Quote:
Originally Posted by Yoda
I have two more weeks until I receive my next disability check and we are running low on food. There are several food banks in my area. I have never used one before. Several want proof of income.
I know I make more money than some people but I am unable to even meet my needs for house maintenance. I need a plumber, an electrician, et cetera but lack funds. I paid my taxes on my car this month and took a cat to the vet and also had to use a tow truck as well as went to a walk in clinic for myself.
Is there a guideline for income or something? My son receives $200/month in food stamps and as of today we only have $29 left. I don't know what else to do. I want to go back to work part time but cannot even afford to buy a new stethoscope right now.
|
I have had to use foodbanks. Here, we have Care & Share, and right now they only help the Waldo Canyon Fire victims, but they gave me a list of all the foodbanks in the area. The first one I went to with my kids, they didn't need proof of income, but they only give out three days worth of food, but let you pick what you want from their pantry. That was really nice. The next one me and the kids went to also didn't require proof of income, and they didn't let you pick, they just handed us a box of food. When we got home and I looked through it, not only was it totally random stuff (a big bottle of vinegar????), but every single item was expired, by as much as 2 YEARS. I had to throw it all away. Neither food bank had things like milk or eggs or meat.
So, after the milk from our last WIC coupon had run out, and desperation hit, and I didn't know what to feed my kids anymore, I (gasp, cringe) put an ad on Craigslist, explaining the situation, and asked if anyone would be willing to get my kids some milk.
And some really nice gentleman went to the store for us (I did NOT ask for any of this), and brought us 2 gallons of milk, 2 18packs eggs, 2 cartons of icecream (the fancy stuff), 2 big things of yogurt, a huge pack of cheese, a giant pack of hotdogs, 5 pounds of ground beef, two huge packs of hotdog buns, 2 huge packs of hamburger buns, a huge loaf of bread, a bag of stringcheese, 2 pounds of ham for sandwiches, a bag of apples, a bag of clementines, a bag of cherries, and I don't even remember the rest, there was more. And he didn't even want to come into the house, he just handed us all the bags.
There are some really decent people out there. Thinking of what that man did for us still makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.
Now I'm rambling. Anyway, what I wanted to get to is that you have to be careful, there are good foodbanks and very crappy ones. I hate being ungrateful, but I'm not going to feed my kids stuff that expired 2 years ago. And that wasn't canned stuff either.