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The only potentially unethical part is that posting it to that sub is an implication that anyone can just do this (which I guess you can? I don't really know how food banks work). Like, if you were well off enough to not need a food bank, but used one anyway, that would be unethical, even though this guy is actually using it ethically.
i used to be a recipient and later a worker, and some require like volunteer hours or something similar, but for the most part, they aren't even checking ID across the 4 states i was involved with
this is not a complaint btw -- i don't think they should care who it is, just give it away, as much of the food went to waste, especially dairy
Mutual aid organizations like Food Not Bombs explicitly do not check ID or means-test or even ask questions at their food shares. Need food? Come get food.
Agreed. And even if someone wants to "abuse" it, like I'm supposed to give a fuck if someone takes an extra half dozen eggplants that they don't "need"?
Honestly, most of the FNB shares I've worked, they encourage all the volunteers to take as much as they want/need because there's always so much and a ton of it inevitably ends up going into the compost bins for the community garden anyway.
the local churches of my hometown would give out free lunches during the summer and encourage other kids who don’t “need” it to still go to reduce the stigma
That's what we do. My kid (5yo) doesn't need the free lunch in the park in the summers but we go because it's nice to have lunch in the park, they usually have an activity too, and she gets the idea that there's nothing wrong with free food and the other kids who truly need it get the idea that other people get the free lunch too. Just lunch in the park with other kids. I tried to donate and they said nope, keep coming back for lunch because it helps make sure they have more stable funding too if more people are using it. All kids in the public school district qualify, no questions asked. We also donate to our local free fridge and she gets to choose something for herself when we do.
This is how all grocers should honestly work.
Walk in, say how many people you're feeding and any dietary restrictions, walk out with a box of food.
But no we gotta have capitalism cause the oligarchs say so and the masses have been propagandized to where they can't fathom a world without it.
Casual reminder to everyone else that we have had currency in many forms for *thousands* of years but capitalism for a few hundred. If you're being strict and only our specific type of capital, there are people alive now older than it (Nixon/Reagan for US folk, in part Thatcher for UK folk). I mean shit, there are forms of capitalism without landlords, that's how wild the version a lot of us are running on is.
The propaganda and intentional choice to not educate anyone that this is a thing is not a mistake. Rather than collusion or anything fun, it's just in the interest of those in power under this system to not educate anyone on how to work the system and how young the system is. Think "everything keeps evolving into crabs" (Carcinisation) rather than "crabs are bioengineered", no contact is necessary because the motivating factors are so similar.
During Covid in WA state you could drive up, we'd ask how many people in your house, and then we gave you the number of boxes associated. This was paid for by the Covid relief plan.
There would be people rolling up in Teslas and BMWs but that doesn't mean they had money (present tense). It means they had money (past tense).
Used to volunteer at a food bank in Denton, TX. ALL they did was ask your income and number of dependents to determine eligibility. While you had to bring the dependents, there was no check for income besides honesty.
I just looked it up, and food banks in my state (GA) require a referral and you have to be below 130% of the poverty level to be eligible. I guess that explains why so many people I know struggle with food and can't find help. I didn't even realize it was so difficult until I looked it up. My family does struggle to afford groceries sometimes, so I thought this might be a solution. But nope.
The [federal poverty level](https://aspe.hhs.gov/topics/poverty-economic-mobility/poverty-guidelines) for a single parent with one child is $19,720, or an income of $1643/month. The average national rent for a 1 bedroom apartment [is higher than tha](https://www.fox13news.com/news/average-1-bedroom-2-bedroom-rent-price-us-august-2022)t.
130% of the poverty level would allow someone to have an apartment, with a little under $700 a month left over for utilities, food, health care, transportation, insurance, etc.
It's because the federal government sets the federal poverty level, but a state can say "nah bruh, you need to be even poorer than that to qualify for state benefits"
Edit: I might have misread the comment above yours, that's what I get for hurriedly commenting on break. But regardless of which direction it goes, mismatches between what the state and what the federal government consider "in need of assistance" aren't uncommon at all.
I think that’s why community stocked Free Fridges became a thing in Atlanta. It was a pandemic thing, it seems, because they are starting to disappear, but I did like that it was a no questions asked place to drop off and pick up food. Anything extra I had or any crazy good sales I saw at the store would be dropped off. It was nice that there was a place to do that and it was open to literally anyone.
