Food bank visits go up in affluent American suburb

UPI ^ | December 19 | Chandrani Ray

[myknowledge]

As a national recession wears on, more middle-class people are asking for food, even in places like affluent Montgomery County, Md.

About 24,000 families have been added to the rolls of Manna Food Center in Rockville, Md., in the last year and a half, said Kim Damion, director of development and communication. Close to 400 families picked up food boxes on Thanksgiving Day this year, more than any other year since the center opened in 1983, Damion said. Manna gave food to 1,600 families on Thanksgiving week.

Nationally, 49 million Americans are at risk of not getting enough to eat every day, Feeding America, a national non-profit group dedicated to fighting hunger, says.

People like Amy Wilkinson, used to donate food regularly to Manna Food Center. These days, Wilkinson, a cancer patient, is standing in line to get her monthly food ration.

[myknowledge]

Revelation 6:

5 And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.

6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.

8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.

[Swordmaker]

I could of told you all this last year, way before the election. I am a founder of a Food Bank and ran one for 15 years... and still keep the books for one. We started seeing middle income people trying to keep their homes two years ago when the subprime mortgages started to come home to roost. I was warning people here in Central California (Stockton) that the housing prices were not sustainable for the past five years. I was talking to people who did not understand the mortgages they were paying, did not understand how they could be paying $2000 a month and have their balances go up by $2200 every month!

The numbers we were seeing doubled in the past two years... before the crisis hit.

[Osage Orange]

You should run for office...

[backhoe]

Ahh, Ø-BaNomics!

Is there anything it can't do?

[fatnotlazy]

Charities such as food banks and the Salvation Army have all seen the need rise, while the donations have fallen. You never know when some personal misfortune will strike, forcing you to seek help from those charities. So if you can give something now, do so.

[Swordmaker]

You should run for office...

I'm a conservative... would never get elected...

[Vaduz]

Looks like this summer people will rip up the water wasting lawn and grow a garden and learn how to can food.

[exnavy]

"...wars, and rumors of wars..."

There are many signs of the end times, remember to leave the timing to God, do not stop doing good.

[Osage Orange]

Interesting....

Thanks-

[Osage Orange]

Oh,,forgot to say noted, recorded, and memorized...

There I got it.

With goofy ty[ping errors....

[Viking2002]

I lived in that vapid and pretentious rathole known as Montgomery County for 12 years. This is nothing more than their self-serving, myopic, superficial chickens coming home to roost, and I watched the Godless ooze slowly creep outward from D.C. every day, knowing beforehand that this was just another pre-written chapter in it's downfall. Make no mistake: these vermin deserve no pity, no deference, and no assistance. They should only be left to wallow in the Hell of their own making.

[myknowledge]

So how did they get themselves to reach their grubby arms out for help, from the rest of the public? Not everyone at Rockville, MD is self-serving.

People from hundreds, let along thousands of towns in almost every state in the CONUS, do not have enough food to put on the table, and in some cases, being malnourished.

It's becoming more like a third world country. Distribution of the food is one of the problems that have to be rectified.

[Viking2002]

Re-read my post and put it perspective. I'm not required to do it for you. Unless you co-existed with that ilk in that environment for that length of time, you either simply accept the analysis as a matter of faith, or refrain from rebuttal. I have neither the time nor the patience to expound upon the mindset of the elitists who brought down upon their own heads the very thing that they were ostensibly so uniquely qualified to eliminate. Montgomery County, Maryland, was a foreshadowed microcosm of the Obama Administration, twenty years before Obama arrived to destroy The Republic.

[familyop]

"We started seeing middle income people trying to keep their homes two years ago when the subprime mortgages started to come home to roost."

Two years ago, yes. During the first few days of December, 2007, there was a general lock against new hires in most of the larger corporations. The layoffs were ordered each quarter after that. During the few months before that December, there were many sponsored, published opinions that oil prices and foreign product prices would go way down.

...sound strange? Remember the derivatives schemes, especially those involving AIG. And see "vigilantes" in the following.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20602081&sid=anOX_3UrfTVk

[gr8eman]

I was talking to people who did not understand the mortgages they were paying...

How does a person not understand the single most important investment in their life?

[kickonly88]

I agree! While there are a lot of people with a real need a lot of these people are only there for the “free” food. There are thousands of people who scam the system and I’m sure a lot of these are no exception.

[pnh102]

Lemme guess, this too is “unexpected.”

[Swordmaker]

How does a person not understand the single most important investment in their life?

Many of them had never had one before... and they were lied to and about to get it. And didn't read what they were signing... and couldn't understand it if they did read it. Some signed papers that said they were making $7K a month to qualify when they were pulling in $2.5K-$3K to buy $600K houses on flex loans that had teaser monthly payments of $1500 a month but that would balloon up to $5000-$6000 in 5 years to reflect their actual rates... while the balance of the monthly payment that wasn't being made was being added to the overall amount owed. The chimera theory being that the owner's equity would climb faster than the his growing mortgage balance and the poor owner could bail out by selling at a profit to pay off the mortgage before the ballooning payment deadline and buy an even more expensive suburban mansion... when CRASH went the market... and the whole thing fell down like a housing market of cards.

[AussieJoe]

“Looks like this summer people will rip up the water wasting lawn and grow a garden and learn how to can food.”

I’ve been doing this for years, not out of necessity but to keep alive the knowledge passed on to me from my grandparents (and I enjoy it). You never know what life will throw at you.