Food Banks are Running Low due to Increased Demand

It’s a great time to donate, I heard my local food bank was running low on supplies so I took over two bags of groceries only to find out the situation was even worse.  What I had brought with me was ALL they had, they were out completely!  So I put out the call on the local radio station to ask folks to give anything they could possibly spare.  Contacted the local farmers next and was able to get donations of potatoes, squash, pears, pintos and navy beans.  Picked apples from my parent’s orchard and took those over they are lovely organic apples that normal go to relatives that come to pick them, deer feed and my Mum’s applesauce.  Looks like the deer might be on their own this year unless they come to pick their own by night.  When I came back with a load of apples, already the situation there was looking better.

Watch for sales, use coupons for maybe things you wouldn’t normally use but are still a good buy, we can all help even if it is giving just a can or two. Grocery items I took with me this time were Kroger canned chunky soup which I found on sale again, rice-white and brown found marked down to 66 cents per bag, vac packed soy, rice and almond milks, lentils, bagged pasta, oatmeal, flour, a few energy bars and canned spaghetti sauce. I pick up one or two extra items a week when I buy groceries, more if I find a good sale and set them aside. When I can fill a few bags I make a drop off, this enables me to help as I can per week and it adds up fast.  I like to think it makes a difference in someone’s life.

Fall is the time of year when I buy a few cases of vienna sausages for the homeless mission downstate where they help street people.  Why canned vienna sausages?  They come in a small pull tab can that can be carried in a pocket, they are rich in protein and fat which helps people keep warm in cold weather, require no heating to prepare and can be easily handed out by outreach workers who seek out those living outdoors in the Detroit area.  Your local dollar store can most likely sell you two cans of them for a buck and they can save lives. See what you can spare.

Got Food?

A new USDA survey has found that more than 17 million U.S. households had at least some trouble putting food on the table in 2010. Those 17 million homes account for nearly 50 million people, or more than 16 percent of the American population. Of the millions of households struggling to get enough to eat, almost 60 percent relied on one or more of the nation’s three largest nutritional assistance programs: food stamps, the National School Lunch Program, or the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children.

Also worth noting: the USDA study omitted homeless families from its statistics, meaning that there are actually countless other hungry Americans we don’t even know about.

If that wasn’t sad enough…

Unless something gives, people who rely on the Salvation Army food pantry may only be able to get food every two months.

Muskegon Michigan Salvation Army Capt. Dan Sawka said requests for food assistance have more than doubled compared to last year. The pantry now allows a recipient to get a week’s worth of food every 30 days, he said.

From October 2010 to August 2011, the Salvation Army pantry has fielded 2,730 requests for food, Sawka said. In the previous fiscal year, it saw 1,389 cases.
Of this year’s cases, about 600 were people or families who had never needed food assistance before. That’s an 85 percent increase from last year’s first-time users, Sawka said.

Working people dying from lack of Dental care.  http://abcnews.go.com/Health/insurance-24-year-dies-toothache/story?id=14438171

With the need for assistance even higher for the unemployed and working poor…Michigan Republican Governor Rick Snyder slashes aid for these people so he can give more tax cuts to big business and the rich.  http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/08/31/309214/snyder-tanf-corporate-taxes/

Are we letting America slip to the equal of the third-world nations?  It’s shameful that all this is going on.