My Story and the 9 Truths I Discovered
I began my life changing journey fighting hunger on a cool autumn Thursday in Woodstock, New York in 2005 where I volunteered for the first time at the local food pantry.
I was assigned a shift with Marie Duane. I drove over to the Woodstock Reformed Church, parked my car behind the buildling and cautiously walked in. I had never been to the pantry before.
I entered the empty hallway and found the pantry on the right. I walked into the room and there it was: a small space, actually, about 12′ by 16′. Each wall supported a set of metal shelving units. Each unit stood about 6′ high and 3′ deep with 4 shelves. Most of the shelves were empty. A few shelves had some food:
cereal
tuna
soup
peanut butter.
There was a little handwritten note in front of each display:
person: 1 item, family: 1 item.
There may have been other items on shelves but I don’t remember them.
A small table stood in the center of the room. A metal folding chair was placed in front of each window.
We sat in the chairs, Marie and I, and chatted as people trickled in. We discussed the usual: weather, gardening, knitting, decorating the alter at St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church.
“Hi. How are you? Will you please sign your name here?” Each shopper signed in and noted the number of adults, seniors, and children in the household. After signing in, the person walked around the room selecting from the cereal, peanut butter, tuna, and soup. The selected food was placed on the table and bagged to take home, wherever or whatever that was.
On this morning, not blessed with any psychic knowledge, I was totally unaware of experiences waiting for me in the pantry. Never in my wildest thoughts did I envision the hall filled with hungry people, the tiny room packed with fresh produce and jammed with shoppers.
Nor did I for 1 moment ponder the push back I would experience as the number of hungry seeking food grew. Within a few short years, this 2 dozen single homeless men – mostly Woodstock’s colorful characters – had swelled (due to a tanking economy) to over 300 people weekly. This number finally approached 500 people weekly before it was all over.
Now, in the autumn of 2015, our stock market experiences numerous “corrections”. I realize I learned some things over the years which, for me, are ground truths about the pantry.
Feeding the hungry with dignity is the most important thing.
Single homeless men are now far outnumbered by members of the Struggling Class, households of working people holding down 2 and 3 jobs just to pay the rent and buy the gas to get to work.
The 3 most hot button words in the English language are food, sex, and money. These 3 words are concerned with a person’s core beliefs, emotions, and spiritual attitudes. Food and money, or the lack thereof, loom large in pantries.
The sidewalks in our communities and cities have become wards of untreated mentally ill people. In our great nation we don’t hospitalize or otherwise treat many of our mentally ill. Instead, they they are incarcerated.
Some of these untreated mentally ill happen to be homeless. Homeless is not a category of people. It’s just a situation that happens. It can happen to anyone.
The 50+ senior population has many who lack enough $$$ for food and are largely a silent group. The bottom line is this: When our grandparents don’t get enough to eat, they often get sick.
I’m seeing a whole generation of children who have never been inside a grocery store.
Shoppers at our pantry can get a 3-day supply of food weekly. Their job is to make it last 7 days. Many share this food with a pet. Often, the only thing a person has left from a prosperous past is the dog.
The most difficult thing I see in the pantry is a Korean War vet getting food. Something I just can’t understand is how a person who served in a very brutal war, and subsequently spent an adult life working and paying taxes should have to be in a food pantry line in his old age.
Much of the food available to the hungry in food pantries is diverted from its trip to the landfill.
There is absolutely no excuse for anyone in our great nation to go hungry.
Thank you for reading this blog. The story is true. The people are real.
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Thurman Greco
Children of the Pantries – a tribute to Richard, Jamie, Robert, and Mikey
“Everything tells us that children who grow up in poverty are much more likely to be adults in poverty.” – Peter Edelman
The flier came in the mail last Tuesday – reminding me that, once again, school is starting. Immediately I thought of pantry shoppers everywhere struggling to get the kids ready for school.
