Our food pantry ran out

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ancona

Praying Mantis
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Well, the wife has a sort of phobia about dates on food cans, insisting that she understands the food can be good for years after the expiration, but that as long as we can “afford” to replace the food, we need to rotate it out. So, two or three times a year, I go through the pantry and sift out a dozen or so cases of cans, several cases of boxed dry goods, bags of beans etc., then we go to either the women’s center [for abused women and their kids to get away] or the food pantry.

Well, my wife knows a lot of the staff at the food pantry and got a call from one of them the other day. The lady was in tears because they had actually run out of food, and she was turning away families with children because they had nothing to give them. Well the wife decided we needed to rotate early and had me load up a small truckload of goods to take them. Now, I don’t begrudge the donation mind you, but at first I was a little miffed about them calling and asking for our food. Several of them are preppers that I know from the neighborhood, so they knew we probably had some stuff we would give them, and it sort of hit me the wrong way, like my secret wasn’t so secret.

Anyway, we loaded up and went to the pantry. When we got there, we drove in from the service side and around to the loading dock. I helped them load the food on to three wheeled floats and in to the distribution area. Normally, we would have unloaded it and it would have been pretty carefully inspected first, but this time they simply asked me how the food had been stored and were we sure it was all good for consumption. We rolled the floats up front through the empty warehouse and right to the food line. There had to be thirty or forty people waiting, all of them with a slightly desperate look on their face, and none of them smiling.

We popped the cases up on the counter and began “making bags” of starches, proteins and sugars. I included twelve boxes of little Debbie snack cakes so there was a little bit of sweets in the bags as well. Each person was given one bag containing about a three day supply of stuff for about three people. We managed to give everyone a bag, but when we finished, they were back to running on empty.

I asked the operation manager what was going on, and why don’t they have any food. I always assumed that the grocery stores donated regularly to them and they got grants and such, but was told otherwise. They told me that there were two large food drives each year, and that the last two years it had gotten smaller and smaller, almost exactly inverse to our unemployment growth. She informed me that the only store to donate to them was Winn Dixie, and they ahd reduced their donations by half. To top it all off, some fucktard on the county commission got a requirement pushed through to treat this charity the same as a grocery store as regards licenses and inspections. Imagine that, some government bureaucrat standing in the way of something good,, just because he/she has the power to be a total asshole. As a side-note, this motherfucker just made the post-SHTF list of son-of-a-bitches that need disappearing.

Anyway, we left a little cash donation and I let them know I would put out the word that they need help and donations, as that is all I can really do.
Folks, I started out this day with a little bit of attitude because someone presumed I would simply give up my food because I had “plenty”, and ended it by feeling a little scared of what seems to be creeping up on us slowly but surely. Our unemployment rate is steadily climbing in my area and a lot of folks are running out of options. All it will take is one black swan to land on the bow of this sinking ship to push the whole ship under water.

I fully intend to double down on my food preps and load up on 5 gallon super-pails of wheat, rice, oats and beans. We are all one outside-the-lines event from financial Armageddon, and when the balloon goes up, and ATM’s no longer give anything out, and when the credit system seizes up, food will be the new currency. I see people shuffling through life, a five day supply of food in the pantry and a paycheck away from homelessness. I see businesses closing down everywhere I look and the lines at the Blake Avenue Government office getting longer and longer. It has been a long time since I have gone all the way through the grocery line at Winn Dixie without someone using an EBT [SNAP] card, and the rolls of people using them only grows larger.

Folks, I know I write a lot of doom stuff, but I assure you I simply observe things in the world surrounding me and do the math. It is clear to be that the financial Masters of the Universe have fucked it all up and they have leveraged the entire system so far out that it will take little more than a butterfly flapping its wings to bring it all down. If you haven’t finished your preps, I suggest that you do so now.

Sorry about the doom.
 
BTW- there is alot that goes into running a food bank.

Jenny did so for a few years.. so I got to hear all about it.

1. it is highly unusual that someone would be called

2. there are regs- mostly that the food may not touch the floor.

3. some states have eased their laws for this type of thing.

4. no matter what she did- someone was not happy. ...and she was 100% volunteer.- and in unpaid.
 
Sounds like the squeeze is on. The economy is constricting and the demand for assistance is growing.

Bless you for donating and helping people out. But I suspect your "tingling Spidey-sense" about being a known prepper is well founded.

 
Bug, it is what I fear most. Even though I probably out-gun the whole fucking neighborhood, I have to sleep sometime.

Still, we are a group of 12 highly motivated, heavily armed preppers. Between us we have over twelve thousand s.f. of garden, several of us have shickens and I have two breeding pair of ducks for meat birds. Our plan is to create a core area that is well patrolled and safe to walk about in with no fear. We have about ten acres of area altogether if we run out the three losers on our street, and a natural barrier on one end with an electrical corridor, fenced right-of-way to the north. We have to patrol the south exposure more than any other approach. We figure to hold out in place. I think reevolt will die down quickly as hunger sets in. When that happens, it will be the most dangerous time.
 
fk me Ancona

brings it home when you describe the food drop and the misery in that queue ..........

