Brian Groboski worked the small crowd outside the Mountain View Community Center in Edgewood.

The people – families, seniors, singles, people with disabilities –were there for groceries from the FISH Food Bank on the ground level.

Groboski was offering them more.

“I just introduce myself, tell them where I’m from and what I can do,” he said.

He’s a benefits expert with South Sound Outreach Services, and he was on hand Thursday afternoon to introduce the food bank customers to the first of five “connection centers” planned for Pierce County. The next centers will open at the Graham and Southeast Tacoma FISH food banks.

The Mountain View program is the pilot program in a partnership between FISH Food Banks and South Sound Outreach Services.

The idea was born in May, during the dullest session at a deadly dull conference on social services. Beth Elliott, FISH’s executive director, and Roberta Marsh, director of South Sound Outreach Services, couldn’t take it any more and escaped.

Outside, they got to talking about how tough it is for people in economic trouble to straggle from one agency to another, tracking down the help they need. They give up, or don’t follow through.

Imagine, thought Marsh and Elliott, how cool it would be to have a full menu of services available at one convenient location.

Marsh’s agency has the experts. Elliott’s has the locations.

Over the summer, they drew up the plans, sorted out staffing and decided to start in Edgewood.

On the Thursdays and Saturdays the food bank is open, South Sound Outreach experts will be on hand to help people sort through Medicare, Medicaid, Department of Social and Health Services and Social Security forms. They’ll have connections for child care, rent and utility assistance. They’ll teach financial literacy, budgeting. They’ll help clients repair their credit and do their taxes.

Granted, Edgewood seems like an unlikely starting point. It’s a lovely place to retire to a nice home on a big lot. It looks like the “Country Living” version of country life.

Members of Mountain View Lutheran Church know better.

In 2003 they opened a FISH food bank in the old parsonage. After a slow start, it outgrew the building. Last November, they dedicated a new community center, incorporated as an independent non-profit at 3505 122nd Ave. E. The idea was to put the food bank on the lower floor and a space for social services on the street level.

They’ve done pretty well, pooling volunteers’ expertise to make helpful connections. But they had no social services staff, and thus no consistency.

The Connection Center concept was a perfect solution to complete the original Mountain View Community Center plan, said board chairman Dave Weir.

Elliott and Marsh talked with the board in July. With funding from United Way of Pierce County, they inaugurated the new system on Sept. 17.

It was not a week too soon.

“Our client base has doubled in the past year,” said Edgewood Community Food Bank director Steven Hayes. “We fed 13,000 people in all of 2008. We had fed 14,000 people at the end of July.”

Even with the increase, listening remains one of the food bank volunteers’ great talents, Hayes said. The people who come to them are comfortable opening up about their problems.

Thursday afternoon, Groboski spoke with 12 people. One wanted to vent. One needed help getting a utility bill discount for seniors. Three needed to sign up for food stamps. A disabled person wanted to apply for Social Security.

Groboski is working on all those requests.

“We all know there’s not a good safety net out there,” Marsh said. “But what is out there, we know how to get.”

They’ll be doing that from 2:30 to 6:30 p.m. Thursdays and 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturdays. On Thursdays, Weir said, it’s especially nice. Volunteers cook up a community meal, and everyone is welcome to enjoy it.

Kathleen Merryman: 253-597-8677

kathleen.merryman@thenewstribune.com