Comments on: Putting Food on the Table When You Can’t Make Ends Meet

By: JuliB

JuliB — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 01:16:49 +0000

I’m with Susanne… I would donate a cash card too.

Also – if there’s a local Catholic Church nearby, many have food pantries they run right from the Church. I’m put away the food donations at mine, and we turn no one away. In addition, our deacon will give some ‘manna’ cards that can be used at local grocery stores. There’s no restriction on what can be purchased – so it’s good for toiletries, etc.

Also – he might want to check out modestneeds.org.

By: kaukale

kaukale — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 04:23:00 +0000

Trent, you keep me coming back to your writing because of the range of not only your knowledge but your wisdom & compassion. I think that’s awesome esp. in a young person.
Keep up the great job!

By: Susanne

Susanne — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 19:00:36 +0000

It’s not much, but we’d be happy to send Tony a cash card for his local grocery store. Feel free to contact me via e-mail. It’s important to share when you can and ask for help when you need it. Most of us are going to face hard times at some point.

By: Louise

Louise — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 20:46:52 +0000

Your final paragraph in this post is excellent – very encouraging and I salute you for it!

By: Erin

Erin — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 02:12:44 +0000

Thanks for such an immediate reply to an immediate need.

By: Allison

Allison — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 19:11:52 +0000

@Marie –
Knocking on doors might be a waste of time, depending on where Tony lives. If I am home alone, (mom of small kids)I absolutely don’t answer my door. When the hubby is home, we don’t “hire” anybody who knocks — we’ve been ripped off way too many times. If someone comes knocking on our door, they get a bottle of water and an apple. But, as posted by many, there are lots of community resources without knocking on strangers doors. From Tony’s end, you don’t know who’s on the inside of that door, either. Instead of knocking on doors, go for the networking style. Tell all your friends you need any kind of work to bring in money quick and ask them to tell THEIR friends. Good luck. Been there, too.

By: Nicole H.

Nicole H. — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 18:06:56 +0000

If you’re in general good health you may want to consider donating blood plasma if donation is available in your area and you qualify. Usually that will net you $20-$30 right away and that will help your immediate problem of buying food.

By: littlepitcher

littlepitcher — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 15:24:50 +0000

@Anne and Marie–Attay’all! I would have left off the apples and purchased milk for the child. Taters have plenty of vitamin C, but kids need calcium for the bones. I might note that 3 lbs of pintos will last a week, if you stretch it with cornbread, but not otherwise.
I have, literally, walked into a flea market at 6AM and offered to help unload produce trucks in exchange for veggies.
Trent has published a book on unconventional ways to earn money. Perhaps Tony’s library has it.

By: Marie

Marie — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 14:44:16 +0000

Perhaps I should clarify – legal and legitimate work. Knock on doors, see if anyone needs help cleaning, moving stuff, walking dogs, etc. With spring coming, people are going to need help clearing the debris from their yards, plowing gardens, etc.

Look on Freecycle.org. I recently posted several metal items out to be given away and a young man who was out of work came by to get them to sell. Or post what you are looking for on Freecycle or Craigs list – metals, etc.

There are a lot of unconvential but legal ways to make extra cash.

By: Marie

Marie — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 14:38:04 +0000

He should also check any “day-labor” places nearby. We have several in our city. My husband & I have used their workers on several occasions when we needed assistance around the house. If a worker is sent on a job, they get paid for a minimum of four hours and get paid in cash each day. Not the ritz, but a way to make money. If I were in that situation, rather than sitting around trying to figure out how to get a hand-out, I’d be out looking for ANY kind of work – no matter how menial or low pay.

By: Evangeline

Evangeline — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 14:26:46 +0000

Okay, let’s give the pronoun police a rest and look at the problem at hand. You have very little money, a small, hungry child and you are overwhelmed, scared—and in charge. What do you do first? Well, you have to feed everyone. Nothing gets solved on an empty stomach. #9 Anne got it just right, as so many others did. Think protein (eggs, beans, peanut butter), fresh foods with a decent shelf life (carrots, apples), multi-purpose (all the above) and items you will actually eat. Once everyone is fed and there’s enough food for tomorrow, people like Tony can work on the excellent ideas everyone posted. I have been there, done that and you would be surprised at what you can achieve when you are faced with this kind of problem.

By: Monica

Monica — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 14:19:35 +0000

Wal-Mart has their Great Value brand mac-n-cheese for about $0.39 box.

Also, pasta is inexpensive and a large can of Hunt’s spaghetti sauce will run you less than a dollar. A box of pasta and a thing of sauce will last two people for several days.

