Food Pantry Recipient

“Small children like my son are a little picky about what they eat, and when he sees what his father and I are eating he wants what we eat.  So if I can get my hands on fresh fruit, fresh produce, things like that you know, even the canned fruits and stuff, I can have that and then he gets it.  I don’t have to go and get (and I can’t afford) those little jars of baby food and it’s so much better to give him fresh food.  So it means a lot to me to have that, and give him stuff that’s fresh.

Right now I am in school, I am not working.  I am looking for work and you know, trying to get an education, so this helps us with the finances being what they are.  This helps us get by, with me in school and the amount of benefits you get, you know, and rent has doubled.  I moved away from this area and came back and rent has tripled in some cases.  If I didn’t have the food pantry and had to take money away, I would be facing eviction – that’s the difference between paying my electric bill and buying food.  We need both.

But if I didn’t have these kinds of places around, I don’t know what I would do.  We are on our own.  I don’t have brothers and sisters, I am an only child.  A lot of people say “lean to your family”.  Places like this are what a big family would be doing.  Both my parents work.  They struggle themselves.  So if I didn’t have these places I would be up the creek!

I am thankful for it.  For me, I was just being a Mommy and facing the problem and now that he is old enough, he can go to Day Care.  And with other assistance that is available I am attending college now, so I am back in school, learning how to cook food like this.  Gotta do it though, you know? I mean for my little guy.  So without doing that, I’d have to work at a Burger King and that wouldn’t pay the right kind of money, so I am trying to get a better education and get a better job.  So hopefully, one day, I won’t need places like this.

But for now, I do.”

-Kara