I remembered my own childhood with my mother
sewing my school clothes
buying new shoes – saddle oxfords
buying sweaters and a coat
filling a special kitchen cabinet with school lunch snacks
taking me to the local Ben Franklin store with a list of needed school supplies.
2015 is sooo different! All the households I know are now:
scrounging for any and all free hand-me-down school clothes they can find
checking around to find out who has free school supplies to share
connecting with the schools to see if there will be any backpack programs and how school breakfast/lunch programs will be managed at their children’s school this year.
And, all the while, the parents are holding down 2 and 3 jobs. And, invariably, in the midst of all this activity, the car will break down…
Invisible almost, children come with their parents to shop at the pantry weekly for food. These children are beautiful, alert, intelligent. These children are so well behaved in the line and in the pantry. How they stand in the line with their parents/grandparents all that time every week and remain well behaved, I’ll never know. They come for a three-day supply of food which must last seven days. Shopping in a pantry usually takes a couple hours minimum.
As more and more household members work more and more hours at minimum wage jobs to pay more and more money for rent and gas to get to the jobs, more and more families appear in pantry lines. Every time I see a child in the pantry, I’m grateful for the efforts pantry volunteers make to get the most nutritious food they can find and bring back to the pantry.
This is especially important because many pantry families live in food deserts and have no supermarket nearby. People are forced to shop at a:
pharmacy,
gas station food mart,
convenience store.
Sometimes the hungry simply can’t afford the prices in upscale grocery stores and supermarkets.
One household of 4 came weekly to the pantry. The children, Robert and Mikey, came with their parents Richard and Jamie. We all smiled when the Allens arrived at the pantry. Rich drove in with Robert riding shot gun in a bright chartreuse repurposed ambulance which still had the sirens.
Jamie arrived in a 22-year-old red Ford pickup with a black camper top which Richard and Robert kept going.
Jamie:
helped assemble the food for the take out bags
helped pack the take out bags
assisted the older and infirm shoppers
was loved by everyone
Richard:
stood outside the building as the pantry opened
supervised the parking lot to keep the chaos to a minimum
managed the hallway
knew the stock in the storeroom
made sure the shoppers had help getting their food to cars
made friends with everyone in the shopper line
stood in the pantry room when the shopping line was overcrowded
was always on the lookout for anything which might upset the flow of people into the pantry
taught Robert to break down the used cardboard boxes
taught Robert to haul groceries out to the cars
Richard didn’t teach Robert to climb to the top shelf in the storeroom to retrieve much needed items. Robert learned that on his own.
Robert, 10, loved food…any kind of food. Whenever Robert wasn’t otherwise occupied, helping out in the pantry, he came to the pantry room and ate anything that didn’t eat him first…raw.
Mikey, 5, was never unhappy or trying to get into trouble. Mikey wanted nothing more than to help out in any way possible. Of course, being 5, Mikey invented ways to help if we didn’t give him direction. All in all, he was a gift to the pantry, smiling and greeting everyone who shopped. For many, this was transformational.
Mikey was therapy.
Children are important in a pantry. It’s estimated that 25% of the people receiving food at pantries are children. Hungry children experience more learning difficulties and more illnesses than their well nourished classmates.
If you can, a donation of food or school supplies to a nearby pantry will be extremely helpful.
Thank you for reading this blog. The stories are true. The people are real.
Thanks for your patience. I won’t be publishing articles on this blog quite as frequently while I work to get the reflexology book ready for the publisher.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Writers’ Boot Camp Inspiration
I’ve been inspired by the Writers’ Boot Camp experience to knuckle down and finish the reflexology book…AT LAST!
So, I’ll be posting on the hunger/food pantry blog every other week for the next few weeks. I hope you are not inconvenienced by this.
Thank you for your patience and your support.
Thank you for reading this blog.
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Thurman
http://www.reflexologyforthespirit.com
http://www.goodmorningwoodstock.com
If Only….
Janet Poppendieck wrote a book entitled “Sweet Charity” about hunger in America. I found a quote of hers on the internet which inspired this post.
