Struggling in Isolation
Michael and Anna often feel overwhelmed by their daily
struggle. Many of their neighbors are unemployed,
under-educated, and have lost hope. Their own situation
often feels bleak. Michael is on long-term disability and
Anna’s full-time job at a local discount store rarely carries
their family through the month. More than once, Michael and
Anna have skipped meals so that their two children could eat.
The local food pantry would be helpful, but it’s only open
while Anna is at work and the two bags of groceries last but a
few days. Hoping that there were other options, Anna called
the Food Source Hotline.
Solutions
The Hotline counselor helped Anna apply for SNAP benefits
(food stamps) over the phone, which will bring in an
additional $238 per month for food. Next, she encouraged
Anna to sign up her children for free school meals, which
Anna did not realize she was eligible for, offsetting the
family’s budget an additional $154 per month for the
children’s breakfast and lunch. The counselor also told
Anna that her community offered “market bucks” during the
summer at the local farmers’ market, giving Anna an extra
$10 to spend on fresh produce when she used her SNAP
card at the market.
The Story not told:
Don and Rose, his little sister, are crushed by their daily
struggle. Their mother struggles with drugs. Many of their
neighbors are unemployed, under-educated, and have lost
hope. Their own situation often feels bleak; their father, who
is on long-term disability, left home because of their mother’s
drug problem. Rarely there is food that carries their family
through the month. Mom, called a hot line counselor who
helped her apply for SNAP benefits (food stamps). The $238
per month which she receives for food, she sells to her drug
dealer for drugs; sometimes, Don and Rose would steal the
card and purchase vegetables from the super market before
mom sold the card to the drug dealer. Mom also goes to the
local food pantry once a week and gets two bags of
groceries; but, she give one to another tenant for a 2 or 3
marijuana joints and Rose hides most of the second one for
later during the week. The counselor mom called from the hot
line and with help from a school teacher Don and Rose were
sign up for free school meals; but from lunch until breakfast
the next day, it is a long time.
Because Don and his sister don’t want to enter government
foster care for children, they help themselves. They take
turns checking a trap Don found in the cellar. The foot-hold-
trap is illegal in Massachusetts. Today, Don was lucky and
found a Beaver attached to the end of the cable. The short
cable length stop the beaver from resurfacing after being
captured and the anchored stake held. He learned this
activity from paying attention and helping his grandfather.
Then, Don took the beaver home without any of his
neighbors seeing his catch. He was careful while he skinned
the beaver not to tear the fur and cut the meat, wrap it and
put a few pieces of meat into the apartment refrigerator and
brought the rest to a refrigerator in the wet, dark cellar where
the tenant on the first floor keeps his beer. He never looks in
the freezer behind the brown bag of ice cubes. With the
vegetables Rose purchase from the market and the beaver
meat, Don and Rose made a beaver stew to eat in the
evening and the weekends.