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Omelet[_7_]

In article >,
(Denise in NH) wrote:

> 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

Thanks for the perspective...
--
Peace! Om

"If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed." --Mark Twain