There’s all this food out there. Most people who know about hunger agree that there’s enough food for everyone. If we can stop the push back on this concept, and just feed the people, our lives (everyone’s lives in the whole country) will be very different. Imagine a world without hungry children and grandmothers.
Just for a moment, let’s think of all the ways we can benefit our many people and institutions by using this food.
For starters, think of pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, halfway houses as our tax dollars at work. Much of the emergency food effort is manned by volunteers diverting food headed for the landfill. For my $$$, this recycling effort works primarily to keep people from starving in the streets.
Now, consider the United States Department of Agriculture. As our country accumulates agricultural surpluses, instead of being embarrassed by the food, life will be better when the USDA proudly distributes the surplus to those in need. After all, surplus food is an uptown problem. It’s almost impossible to produce only exactly what we need. Farms just don’t work that way. Weather doesn’t always cooperate. Droughts don’t come by request. Floods have minds of their own. It’s better to produce too much than too little.
Businesses can and should ship excess food to pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, halfway houses. This is a responsible way to dispose of unwanted excess food products. When businesses donate to food banks, they avoid excessive dump fees and accrue tax savings. They reduce dumpster diving.
Universities, hospitals, caterers, restaurants, bakers, schools, can use the food banks to absorb leftovers. In metropolitan areas, the surplus food can go directly to soup kitchens, pantries. This is both a civic responsibility and community outreach.
Community colleges and Universities can recognize that there are impoverished students in their ranks. Pantries and soup kitchens on campus will make it easier for these students to stay in school.
Elementary, Middle, and High Schools will do well to recognize the poverty among the students and staff. Food pantries have a definite place in schools. Backpack programs belong in every school to ensure that students have enough food to eat over the weekends and holidays.
Churches, synagogues, and other religious institutions have opportunities to express concern for their fellow man as they include the poor at the table. Congregations refer to their feeding efforts as outreach. These necessary hunger prevention programs help feed people who otherwise would not have enough to eat and they give the congregations a local outlet for their charity and outreach programs.
Courts and penal institutions can use this concept by having people work service hours at pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, etc. to avoid or lessen incarceration.
Working at a pantry, soup kitchen or shelter provides service opportunities for people of all ages. The more people donate time, the less isolated these facilities become.
Diverting food from landfills offers communities an opportunity to improve our environment. Besides, why throw away good food?
Thank you for reading this blog.
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Thurman Greco
Let’s Celebrate National Farmer’s Week – August 2 to 9
National Farmers Market Week begins Sunday. If you can, please take a moment this week to thank local farmers for the great food they provide our communities. Thank them also for the support we see at food pantries everywhere.
They do this as a project of the recently begun Farm Stand concept, the brainchild of Jan Whitman and Ron VanWarmer. Jan, Ron, and Carrie Jones Ross worked together to create farm stands in pantries throughout the Hudson Valley where the hungry shop for fresh produce at a price they can afford: free.
I visited 2 Farm Stands in Kingston, New York, recently. One is located at People’s Place and the other at Community Action. What an event Jan, Ron, and Carrie put together! Excited, happy shoppers choose from:
tomatoes
potatoes
onions
squashes
greens
grapes
oranges
apples.
By focusing on feeding the struggling class, one person at a time, the hungry are being fed and the lives of thousands are touched. All Farm Stand food is donated by farmers. No local merchant is losing a sale by not seeing customers in a supermarket line because these people don’t have the income to buy any of the food.
The growing Farm Stand concept offers an opportunity to move the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley into the future at breakneck speed.
In addition to the Farm Stand donations, food pantries throughout our area receive hundreds of thousands of pounds of fresh, nutritious, delicious food each year from local farms. Much of it is organic.
On the individual pantry front, Migliorelli Farm donates fresh produce weekly to our pantry year round. Greenleaf Farm Stand donates produce to volunteers who drop by before the pantry opens every Monday.