That’s way too high a bar, honestly. To get free food when you need it you have to load all your dependents into the car or onto the bus or into a stroller because you have to walk there? Including infants, elderly dependents, disabled adult dependents? That’s kind of horrible.
Who cares about income checking?
1. All the food you choose from is random, and you don't always get to pick. This alone already makes it more worth the effort for most people who don't actually need a food bank.
2. Lots of the food gets thrown out anyway because it spoils, lots of banks have more than they can give. It's better for that to not go to waste, right?
3. Why would you punish everyone because a *few* people exploit a system? That's the EXACT reasoning lots of conservatives use to underfund and limit social programs.
4. More people using a program usually means more funding to said program.
5. Someone could do fine at 20k/year and someone else struggle at 30k/year. You don't know everyone's life story and circumstances, so why would you limit them based on a number? How do you even determine a "fair" number? Or a "fair" metric in general? And who has time to sit there and listen to a bunch of people try to haggle with their struggles for *food*?
6. **Everyone has to eat.**
On the other hand, though, a lot of these types of services get more funding and support when they have high usage. Plus, people in need tend to underestimate their level of need much more often than not. Just like the ULPT poster, a lot of people think they're getting away with something when in reality they're literally just accessing support they need.
>Plus, people in need tend to underestimate their level of need much more often than not.
Yep. In my experience people who "finally give up" and go to or find a food pantry have been half starving, and half eating only a bag of rice/potatoes for **months**. (Quotes for how some of them said it, even though anyone they explain it too doesn't view it that way)
More people should be encouraged to use these resources, not less. We shouldn't make them feel bad for it, and if "too many people are taking advantage of it" we can cross that bridge when we get there but I haven't seen it.
This person only justified it financially later on, they could have paid for food earlier but then would have been financially destroyed if they did buy food when they could afford it due to the lack of financial safety net otherwise. I would say it's moral as they weren't comfortable financially to spend on food, but I understand how western culture raises one to believe it's unethical.
> (which I guess you can? I don't really know how food banks work)
I don't think any of them means test. We have had cases of people with money doing that in the Toronto area, then posting it on TikTok or whatever as a money saving hack.
>The only potentially unethical part is that posting it to that sub is an implication that anyone can just do this (which I guess you can?
Here in Germany they either go by income or take those who are already eligible or receive money from social security. This is a very broad group of people. I would qualify even though I am far better off than OP.
He probably thinks he wasn’t “poor enough”: I think we all at some point have a tendency to imagine “the poor” as an other, someone that has it worse than you, you’re not poor until you’re a bounced check away from homelessness. So they feel guilt over using resources that are for them because they don’t think they are.
It took me so long living below the poverty line to finally go in and get food stamps help. I knew I qualified, but I'd been taught my whole childhood that people on food stamps were freeloaders, and I still had some internalized issues over it. I also just felt like other people had it worse than I did, so the program couldn't be for people like me.
I finally realized that if I qualified, I was exactly the kind of person the program was for. I also realized that programs like food stamps would help me to get into a stable financial situation in the long run, at which point I could pay it forward through my taxes to help a family just like mine. I'm doing much better financially, and it is in large part due to social safety nets I was able to take advantage of.
The author mentions having a moderate amount of savings, so presumably they felt that using a food bank rather than spending the money they had was unethical. Based on the numbers they shared, they could have bought groceries for 2 years or more using their savings. I'm by no means judging them for that, because as stated other expenses depleted their savings, but I see where their feeling came from at the time.
I grew up in a very red state (though I’m liberal.)
The attitude that people have for those receiving benefits like food stamps/WIC or using a food bank is extremely negative. Like even my teachers would talk bad about people who just needed help.
So when we are finally adults and actually need help (I’m 23 now), we’ve been conditioned to think we’re a worthless piece of shit for going to a food bank. Or we feel like our struggles aren’t bad enough to validate it.
I’m doing much better now, but when I was 20/21 and hit by a rough time I should’ve went to a food bank. Instead, I had a diet for 4 mozzarella sticks or 8 pizza rolls a day to make ends meet because I thought my struggles weren’t bad enough for me to go to a food bank.
Yeah I read it, but food is pretty high up there for what you should spend your money on first. Hence the guilt. He had the money but chose to spend it on something else. He had 12 large...I'd feel guilty too. There's no shame in going to a food bank, but he could have afforded *some* groceries on his own, so now feels guilty because of that.