A dozen eggs, a thing of tortillas and some American cheese can be turned into quite a few filling burritos.

Are there any day-old bakeries in your area that you would have access to? That’s a great way to get bread cheap, and you can store it in the freezer to keep it fresh.

Not sure of your religion, but the season of Lenten fish fries has begun. Perhaps a local Catholic church would provide dinner to you and your child in exchange for helping to set up or clean up.

By: Jen

Jen — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 14:14:13 +0000

#2 – Who cares what his situation is? I am sure there is more to the story, most people who can’t afford to feed their families have lots of other problems. Maybe he is an ex-felon who has a hard time getting regular employment? Maybe he is here illegally? Who knows, really? It sounds to me though like he just has an immediate concern that he needs to feed his family and is looking for suggestions. My heart goes out to him, it is not easy and bad times can happen to anyone. I pray he has some success applying for benefits and eventually getting work.

By: Connie

Connie — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 13:30:50 +0000

An observation on the pronoun debate–While in undergrad all my professors taught us to use gender neutral or masculine pronouns where gender was unknown, since I’ve started law school I’ve noticed ALL of my professors and textbooks either use feminine pronouns for unknown gender or they alternate using both masculine and feminine. This includes professors who are in their sixties or seventies and male. At first I found it rather jarring, but I’ve since come to like it. If a profession as conservative as the law can make the switch away from all-masculine pronoun use, everyday speech should be able to do so as well.

By: Amy

Amy — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 11:51:20 +0000

For anyone in this situation, I would definitely advise calling your local Social Services office first as they will have a list of resources available, even if they can’t help directly or immediately. While I agree that most churches won’t hand anyone money, many churches do offer free meals– to anyone who walks in the door (no questions/few questions asked) and may also offer food pantry items. At least this is true of my neighborhood church — they do a free meal at least once a month for anyone who walks in & give them a bag of groceries to take home. Salvation Army also offers a number of services.

By: deRuiter

deRuiter — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 11:26:10 +0000

Dumpster diving behind the local Oriental green grocer in our area is a good place to get free food in exchange for very little effort. I was collecting packing boxes (apple crates are really strong, the two piece ones with cutouts for handles at the ends) and came upon one filled to the top with huge, beautiful red apples, each with some sort of blemish or bad spot. You can bet I took them home, cut them up for pie, applesauce, and regular eating. The peels and cores went to the horses and chickens. Same experience with same market and a case of magnificent huge red peppers, most of which are sitting, cut up in small slices, in the freezer in bags, sme went into a stir fry the night I found them. These scraps leftover only went to chickens. Americans throw out an enormous amount of useable food because of tiny flaws. It may not be salable, but it’s edible. Look up “freegan”, “freeganism”, “thrifty lifestyle” and dumpster diving” with google. Eat for free. The fish department at the chain grocery or the local fish market will give me fish heads which can be boiled for the bit of meat on the cheeks and the fish broth, instead of throwing them in the trash. By the way, I now pick up the boxes of bruised apples which the market culls when they are putting out apples. The market owner is happy because he doesn’t have to pay to have them hauled away by the dumpster company. I buy my produce there so he makes money from my purchases, I’m a regular customer.

By: Susan

Susan — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 05:16:53 +0000

Check out the site The Prudent Homemaker. She feeds her family of 8 on less than $.70 per day. (She is Mormon – I am not, and have never met her but her blog is neat.)

By: AnnJo

AnnJo — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 03:29:52 +0000

@David, as a badge-carrying member of the grammar police, I contend your Shakespearean example does not support your point since the first line, though it uses the singular ‘man’, is a plural construction referring, through the negative form, to ALL men. It is the equivalent of saying, “All men I meet salute me as if I were their friend.”

But I wouldn’t take you up on your bet.

As for Tony’s problem, why separate the job-search from the search for charitable help? He says he’s been working in maintenance. If that means home repairs and clean-up or the like, why not ask the churches he visits to hook him up with people who need that kind of work done?

By: Debbie M

Debbie M — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 03:29:03 +0000

I’m with Anne – I was about to make almost the exact same recommendations (but not as many and not as well). You could also go on foraging hikes–google foraging or urban foraging. You can almost always at least find some edible greens.

Another strategy is to offer to cook for some friends if they buy the ingredients and let you share, though this would be quite tricky to ask for with most people. Still, lots of people hate to cook, don’t like to cook, or don’t know how to cook and would love to have some home-made food and good company (plus cute 5-year-old company).

By: Bill

Bill — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 02:32:05 +0000

There is a lot of good advice here, short term is the problem #9 Anne had a great response, I could live on that for two weeks.