Abundance 2: LeAnna, Catherine, and Jane – Women, Mothers, and Hunger in the Food Pantry
Abundance. LeAnna volunteered in the pantry. She had a business degree, a house, two adorable children and a spouse with a fancy career post somewhere in Europe. He decided he wanted nothing to do with her anymore. No money came across the ocean for her and the children. There was no money for taxes she owned on the house, or anything else for that matter.
LeAnna was happy to take the vegetarian items available each week. Her children loved fresh vegetables so there was much to choose from. The girls saw yogurt as a treat.
Catherine had a house full of children including two so close together, I thought they were a set of twins. She couldn’t get it together to work. And, I doubt if she could have gotten employment in our area anyway. This lovely lady had two advanced degrees.
There weren’t many, or possibly any, jobs available in Ulster County in her career field. And, of course, once a woman gets an advanced degree, the lower level jobs aren’t open to her unless she hides the education. Sometimes education can be hidden. Sometimes not. It all depends on the situation. The main thing is to get it off the resume.
Catherine was open-minded about the food she selected. She took anything not tied down. Because she qualified for cases of USDA, Catherine left the pantry with a case each of pasta sauce, canned corn, green beans, vegetarian beans, refried beans.
When she finished shopping, ten-year-old Robert Allen, our next-to-youngest volunteer, brought out the flatbed metal wheeled cart, put her groceries on it, and wheeled them to her car. Little toddler Mikey, our youngest volunteer, ran along behind.
I saw Jane, the young mother who couldn’t work because her husband threw her up against a wall, injuring her back. She had an eight-year-old child she was trying to raise without the luxury of child support.
Jane chose items from shelves where bending and stretching weren’t necessary because she couldn’t do those things.
And, to return to the beginning of Abundance, these three families and referenes to the critics about shoppers all owning upscale cars – Catherine, LeAnna, and Jane owned fairly late model SUV’s in good condition. They invited the criticism of the pantry naysayers when they drove into the parking lot to shop.
Here we had three households, single-headed households in need of food. If not for a couple of years, then for several months.
For some, feeding hungry people means we fed freeloaders. Not all hungry people look needy. Some of the best-dressed people in Woodstock never spent a dime on their clothes. They had no money for clothes so they shopped at Family of Woodstock.
Neither of these households was homeless, although they could be when the tax collector came to call.
Neither of these households was without transportation although they could be if the SUV needed expensive repairs. Nobody in these households looked poverty-stricken although they could be if the car needed repairs.
For the moment, neither LeAnna, Catherine, nor Jane looked poverty-stricken although, they would in time with no child support from the spouse to help with expenses.
These three women had several things in common. They were divorced. They had children. They received no money from the ex-spouse even though each one had a lucrative, influential employment career, money, and a bright future.
There was not a job among them.
There was little or no money for a food budget even.
LeAnna, Catherine, and Jane each lived with abundance on one hand, a large box of unpaid bills on the other hand, and hope, dreams, and fears somewhere in the middle.
The children were eligible for school breakfast and lunch programs. But, that didn’t give them enough food to eat at home. And, there was no lunch program for the mothers.
So, it was off to the pantry. This was a life-changing decision. Using a pantry requires commitment, endurance, and effort. Attitudes about food in particular and life in general change.
Pantry shoppers are often self-disciplined, self-controlled, determined to do what is best for the family.
Freeloaders? What do you think?
Every week when these women shopped I saw myself as a young woman returning from Mexico with my two daughters and nothing but the clothes on my back. There was no way anyone, just by looking at me, would have known how little I had.
Whether we come to the pantry as shoppers, volunteers, or both, all of us are asked by the pantry to leave; the past behind. And, of course, that’s different for everyone.
How can we move forward into a new life if we never give anything up? For some, giving up the past means letting go of the job we lost, the home, the furniture that went in the home, maybe the family, self-esteem, the car, good health.