Prasida and Francine drive the pantry van to the Regional Food Bank in Latham weekly to pick up fresh produce donated from Hudson Valley Farms.
The Regional Food Bank owns the Patroon Farm which grows organic vegetables. Their crops all go to the food pantries and soup kitchens throughout our area.
The generosity offered by farmers and local pantry volunteers makes pantry distribution a reality. Those who selflessly share their time make our mission a success. Without the dedication and generosity of our farmers, where would be be?
http://www.foodbankofhudsonvalley.org
http://www.regionalfoodbank.new/farm/overview
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Thurman greco
3 Important Things We Can Do To End 50+ Hunger
“Hunger and income inequality is probably the single biggest issue facing this country”. – Susan Zimet
Ending hunger is a huge task…so big it’s scary, even. But, it’s okay to be scary. It’s doable. And, besides that, anything that’s really important is probably a little scary. Right?
HOW CAN THIS HAPPEN?
Hunger in general and 50+ Hunger in particular are buried issues. In other words, unless you’re the one shopping at the pantry, you haven’t got much of a clue. If you’re standing in a grocery line with 5 cotton tops, statistics tell us that 1 of them is struggling for $$$ to get the food s/he needs.
Food insecurity happens with 50+ citizens when the retirement income is insufficient to meet day-to-day needs.
Not all 50+ people are retired. It’s not unheard of to see people visiting the pantry, men mostly, who have been fired from jobs they’ve held for many years. After a worker crosses the line to being 50+, getting another job is pretty impossible. So, the challenges are great. What I saw most of them do is desperately figure out how to get some sort of aid: SSI, disability, that will last until the social security kicks in.
I’VE SEEN MY SHARE OF MEN IN THIS STRUGGLE. Some were successful. Others just finally got seriously ill and died. This seems tragic, I know. But, think about it for a moment. What else are they going to do when the $$$ is gone and there is no chance of any more $$$ coming in?
One such pantry shoppers came into the basement of the Woodstock Reformed Church angry. He was one of the angriest men I saw in the pantry the whole time I worked there. Frightened reality covered his face.
“I’m finished” he said. “They fired me today! I’ll never be able to get another job again. I’m too old!”
I didn’t say a word. He didn’t look or act as if he was going to hurt anyone and I felt he needed to release some of his anger. He didn’t try to punch the walls or the other shoppers or the volunteers. And, since the wait was over an hour, I felt he would quiet down before he finished shopping.
HE WAS CORRECT ABOUT 1 THING. He was probably not ever going to get a real job again. I just hoped his unemployment was going to hold out until he could figure out how to get something more permanent:
SSI
Disability
SNAP
It took him a year to calm down. Every time he came to the pantry, I saw the anger. We all just left him alone. It was all we could do for him.
Time passed.
Now, in 2015, I saw him again – calm, maybe at peace with his situation. He lives in his truck, sort of semi homeless, I suppose. He has places to bathe, etc.
He’s a talented musician, this man. He has found places to play and he is looking okay. What more can we all ask for anyway?
Anyone with income that doesn’t include $$$ for food is, in my book, in crisis..
50+ seniors routinely decide between food and transportation, food and medicine, food and clothing.
WHAT CAN WE DO?
One thing we need to do is understand, really understand, what keeps seniors from getting enough healthy food. The 50+ population is growing, not shrinking. we have a continually increasing number of seniors facing
food insecurity
rising food costs
availability of healthy food
shrinking Government funding.
FOOD PANTRY WORKERS DO WHAT THEY CAN. Volunteers in many cases keep people from dying of hunger on the streets. But pantries are, with 50+ hunger, a small effort. Can people seek more important ways to address the problem? Can we develop some long-term and short-term solutions?
