Off The Cuff

Time To Get Real With Your Generous Hearts

Posted by: From Arkansas in Commentary, My Take on Things on Aug 25 2007

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I have posted an entry on my other blog about this subject but it is worth talking about again and again. Tonight, I went to a blog that has a post about the hungry and giving. It brought up some memories that should have been addessed a while back. Now they will.

Our story is that at one time, we did not have an income other than one at about $400 a month. There were four of us in the family. We did the food stamp thing, of course. When you raise children, they tend to want to eat every day! Amazing. We had no money for bills, rent, utilities. We paid what we could so that we didn’t have things shut off. Our priorities were to pay the main bills and get food. This did not include the rent. Our landlord was an amazing person who allowed us to live in the house long after we should have needed to leave.

The stamps were never enough for all of us so we went to the local food pantry. We have three. Most folks who need this will go to all three. They do expect that. Each place could give a small amount. None was ever enough but it did help us get through a very trying time. But here’s the thing. It is an amazing thing that those people who always give to these places, always ONLY GIVE at the “feel good” times like Thanksgiving and Christmas. Once we had a church give us a whole turkey dinner with trimmings. Don’t get me wrong here. We loved the thought and the food.

However, why is it that those same folks do not understand that people are hungry all year long? We could eat pretty well two times a year. But the rest of the year? Not so much. So, here’s what I propose. Go to the store and buy a few extra items that you love. They don’t have to cost much, just some staples like canned goods, boxes of mixes, rice, beans. These things keep a long time and they stretch. Have you ever had to stretch a meal to feed more than the ingredients called for?

Food pantries and local churches with food shelves need these things:

1) Canned goods. Give fresh ones, not some dented can that you’ve had for years. Throw that out.

2) Boxed mixes, bagged rice, beans..canned and bagged, coffee, tea, sugar, flour, baby formula. Anything that doesn’t need to be refrigerated or frozen. If it’s perishable, it isn’t appropriate.

3) Things that no one thinks about and food stamps do not cover at all are soap, toilet paper, cleaning supplies, deoderant, baby diapers, combs, brushes. So many people judge a poor person who cannot get clean because no one lets them into get cleaned up.

4) Since you cannot give fresh meats and produce, give canned meats that have a long shelf life.

5) Under no circumstances do you clean out your cupboard of all those dented cans and gross things you would not eat. Do you think that if you don’t like it, somebody else will? Maybe but if it’s dented or damaged in any way, it will be thrown out anyway. Save the step. Pitch it yourself and go to the store, buy fresh cans and boxes and give them to your local pantry.

6) Do not give ratty and grubby clothes. Find new or nearly new and give those. These people are human too. They are not losers but folks who are not as well off as you are.

Please do not be only a seasonal giver. People are hungry year round. These folks are in a circumstance that most do not want to be in. For those of you who think that most people on food stamps or welfare want to be there, think again. The government does all it can to tell you they want people off the rolls but do nothing to help that happen.

Hey, I can tell you this. If you are on Social Security and want to get off of it and still have an income, you can try but it won’t help unless you get a huge amount of money. Here’s why. Those on soc. sec. are allowed to earn so much a year. If they are subsidized by supplemental income, the minute you get a buck from somewhere else, they drop the amount you get. If you have an extra income of any kind, the food stamps or medicaid gets dropped. Meaning, if you have medical bills that medicaid covered before…no longer. What does that mean? One step forward, two steps back. That’s what it means.

So, instead of looking down at someone who is in a bad situation, get out your billfold, buy a few cans of good stuff and donate it to your local food place. Plan to do this each month, week or whatever time works for you. Give out of your plenty so someone else can eat tonight. It will be worth it to you in your heart.

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