This is what I came home with.
l loaf bread
1 box crackers
2 lb pasta
2 lb rice
2 lbs dried pinto beans
2 cans pinto beans
2 cans corn
2 cans green beans
2 cans condensed tomato soup
2 jars pasta sauce
2 cans mixed fruit
2 cans peaches
1 qt box 2% milk
1 can evaporated milk
1 box fiber bars
1 jar peanut butter
4 slices processed cheese food
1/2 dozen eggs
1 lb chicken tenders
glazed marble cream cake
As with the food I got at at the CSFP, a lot of this is stuff I wouldn't ordinarily buy. In fact, some of this I'm not even gonna act like I'm gonna try to use, because I'm not! I'll be giving away the canned corn, canned green beans, condensed tomato soup, and processed cheese food, for starters. Most of the rest of this I will make an effort to do something with.
What else did I get? Well, like I said, depressed. Really. This food bank was scheduled to be open from 4 to 6 pm today, so I planned to get there by 3:30, anticipating I'd have to wait, but willing to do so in order to be among the first few people to be served. I also thought that with the cool temperatures and rain and it not being the end of the month yet, there wouldn't be a lot of people there today. Wrong.
I arrived 30 minutes before their scheduled opening time, and there were already people from 16 households in line in the cold rain ahead of me. Women. Children. Men. Mostly white, but some black, a couple were Latino. Young (some babes in arms) and old, quite a few I'm sure were considerably older than me. There were a lot more than 16 people in line, but they were from 16 different households and that's how numbers were given out when they finally opened the doors 35 minutes later. I was number 17.
Another woman who arrived when I did struck up a conversation with me and we both noted that we were surprised so many people were there today. We agreed that you probably really needed to get free food if you were willing to go through this in order to get what you actually get at the end of the process.
What else? The worst part, for me, was being able to hear snippets of others' conversations as they waited. Sad, sad stories. Children bored to death, acting like children are supposed to, being hollered at and hit by frustrated adults who don't know what else to do with them when they do. Some moms clucking that "my child wouldn't have to be told twice" to mind, chiding the mom who tried to be patient with her 4 year old who had more energy than the rest of us combined. This, her 4 year old son. He who now lives with her and her husband in a motel room near by. Because they lost their trailer home a few weeks ago. But, they're optimistic. If they can just come up with the $260 every week between now and when her husband gets his tax refund next year, they'll have a home in the motel. It's hard on a four year old to be cooped up like that...she says she knows. So she takes him out for three hours every afternoon to let him blow off steam. Today it's at the food bank. Tonight, a little before midnight, she'll be at the bus station to pick up her 18 year old 3-months pregnant cousin. Because she doesn't have anywhere to go. She'll stay in the motel room with the 4 year old and his parents. Damn.
Oh, crap. There's so much more. I don't want to deal with it. I don't want to know. I know I have a hard time, but I also know I have so much more than do so many. And I don't have crazy chaos in my life. I should be grateful, not pissed and upset.
I'll probably end up writing more about this later. I want to write something about the barriers to good nutrition anyway, so this will just push me to do it. Will write more later, too, about Second Harvest processes in general and how to access.