WE NEED TO DO 3 THINGS:
UNDERSTAND WHAT STANDS BETWEEN THE 50+ HUNGRY AND FOOD
EDUCATE THE PUBLIC
HELP THE 50+ POPULATION GET THE FOOD
Educating the public has its own challenges. Food is such a hot button issue in our country. People immediately go into denial. They want to believe that the shoppers in the pantry lines are all wealthy and drive Maseratis and Corvettes.
Of course, this will never be true. I’ve been working in the food pantry industry for 10 years and I’ve seen very few free loaders. And, honestly, the free loaders I met all had mental issues.
The number of people shopping in in food pantries who don’t belong is very small.
The number of people who need to shop in food pantries is large.
The number of 50+ people who need to shop in food pantries but don’t is way too large.
WE NEED TO KEEP THE EDUCATIONAL EFFORT GOING. That’s why I work in a food pantry, write this blog, and speak about hunger at pretty much any place I’m invited.
Helping the 50+ population get the food is a challenge. It’s difficult to learn that you worked all your life, paid your taxes, participated in social security, and now …when you need it…it’s not enough.
What happened to our dream?
Was it ever real?
Did we get bilked?
Were we all just kidding ourselves?
OUR PARENTS AND OUR GRANDPARENTS WORKED TO BUILD A NATION. We worked to continue the American Dream. Now, we find that it doesn’t really exist. For some, the belief is that this dream never did exist. For many, the most important thing is to just not let anyone know how bad things are for them.
Hunger in the 50+ community today is where being gay was prior to 2000.
If you can talk just one 50+ senior into getting SNAP, you will be doing a wonderful thing.
Thank you for reading this blog.
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Thurman Greco.
The Face of Hunger/The Face of Hope
Every Monday, she brings her little granddaughter to the pantry –
Sue, maybe 4, is shy – absolutely beautiful – and still totally unaware of her situation:
White
Mother working 2+ jobs
Not enough to eat
Threadbare clothes
This lovely child takes pleasure in the smallest treats. Today her treat is a can of juice one of the volunteers found that’s not yet dented.
Her grandmother is teaching her to:
stand in line quietly
smile
say “thank you”.
How these mothers and grandmothers can get these little children to stand perfectly still and quiet for the time it takes to go through the line is completely beyond me.
But, back to the story.They get a 3-day supply of food which will last for 7 days, this struggling pair.
She’s always happy visit the pantry. It’s got 2 rooms so their next stop is the produce room where they have apples today.
Garrett and Susanne also keep the place well stocked with children’s books so there will be another treat for her.
When I see this pair, I see the universal grandmother and granddaughter next door. They are us. They are our neighbors. They are our cousins. I am reminded that we do not live in a we/they world. The hungry are us.
I’ve been working in a food pantry for years…certainly long enough to have become hardened to the reality and face of hunger. However, that is not what has happened. If anything, I’m more sensitive to the issues. I now truly believe that humans are not meant to suffer hunger and poverty. We are not meant to turn our heads away from the issue of hunger.
Most poor families in America are working families. The low wages earned by the millions of hungry Americans are not enough to cover the cost of housing, medical care, child care, transportation, clothing and food.
As the Struggling Class begins cutting food because the budget no longer allows it, they begin by cutting out meat. If that is not enough, they go to the second level and cut out meat, vegetables and eat eat only cereals.
Finally, it means cutting out an entire meal every day.
Food Pantries offer the hope of at least not starving to death. When people visit food pantries they can get food which they otherwise could not purchase. This brings hope to us all – not only the hungry but to those who work to appease the situation.
http://www.allianceforpositivehealth.org
http://www.foodbankofhudsonvalley.org
Thank you for reading this blog/book.
Please refer this article to your preferred social media network.
Thurman Greco
Do you ever…? 10 questions to ask hungry friends, relatives, neighbors.
Do you ever run out of $$$ to buy the food to make a meal?
Do you ever eat less food than you need because you ran out of $$$ to buy the food?
Do you ever eat less food than you need because you can’t get the food?
Do you ever skip meals because you don’t have $$$ for food?
Do you ever skip meals because you can’t get the food?
