Look Who’s Standing in Line
By Pat Racimora on March 7, 2009 at 8:26 AM in Economy, Unemployment
A professional woman in her 40s, whose small business has slowed to a bare trickle, whispered during our weekly coffee date that she was now getting most of her groceries from a food bank. She described how it felt to be in public, standing in a long line at a local church, and being grateful for whatever was in the large brown bag that was handed her when she finally reached the front of the long line. She wonders if those of us still able to go into the market any time and choose whatever we want to eat can empathize with having to make do with whatever you have been given.
She tries to paint a happy face on her situation by noting that she is forced to try things she has never eaten before, like a leek or a can of okra. She almost tearfully expresses disbelief that anyone with an advanced degree in counseling who has sustained herself for 22 years without asking anyone for anything could ever get to this place. She remembers being the one who once handed out bags of food to strangers who were down-and-out. She confesses thinking of many of them as irresponsible and lazy. She feels guilty about this now. And shame. She is too proud to take advantage of my offer to help.
And she is a luckier one. Her mortgage is paid off and she doesn’t need any more “stuff.” But her savings are gone and her income is practically zero.
Julie Bosman, writing for the New York Times, reports that my friend’s experience is hardly unique. Food pantries across the country are serving “the next layer of people,” those like my friend whose businesses have failed or have been laid off work or face new financial crises, such as escalating mortgage payments. Child-care workers, real estate agents, secretaries, and nurses’ aides are among those hardest hit. Even those who believed they were safe from crises are finding themselves in danger of going hungry. Bosman writes:
And amid the million-dollar houses of Marin County in California, a pantry at the San Geronimo Valley Community Center last month changed its policy to allow people to stop by once a week instead of every other week, since there are so many new faces in line alongside the regulars. “We’re seeing people who work at banks, for software firms, for marketing firms, and they’re all losing their jobs,” said Dave Cort, the executive director. “Here we are in big, fancy Marin County, but we have people who are standing in line with their eyes wide open, thinking, ‘Oh, my God, I can’t believe I’m here.’ ”
I have no answers, only prayers for my friend and all the others. And I no longer take anything for granted. Be good to everyone around you. Things may not be as they seem.
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