I wasn't sure I wanted to weigh in on this conversation, but I think I
will. I have been the director of a food pantry for 18 years. Because
we are given government surplus food, we must follow the government
guidelines for eligibility.

These are the income eligibility limits ( in NH) :

family of one = $19,240
two = $25,900
five = $45,880
eight = $65,860

If someone comes in with a gross household income under these amounts
they are automatically qualified.

There are many other aids to the needy besides welfare. I have had very
few clients who were actually on state funded welfare. I've had a few
on town funded welfare. In my town if you are able to work, and you
have received help from the town, they put you to work at the library,
or town dump/recycling center, etc to pay back the money.

The majority of my clients now are 70+ year old widows. It's
heartbreaking sometimes when a new client comes in crying because she is
so ashamed to have to ask for help. Their husbands served their country
in WW2, they paid their taxes, raised families, worked their butts off
their whole lives, and now that they are retired, many are widows living
in government subsidized housing, getting their food from a food pantry.
They can barely afford their medicines/healthcare.

I also see a lot of illiteracy as a reason for public assistance. I
have a client who is receiving disability, is almost illiterate, and at
45 years old is now raising her 2 teenaged nephews, one of whom now has
a newborn, on $8,000 a year.

We have a few "traditional" families (mom & dad + kids) who have no real
education beyond high school and no particular job skills who go from
job to job to job. When you are the low man on the totem pole, you're
usually the first one layed off in a downsizing, so you get another job,
where, again, you are low man on the totem pole, get layed off again,
and it just goes on forever. They never seem able to get ahead.

We have had our share of drug/alcohol problem families too, but they
don't seem able to hang around very long to receive aid, because NH is a
very expensive place to live.

I agree that some families just seem to pass down the tendency to depend
on public assistance. Some truly are deserving, some aren't. There's
always an element who seem to think they are entitled, but they are the
exception, thank God. At least in my experience.

I sometimes wish we could pass out birth control, but that's not my
role.

Some of my clients have been with me for the entire 18 years, coming in
every other week for food. There's a segment of society who will never
have a better way of life. Social Security and disability checks don't
keep up with inflation, the price of gas is depleting any little extra
they might have had left over. Many of my seniors live in the same
subsidized complex and are now carpooling to the food pantry, and those
who are able, are so eager to help me whenever I need help sorting a
canned goods drive. A few even have worked with me on a weekly basis.
I could never get one of the young clients to help out. It just shows
how the older generation still feels that you MUST work for your
rewards.

I guess my reason for writing is to let you know that some of us are
really trying to sort out and help the truly needy. I realize that this
is not the same as huge cities dealing with massive welfare problems,
but on a smaller scale, it's some of the same types of people. Some
you'd like to kick in the butt, most you'd give the shirt off your back
to.

Please support your local food pantries, sometimes a little extra help
in a time of crises is all that's needed to help someone through the
toughest time in their lives.

Don't get me started on the woman who rolled in in a Lincoln Towncar,
waved a W-2 form with an income of over $80,000, for a 2 person family,
and almost punched me out, when I informed her that $80,000 was way over
the income limit. She insisted that no one could possibly be expected
to survive on $80,000 a year, because, after all, that was before taxes.
She stormed out fuming when I told her that most of our clients made
less than $20,000 a year, before taxes, and had 3 or 4 kids.

It takes all kinds.

Denise