Do you ever do without fresh/frozen fruits and vegetables because you don’t have $$$ to purchase these products?
Do you ever go to bed hungry?
Do you ever skip meals so that your children will have enough to eat?
Do your children ever eat less than they need because you don’t have enough to eat?
Do your children ever go to bed hungry?
Each week at the pantry, people line up to file through the tiny room in the shed. Most of them come weekly…as they should. That’s how they get the most food for the time invested. They get a 3-day supply of food which must last a week.
They hold their heads high, chat with neighbors in the line, put on the best face possible. I see them week after week, trying to get food they need at the pantry. I cannot help but have questions. I need to shift the focus from general to specific, nothing more. To me, each person is individual. Each one has unique needs.
As an agency of the Food Bank of Northeastern New York and the Hudson Valley, the volunteers of the Reservoir Food Pantry are trained to feed the hungry a 3-day supply of food to include fresh fruits and vegetables, proteins, whole wheat breads, dairy products. We are extremely proud of the quality of food which we serve to our shoppers.
This 3-day-supply of food includes food for three meals on each of the three days. Each meal needs to offer 3 of the 5 food groups.
We get this food from the Food Bank. Grocers, food manufacturers, farmers generously donate it. For the most part, it’s diverted from the landfill.
In spite of the landfill diversion, the quality of this food is excellent. Much of it, especially the fresh fruits and vegetables, is organic. It is food that all of us who volunteer at the Reservoir Food Pantry are proud to offer.
We serve this food to:
Seniors whose social security is not enough to buy the food they need to eat.
Families whose children need enough to eat so they can learn at school.
Seriously ill people whose income is focused on paying medical bills with no $$$ left for food.
Homeless people with no kitchens.
People living in food deserts who lack transportation to get to a first line grocery store/super market.
When I see these people each week, I cannot help but see that the numbers grow weekly. I am always confronted with one final question:
Why, in our United States of America in the 21st century, are over 49,000,000 people not getting enough to eat?
http://www.reservoirfoodpantry.org
http://www.FoodBankofHudsonValley.org
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Summertime
“What’s happened?” she asked with concern in her voice.
“What do you mean? ” I replied.
“What happened to the people?”
“Oh, that. Well, it’s summer.”
What’s happened is that the faces are often different in the pantry in the summer. When you’re living on the edge, when you’re a member of the Struggling Class, the change of seasons counts for a lot.
People who were too sick to make it to the pantry in cold are now able to make it out. How they manage to make it through the winter is a question for me. These shoppers barely get enough to eat as it is. How do they eat over the winter? Humans are not bears and don’t hibernate. What do these disabled do to survive?
And, yet, we have many in this category.
Some can’t make it to the pantry in the winter because their vehicles aren’t winter worthy. Beyond a certain temperature, the cars just don’t work. Then, as spring rolls around, they manage to get them running again to drive to the pantry during the warmer months.
Making it to the pantry in the winter is really difficult for the homeless. Truthfully, I don’t know how some of these homeless live in the winter. How they keep from freezing to death seems to me to be a miracle.
We lose some shoppers also. In the winter, men visit the pantry regularly because they don’t have work. Then, as the weather gets warmer, they find jobs and can’t come to the pantry because they’re working when the pantry is open.
We always miss these guys because they are good volunteers and really make a contribution to the pantry during the cold months.
One staple which carries everyone through challenges is peanut butter. Peanut butter is important to everyone in the Struggling Class.
It is important because it:
can be eaten right out of the jar.
needs no refrigeration.
has a long shelf life.
is not necessary to have teeth in order to eat it.
does not have to be combined with another food in order to be palatable.
is nutritious.
does not usually come in a container requiring a can opener.
is not necessary to cook it.
The only hitch to this whole wonderful story about peanut butter is that most of the time, there is no peanut butter in the food pantry.
The only time we are able to get peanut butter in our pantry is when we are having a peanut butter drive. It’s been months since we’ve had a decent amount, or any amount, of peanut butter.