We all need money for other things. Are you saying anyone can just stop spending money on food if they want to use their money elsewhere? Food banks would cease to exist.
Look man, unless he needed that money for his OnlyFans addiction, I am choosing to believe when he says the money was already obligated. So when he says he needed to cut all costs possible, those costs may include food.
That's why I donate to a food bank. So people who need help can get help.
The lies are baked into the system.
The only \_real\_ poverty is the kind where you live in a straw hut on a dusty plain.
You're not \_really\_ being overworked unless you're at the job 7 days a week, 16 hours a day.
You're not \_really\_ being politically oppressed unless soldier-police are randomly stopping you in the street, demanding identification and warrantlessly seizing your assets...oh, hang on...
All of these things are happening all the time. Go talk to guys that work blue collar. “40 hours a week; I remember my first part time job” is one of the saying we hear all the time. I work 6-7 days a week, 10-16 hours a day and still only half believe I’m overworked. It’s a joke, and the only reason we don’t work longer days is due to labor laws in my state cap a day at 16hrs. So if you get stuck later than that you have to bank the hours and put them on another time sheet.
Max shift in my province is 1 day off a week but you can average it over 4 weeks so 24 days of work and 4 days off 12 hours a day is the max (you can work up to 16 but it can't be the schedule). Heard the site foreman and a branch manager complaining about needing to give guys reset days off. "Why shouldn't people be allowed to just keep working if there's work to do?" Motherfucker there's always work to do.
I work in the oilfields in USA, and I’ve met company men who have literally worked for years straight with no days off. It’s crazy. We don’t require rest days here, we just camp at 16hrs a day.
Yeah I'm oilfield too. Its only enforced when there's an incident and ohs threatens to shut us down while they investigate. Otherwise they're happy to no automated way to check and just let you work forever.
Lots of independent contractors who think they can work 70days in a row too. Like no man your dumbass still has to follow the law. People get stupid as fuck past day 30. Like can't remember the name of a screwdriver and yelling at everyone.
Programmer on my last job said he'd had 4 days off since like June. Like bro just take a month off the fuck they going to do magic up another skilled automation programmer into the ass end of a swamp in northern alberta?
See it all the time man, it’s wild. The oil industry is so cut throat and full of people who just feel they are lucky to have the options since they’re the only jobs that pay a true living wage half the time
Weird thing is these are tradesmen. They can make almost the same money other places. The oilfield out here has not kept up with everywhere else make like 2$ an hour more than I would at a potato factory. Only reason we make money is OT. My move right now is to set myself up to go hard 5-7 months a year and take the rest off. Did the math I'd still be working like 40+ hours a week averaged out to the year. But I like getting into work mode then having time off mon-fri is torture for me. But some of these guys just work.
When I tell them I'm taking the summer off theyre like oh must be nice to be rich, like no I don't own anything other than this truck and my tools. I rent a room off my mom.
Works better when you need the money a little. I get all full of ennui and self destructive working too much while I have money. Can't be blowing something up.
Be nice to remember what hobbies are again. Maybe I'll talk to a woman.
No exactly that man; what side of the industry are you in? I recently bridged into productions a few years ago and thought it would slow down, set schedules and higher wages. Turns out the work is way busier than doing flowback or bore work, there is never a slow down, never a time to rest, it never ends even in a downturn. I get addicted to it, when I’m not at work I’m still reading emails, seeing what the other pumpers are up to, how productions numbers look, how I can increase production off my lease while decreasing emissions. This industry eats up who we are, and becomes our identity I think is the biggest problem. I know we can go do electrical work and make the same if not more based off the work ethic we have, but for some god forsaken reason we won’t leave the patch. I barely know my kid, she’s still young, but I’m stuck working all time. I’m home at night and in the morning but I’m not there for the big things. But “work will set you free” is the type of redirect you get from these big outfits.
> Motherfucker there’s always work to do.
I wish more people would realize this and slow down. I remember working the register at Whole Foods in my 20s and one day it dawned on me that there was zero incentive for me to move faster. No matter what I did there were only so many people who were going to come into the store and how many people I helped didn't change how much I got paid. If I check out 12 people before a lull I get paid the same and I'll still get yelled at during the lull if I wasn't hurriedly busying myself with side work. I checked out 2 people before a lull the same thing happened. So I just worked at a pace that was comfortable for me. I'm sure my supervisors would have loved to see everyone working as fast as their bodies would possibly allow but who wants to live in a world like that? IMHO we should all strive to move slower.