What happens in the pantry, this shopping, this offloading, has the potential to be the greatest journey of one’s life. The hungry person learns things in new ways, and sees things never noticed before. And, finally, there is the knowledge that anything can happen. When all is said and done, things will never be the same again. Better off for the experience, thoughts change.
Beliefs and core values are found.
I’m sticking my neck out here to say this.
Being hunger in 21st century America is a spiritual journey involving miracles, forgiveness, endurance, and spiritual healing. It’s all about discovering that it’s never too late to be who you really are.
That’s what this story is all about.
Thank you for reading this blog post in two parts. Please forward it to your preferred social media network.
Thurman Greco
The Debate Rages On
An older man came into the pantry wearing a baseball cap which read “Korean War Veteran”. I simply could not then and cannot now understand how this man, who fought as a soldier in the very brutal Korean conflict in the 1950’s is now, as an old man, reduced to standing in a pantry line for food.
ACTUALLY, I KNEW THE ANSWER. His social security check is just not large enough to buy food and he’s outlived his savings.
One day a tall, handsome man with a generous head of wavy white hair, approached me in Bread Alone. “I want to shake your hand. I worked all my life. When I was laid off recently, I realized that I’m never going to work again. If it weren’t for your efforts in the pantry, I would be going hungry.”
George, while he had white hair, was not yet old enough for social security. So, he relied on unemployment, food stamps, and the pantry. The hope in these cases is always that the unemployment insurance will last until the social security kicks in.
ONE FAMOUS ARTIST SHOPPED REGULARLY while going through foreclosure. He kept a positive attitude about the whole thing. But, the sorrow was unavoidable. He ended up living in Kingston. He still made it over to the pantry whenever he could for about a year afterward. The transition out of Woodstock was very difficult.
SOME PEOPLE HAD THEIR OWN OPINIONS ABOUT THE SITUATION:
“Thurman, you are serving entirely too much food to these people. You can’t do this.”
“Thurman, you’re filling this building with vagrants and riffraff. You need to keep the riffraff out.”
“Thurman, why are you serving fresh fruits and vegetables in the pantry? You
shouldn’t do this.”
“Thurman, why are you giving food to her? She is not a responsible parent. She needs to be raising her children more responsibly.”
OFTEN THESE OPINIONS WERE SHARED BY PEOPLE WHO DIDN’T HAVE THE FACTS AND WHO HAD NEVER BEEN HUNGRY.
When people begin to debate poverty, they always seem to talk
family,
race,
money,
culture.
THIS IS THE WRONG DEBATE. What we need to discuss is power, inequality, and exploitation.
Seniors, due to their age, are exploited because, when they quit working or get a retirement job, they lose their power.
Women are exploited in both the workplace and domestic situations. They are not paid equal wages for jobs performed.
POOR PEOPLE ARE EXPLOITED BECAUSE THEY LACK THE RESOURCES TO FIGHT BACK.
POVERTY IS A HIGHLY CHARGED ISSUE. If you don’t believe me, try listening to politicians rage on about how the minimum wage should or should not be increased. The Obama care battle is still being waged. The movement to gut the food stamp benefits and unemployment benefits is popular.
Corporate downsizing is routine in our country with layoffs occuring in both good times and bad.
THE SAFETY NET FOR THE HUNGRY IS ALL BUT GONE.
Workers in America have no overtime pay, no retirement funds, no health insurance, and no voice.
Minimum wages in tandem with part time employment force people to work several jobs. Holding down 2 or 3 jobs is the norm in communities throughout our country.
IN OUR NATION WE EXPLOIT THE POOR, PUNISH THEM FOR NOT MAKING MORE $$$ AND LABEL THEM IRRESPONSIBLE BECAUSE THEY DON’T HAVE BETTER JOBS, EDUCATION, RESOURCES.
How can a person:
get a better job which does not exist?
get more education when the $$$ to pay for it is not available to him/her?
pay for healthcare when there in’t even enough $$$ for food?
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