Can you help?
There are 2 ways you can come to our rescue:
Our pantry is open Mondays from 2 to 4 in the afternoon. I’m usually there by 10:00 am.
On Tuesday mornings from 9:00 to 10:00 we are in the pantry packing the take out bags.
If you live/work in the area and want to bring some peanut butter to the pantry, we’re happy to receive it then.
If dropping the peanut butter off at the pantry is not convenient, we’ll be happy to accept your donation and purchase the peanut butter for the pantry. Please send the check to: Reservoir Food Pantry, P.O.Box 245, Boiceville, NY 12412.
We thank you in advance for this generosity. Currently, we serve over 150 households each week. Everyone needs peanut butter.
Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
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Grocery shopping is always a problem for the elderly.
I first met her outside the shed at the Reservoir Food Pantry. A recent widow, I heard her comment “I just never knew how hard it was going to be as a widow.” Her husband died just over a year ago and she’s still making her way toward accepting her new reality.
“I never knew it would be so difficult…being alone like this. I’ll never tell my children I come here. I don’t want them to know.”
As she spoke, she wiped an occasional tear while moving through the pantry line with a group of women, all about her own age. They were choosing corn and apples, squashes, greens, onions, potatoes. As the line snaked forward, she turned her attention to the canned goods: beans, soup, fruits, veggies.
Pat hasn’t made it to the food stamp office in Kingston. For one thing, it’s a good half hour down Route 28. For another, she’s afraid:
of the forms,
the humiliation of being unable to survive on her own,
the long wait in a building she may not even be able to find,
finally, she’s afraid of the whole process which she finds frightening.
Her financial situation isn’t so far from all the other older women in the pantry line. Grocery shopping for the elderly is difficult under the best of circumstances. Getting to the grocery store can be challenging for older people – getting around in the parking lot and going up and down the grocery store aisles is no fun anymore. And, then, when they can’t find what they need, they have to maneuver the muddy parking area and the scary entrance ramp at the pantry. And…we haven’t even discussed the packages yet. They’ve got to be gotten home and in the house (wherever and whatever that is).
Finally, getting high quality, affordable food is more and more difficult as the days go by. And, as difficult as it is for Pat, she’s one of the lucky ones. She’s got a working automobile.
Combine the lack of a working automobile, bad weather, not enough $$$ and you’ve got the makings of a disaster for a senior.
I keep telling everyone who’ll listen that seniors should get their SNAP card, a list of nearby pantries, and their first social security check at the same time. So far, nobody has listened. Of course not. Why should they? We’ve all got gray hair.
Seniors struggle with the big 3:
food
housing
medical expenses.
Forget the extras like clothing. As seniors, we get less, pay more, and go without. When I need something new to wear, I go to the boutique of my closet.
Healthcare costs can be devastating, even to a senior with medicare. Once a person comes down with cancer or other expensive disease, the pocketbook empties pretty fast.
There is real pressure to feed the rising tide of hungry people at every pantry. We get questionnaires periodically from different agencies wanting to know how often we run out of food. How does “weekly” sound?
The Big 3 for pantries include:
high unemployment
widespread poverty
deep cuts in social spending programs.
Pantries, for the most part, are
arbitrary,
subjective,
strongly biased
when it comes to deciding who can and cannot receive food. There are simply too many agencies with too many people standing in line for too little food for any food bank or state office to properly oversee and supervise the selection process.
As far as feeding the hungry, we’re not even coming close to filling the need created by the widespread poverty and deep spending cuts. People in food pantry lines are, in a severe winter, choosing between eating and heating.
Our pantry, housed in a shed, an old green house, and the back of a restaurant is a ragtag emergency food movement which is in reality not emergency at all.
Lines and crowds outside our pantry on Monday afternoons can easily convince any onlooker that the good old U S of A has a food problem.
http://www.reservoirfoodpantry.org
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman
