More than 30 representatives from St. Joseph social service and human resource agencies gathered at Camp Geiger Tuesday morning to discuss strategies for collectively combating poverty.

The Poverty Summit, sponsored by the St. Joseph Hunger Coalition, brought together representatives from various groups, including the Social Welfare Board, Catholic Charities, Second Harvest of Greater St. Joseph and Heartland Health to discuss ways to better work together to provide services in the community.

“This really came out of a conversation of how do we collectively help those in poverty here,” said Scott Tomhave, executive director of Second Harvest. “Do we have all the services needed? Are we working together collectively to help our clients and the answer to some degree is ‘no, we’re not.’ We all work very well in our own silos, and we need to break out of that model a little bit and work together.”

Social service agency members held a roundtable discussion to discuss strategies ranging from establishing a mutual database to assessing the future goals of each entity.

“It certainly helps to raise awareness,” said Martin Goedken, executive director of Catholic Charities. “Probably most agencies are aware of what’s going on, but if there is a new way we can all work together to serve people, that’s what I see the purpose of this being.”

The poverty rate in Buchanan County was 13.8 percent in 2004, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Alonzo Weston can be reached at alonzow@npgco.com.