Our community has this great set up where food rarely goes to waste. There is a lady that somehow gets "old" bread from either the stores or the delivery people and then she shares it with whomever shows up at a local church parking lot once a week. There is another program that collects all the "expired" items from the grocery stores and distributes them at another local church. This program is a collaboration between the Food Bank and the church. They have lots and lots of produce that is too old or slimy to sell, but not too old or slimy that it humans can't consume it. They have expired dairy products and off brand canned goods that didn't sell. Anything that doesn't get taken by people gets put into a special "farm animal" container for people who like to supplement their animal feed. I also know that a grocery store in the harbor will give you their bruised produce if you say you are feeding it to an animal. I've gotten huge boxes of ugly-not bad-fruits and vegetables that I've fed to my human animals. We also have this great co-op that gets local farmers together to sell their produce. But it isn't a farmer's market. It's better. I don't go to these food events very often because it usually isn't convenient. But yesterday I happened to drive by right when the Food Bank/expired food distribution was happening and just minutes after I realized I forgot to feed my kids lunch before heading out to the grocery store. I knew that they often had old deli sandwiches, so I decided to stop.
I left IJ in charge of E, F, and D (who was sleeping) in the van and took S inside with me. I was surprised to see a hot meal being served to anyone and was offered some split pea soup. I asked if it was okay that S take some sandwiches out to the van where my other kids were waiting and of course it was. There weren't many people there and they were happy to see that their food was being eaten. S piled a plate with four sandwiches, carried it out to the van, came back in and got two more for himself, plus a pile of cookies. We sat at a table to eat and waited for the food distribution to start. A nice man representing the food bank was making the rounds, shaking hands with people and saying hello. He got to S. Now picture S: I had asked him to change his clothes before we left the house, but he forgot and I didn't inspect him. He was wearing ripped sweat pants, mismatched socks, ratty shoes, and had a smudge of dirt on his cheek. S looked up at this man with his big blue eyes and said,
"I'm always hungry. I never get enough to eat."
Can you imagine? I think that might be the most embarrassing thing my children have ever done to me. Tell a food bank representative (who is probably also a social worker) that he never gets enough to eat??? Looking like a beggar child in rags? Making me look like I have an empty pantry and no money? The terrible thing is that he spoke the truth... about being hungry. He IS always hungry. He is growing like crazy and can't even go an hour without eating something. Which was why we were going grocery shopping! We were out of easy things for growing kids to eat. After wrestling, he eats until I send him to bed! I say, "You can eat in the morning! GO TO BED!"
They sent me home with a bunch of tasty food (organic salad mixes, organic grapefruit, day-old artisan breads, expired greek yogurt, wrinkly cucumbers, pale broccoli, kimchi, hummus, expired spaghetti, etc), two bags of diapers, and a bag of brand new socks. They also told me to come back every Wednesday so I can participate in the Backpacks 4 Kids program (a program that sends backpacks of food home with school kids over the weekend because their parents don't feed them), because although I homeschool, I can still get free food for my children. I tried to tell them that I didn't need to participate-in fact, I donate to the program, three times just last month! I finally made it out of there and headed out to our friend's house to celebrate a birthday (bringing cake that had damaged frosting).
Today I happened to be driving by the church during free bread hour and came home with enough bread to cover my entire couch. M counted 20 loaves of bread in addition to bags of buns, bagels, and english muffins. What is going on in the stores that makes it so this much food isn't sold? Are the prices too high? Do they overstock? And if there is so much shortage at the Food Bank and B4K, why wasn't anyone there getting food? Why were they so excited to send me home with food without asking me how much money we make (we are obviously facing huge expenses next week when the new septic system goes in, but that's next week-we have money now)? Whatever it is, my new motto is...Eat For Free on the KP!
