NCJW Winnipeg.

“We have done a lot over the years,” said Glass, who is also NCJW national president. “We [the Winnipeg section] bought and renovated the current building [with the help of private donors such as the Secter family and the estate of Hinda and George Gratz] primarily as a centre for seniors programs.”

Glass said NCJW, which maintains its own office in the Gwen Secter building, never intended to be the principal funder for the building in perpetuity. “We have invested $800,000 in this building over the last 20 years,” she said.

“It has used up 95 per cent of the money we have raised over that time. We haven’t been able to afford to fund any other projects. And now we can no longer afford to support the Gwen Secter at the rate that we have in the past.”

The decision to substantially reduce funding for the Gwen Secter Centre is a reflection of the financial difficulties being faced by the NCJW’s Winnipeg section. The organization’s primary sources of income for the past few years have been membership dues and its second-hand store, Just a Second.

Laura Richman, the longtime store chair, reports that sales were slower than usual at the store this past winter.

“Our store sales always drop after Christmas,” she said. “It was worse this year, in part because of the longer winter and also because we let our charitable status lapse last fall. [She added that its charitable status would be reinstated by the end of May.] Because we were unable to issue charitable receipts, some people who might have made donations in household goods to the store may have held off until we regained our charitable number.”

Richman added that the store’s business is picking up now.

NCJW membership also isn’t what it once was. Richman recalls that when she was president of the Winnipeg region in the mid-1980s, National Council had 600 members in Winnipeg. Now membership is just over 300, with two local chapters still operating. As is the case for most service organizations, NCJW is having difficulty attracting younger women.

“Younger women [and men] are more focused on their careers and families,” Richman said.

“We had a financial cushion, but it’s gone now,” she added.

Glass said that National Council is still committed to contributing $5,000 a year to the building’s operating expenses, but she added that the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg and the community as a whole should fund the Gwen Secter Centre.

Regiec and some of Gwen Secter’s board members; Glass; Bob Freedman, federation’s executive director; Faye Rosenberg-Cohen, federation’s planning co-ordinator, and several community business leaders and philanthropists met on April 20.

“We have been aware for several years that this day would come,” Freedman said. “Now that National Council is no longer able to act as the principal funder, we have to come up with other solutions.”

However, he said that there is no need to panic. “The Gwen Secter is a very important institution in our community. I am confident that we will come up with a solution.”

For the short term, Regiec has put out calls to the centre’s 300 members, asking them to contribute $200 each, or whatever they feel they can afford, to help cover costs. Membership currently is $40 per person annually.

Regiec is also approaching the provincial government to see what funding may be available for seniors programs.

However, help from federation will take a while.

Glass, who is a former vice-president of the federation’s budget and allocations committee, said that the committee is just beginning to determine its allocations for the year. The money doesn’t start flowing until September, she said.

 She said she is confident that a solution will be found that will keep the Gwen Secter Centre operating in the black for years to come.

Richman also said she is confident that the community will come to Gwen Secter’s aid. “The centre is a very important asset in our community.”