And good that you do what you do, it might balance your karma for all those potentially negative things you might do when TSHTF :judge:

Was going to try and tackle my organic farm neighbour today to see how quickly we could ramp up production of things to keep people alive and what resources and lead time to reckon ..... no piont in too much slow growing stuff as peeps would starve waiting, so poly tunnels full of beansprouts ?

instead i got involved with plumbing trauma as the water heater in his rayburn decided to leak.

will try him another time
 
...food banks are typically once a week or even once a month. I doubt he seen walk ins all at once. The expressions most likely from waiting a long time.
 
No Cliff, the expressions are from being in a position of total exposure. These folks are starving and broke. Their unemployment benefits have run out, the bank is hounding them for their mortgages and they have zero income. They are looks of desperation. Many of the people we helped are skinny as a rail. This ain't their first rodeo at the food bank line and none of them are proud of it. I live in a particularly white-bread area, yet folks are going fucking hungry and don't like it. It is desperation and it is m,aking them frightened. We are the last thing standing between them and losing their kids, homes, everything.
 
...I will tell you how the food bank works in my town. We dont have one. There is however one place- that has stale bread and baked, they put on a shelf- first come - first serve, only 1 bag allowed.

Across the river it is once a month...if you miss that day-too bad.
 
Yeah Cliff, it is the same here. The pantry is open four days a month.......if they have food. I did get a return call this afternoon from the manager of Publix, a huge food retailer in the Southgeast, and thry have a thousand pound doantion for next week. That represents around two weeks supply. I did my lefvel best to make these guys realize how important their donation was, and I agreed to use "Publix" grocery bags to package the donations and put up some Publix advertising at the pantry. Of course, I didn't bother to ask the manager of the pantry, but I suspect whatever I agree to is acceptable to them.
 
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Great job to anyone involved in food charity - Ancona, hats off to you!

Speaking of fucking goverments getting into way of people doing good stuff... check this story - actually true...

There was one guy back in Poland, in the great city of Wroclaw (Breslau in German, often known by this name in the west). He was an owner of a small bakery. Kind of the small family-run businesses, that we still have some around. He was running his "bread-on-wheels" kind of charity - namely, whatever came back from shops not sold, or whatever overproduction he had that day - he was driving around the town (burning his own fuel, in his own spare time), and helping families in distress, donating all this bread to them. Sometimes he threw something else in as well - he was setting an example, so other business owners sometimes helped him. For some people, that was their only meal that day. You might guess, he was blessed and loved by many.

Comes tax office. Some dickheads have decided, that all these donations are due the SALE TAX!!!!! (VAT, to be precise). They have counted backwards so many months/years, and asked him to pay this whole shitload of money to the taxman. The story went on for months, him trying to appeal that payment, going to the press, trying everything - but these fucking bastards didn't bulge. The outcome - he had to SELL HIS SHOP, to pay these fecking psychopaths - and for what, for doing good to people in distress?!?!?! HE was very strong person - when I was watching this documentary, I was nearly in tears, from sadness, and anger - but he was well composed. God bless him.

How one sane and concise person can not HATE the retarded psychopaths, whose job is to "govern" (and long gone the days they were "serving" the people)?
 
No Cliff, the expressions are from being in a position of total exposure. These folks are starving and broke. Their unemployment benefits have run out, the bank is hounding them for their mortgages and they have zero income. They are looks of desperation. Many of the people we helped are skinny as a rail. This ain't their first rodeo at the food bank line and none of them are proud of it. I live in a particularly white-bread area, yet folks are going fucking hungry and don't like it. It is desperation and it is m,aking them frightened. We are the last thing standing between them and losing their kids, homes, everything.

This illustrates the two problems at hand. One, you want to help those in need and hungry. Two, you do not want others seeing you as a possible food source to raid.

If things really got bad, the very people you help today could be part of the horde looking to take your food tommorrow.

Perhaps, continue to try to elicit food from supermarkets, but do any personal food donations in secret?
 
It's not as if the folks at the bread line know I am the donor, as the pantry affords complete anonymity, rather it is the pantry folks themselves. Perhaps I could anounce that the food I ma bringing is from a local retailer who wishes to remain anonymous. A little white lie to protect me and mine.
I think my Lord would forgive that one.
 
There are no secrets in small towns- the neighbors know more about you then you do.
 
Thanks for the reminder, ancona. I'll go check our community action and see how they are faring real soon. There was a time during my initial homesteading when they helped me out (had no job and no money at the time) - it just might be time to give something back.

As Penn says, there are few secrets in a small town. So what? Nearly all of them are "on my side" anyway. No harm in helping my neighbors and friends at all.
 
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