Posted on 02/19/2009 11:09:16 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
MORRISTOWN, N.J. — Cindy Dreeszen and her husband live in one of the wealthiest counties in the United States. They have steady jobs, his at a movie theater and hers at a government office. Together, they earn about $55,000 a year.
But with a 17-month-old son, another baby on the way, and, as Ms. Dreeszen put it, “the cost of everything going up and up,” the couple went to a food pantry this month to ask for some free groceries.
“I didn’t think we’d even be allowed to come here,” said Ms. Dreeszen, 41, glancing around at the shelves of fruit, whole-wheat pasta and baby food. “This is totally something that I never expected to happen, to have to resort to this.”
Once a crutch for the most needy, food pantries have responded to the deepening recession by opening their doors to what one pantry organizer described as “the next layer of people,” a rapidly expanding group of child-care workers, nurse’s aides, real estate agents and secretaries who are facing a financial crisis for the first time. Over all, demand at food banks across the country increased by 30 percent in 2008 from the previous year, according to a survey by Feeding America, which distributes more than two billion pounds of food every year. And while pantries usually see a drop in demand after the holiday season, many in upscale suburbs this year are experiencing the opposite.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
And amid the million-dollar houses of Marin County, Calif., a pantry at the San Geronimo Valley Community Center last month changed its policy to allow people to stop by once a week instead of every other week, since there are so many new faces in line alongside the regulars.
“We’re seeing people who work at banks, for software firms, for marketing firms, and they’re all losing their jobs,” said Dave Cort, the executive director. “Here we are in big, fancy Marin County, but we have people who are standing in line with their eyes wide open, thinking, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe I’m here.’ ”
Free food, but unwilling to give up the 2 cars, the plasma TV, the cell phones, the cable tv, the gym memberships....
“If one of our richest counties has people signing up for food stamps who have never signed up before, that indicates the depth of this problem with the lack of food,” said Kathleen DiChiara, executive director of Community FoodBank of New Jersey. “It’s the canary in the coal mine.”
Nope. I had better just keep my yap shut.
“A deadbeat husband and a loss of a job,” said one woman in her 20s, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she did not want her friends to know she had been visiting the pantry. It was her second visit. The first time, she could barely get out of her car. “Let me put it this way — it took me a long time to come here,” the woman said as she added a bag of lentils to her cart. “I felt like a loser. I felt like a total lowlife.”
A woman wearing gold earrings and a red Vera Bradley bag over her shoulder, who is in her 50s and gave only her first name, Louise, said she had recently lost her job and has been struggling to pay her bills.
“I can understand why people would be embarrassed to come here,” she said, as she loaded her groceries into the trunk of her silver Chevy Malibu. “I guess I am a little embarrassed.”
That’s what I was wondering too. I don’t want to judge a person or people without knowing them very well (who knows, maybe they’ve sold all that stuff already and still have problems) but $55,000 a year, seems like to me they should be able to find 2 cents to rub together to buy some peanut butter, jelly and some Wonderbread. Perhaps some people in those food pantry lines could use some basic budgeting lessons.
I wonder if they ever thought that maybe they are living in the wrong place. If it is one of the wealthiest counties, the cost of living may be well out of range of a family earning only $55k.
LOL, maybe you SHOULD be embarrassed, “Ms.” Bradley?!
What this article doesn’t disclose is what kind of home they purchased for themselves on a $55K salary. Based on where they live, probably a half-million-dollar house (actually worth about $200k) that gobbles up more than 50% of their pay. Probably signed a mortgage deal they could never reasonably afford. Now they can’t afford to eat and the ecomony is at fault, not withstanding there was no job loss here? I am not sure I get it.
Upscale suburbs? Americans have become such wussies. Sure, things are tough now but this is nothing like what I have heard described by the old-timers about the Great Depression. It seems like this Administration and a majority of this country are intent on being, “depressed.” Perhaps, as part of the stimulus package, Zero should run PSA’s on how to grow your own food, snare a rabbit or even inform all citizens of the low price of a bag of beans and a sack of taters.
If you build it, they will come...
From the ‘trappings’ these ‘customers’ were displaying, they’re really not at the bottom of the barrel quite yet...
That Vera Bradley bag would bring about $50 on eBay. You can buy a lot of whole wheat pasta for $50. ;)
Just one more reason to get the local Freepers together in chapters. If things get really, REALLY bad, we may have to form our own underground railroad type of thing just to survive. Now, I don’t truly believe we’ll get there... but it is something to think about.
Hope is on the way! There will be millions of “green jobs” in about 36 years.
From the comment section
Here’s an Obama voter who looks at the bright side of life:
“Perhaps it might be a blessing in disguise if people in this country go without a few meals. After all, we have an obesity epidemic from non-stop eating. this is causing high rates of obesity-related diseases and conditions. the result is stress on our healthcare system and on the economy as a whole. hopefully, people who might feel sorry for these folks and donate food to them will think twice and realize it’s best for everyone if these people forgo a few meals. they shouldn’t starve, no way, but no one ever died from skipping lunch. also, obesity tends to be greater among the poor, so it is especially necessary for them to eat less.”
— Bruce Goldensteinberg, NY
This is why I don't give to food banks, only where I know the people that are really hard up get fed.
Bingo!
The private welfare system depends on people being honorable enough to resort to it only after all other options are exhausted. Nowadays the whole concept of shame is going out the window. Now it’s an attitude that “if people are giving things away, why shouldn’t we take advantage of it?”. Recently an article in the Readers’ Digest was about an affluent family who decided to try an experiment to see how cheaply they could live. It included, IIRC, going to a soup kitchen and dining on samples given out at stores. Never mind they could afford anything they needed or even just wanted, they were proud of taking advantage of freebies.
I guess I am a hardhearted person. I believe that the last option should be to take freebies. At least during the Depression, folks down on their luck offered to do some service for a sandwich or bowl of soup. I won’t give to intersection panhandlers for just that reason. If they came to my home and offered to, say, mow my lawn for me, I would pay them $10 or more, maybe even if I didn’t accept their offer. With their hand out, sprinting among the cars at the light, I won’t fork over a dime and I know they disdain offers of food. If you are bodily able to do something to earn your keep, I believe you should do so or at least offer to do so. (Rant off)
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