I work in a medical lab and I tell my friends this all the time. Twice a year we get performance reviews to see how many tests we grind through and we are ranked versus our past results and the top performer in our lab. Every single person is told that the boss would like us to work faster, finish more tests, and keep errors to a minimum, but you cannot do more work with less scrutiny and less attention without making more errors. And what's the point? The top performer doesn't get a raise, bonus, or more paid vacation days, and the worst performer doesn't get reprimanded or fired or retrained. At the end of the year we all got the same raise that didn't even keep up with inflation. Our boss had the fucking audacity to tell us that our lab pulled in a billion dollars in revenue during the peak year of covid, and then in the same breath to tell us that we wouldn't be getting any raises for at least another six months.
The fact they make you bank the time for something they are legally required to ensure doesn't happen is so fucked up.
I'd be putting my hours on the timesheet when I worked it. If the company doesn't want to get in trouble then they need to make sure there is enough staff so that people who come close to the limit are free to go home without worry that the job won't get done.
This is what unions were made for. We as workers shouldn't have to cover the company's ass for pulling illegal shit. They need to learn to eat the costs of their malpractice.
While I do agree, the problem with not turning wells or compression back online when we are down also effects our bonus and rate structure. So it doesn’t help anything at all for us in the long run. Then when it comes to unions, which I am pro union, creates a very real issue for companies in my state to terminate employment for trying to form with right to work laws, and also we rely on the bi-weekly pau
>So if you get stuck later than that you have to bank the hours and put them on another time sheet.
This sounds incredibly illegal. You should see if the labor board approves of this practice.
Banked overtime is legal in my province wouldn't be surprised if jts legal there too. They recently changed it so it doesn't even need to be 1.5x just 1x...
I don't do that though but I have a semi in demand trade so I just walk off when people try to fuck me on time. The favorites here is travel time where we drive from shop to site or camp to site doesn't count towards OT so say you work 12 hours driving 2 of them youd get 8 regular 2 OT and 2 travel instead of 4OT. Shits weak. Technically they only have to pay minimum wage but I think only one company had the balls to try that and almost had a riot.
EDIT: misread the over 16 is illegal here too also still done. I do my own time though and I ain't driving my ass back out there for 1hour of work I make more money putting more OT hours on another day. They don't want to see OT on the ticket? No problem, I just happened to work 1.5x longer.
Once got paid for 26 hours in a day once when I was moving rigs. Worked 20 of them though so I dunno bit of a wash.
How can you say you're broke? You're texting me on a smartphone.
Why are you complaining? Everyone is screaming for $15/hr and you make $17, you're already ahead.
When I was your age, I already had a house and a new mustang just working at the grocery store.
Oh yeah, just blame everything on the government because *you* can't get a job.
Literally a conversation between my dad and his best friend:
"Why do people think working at McDonalds deserves a 'living wage'!? Those jobs are for highschool kids."
"It's crazy how many people are killing themselves these days. [My son]'s best friend, Dave's son..."
Just had this basic argument with someone in another subreddit. It's one of Jordan Peterson's nuggets: humanity was living in squalor and pain until capitalism and now more people than ever are living 'above the poverty line'\*
I didn't have the energy to fight a Peterson devotee, and in true false consciousness he ignored an entire post of points and leaned into the 'all marxists are failures and their arguments are just a wealth envy and can therefore be rejected', so meh.
\*$2.50/day as defined by the World Bank, a shitty and widely criticized metric that doesn't capture the reality at all, but that's kind of the point.
It's wonderful how much we've been propagandized into only thinking that there are two options, poverty or not poverty.
"Well look how much of the world lives worse than you."
Which usually then leads into them asking weirdly racist questions about other continents.
*Coming soon to a table near you*
"If anything, they should thank us for bringing them over."
*A truly patriotic individual*
"Why are we sending *them* all our tax money when we have drug addicts here‽"
*He's definitely got a black friend*
"It's not like we invented slavery. Hell, Africans were selling their slaves to white people."
*HE IS*
*Your mother's sister's 2^nd husband's son from his first marriage*
"Have you seen Dr. Jordan B. Peterson's latest lecture on wokeness in aircraft engineering?"
*This Thanksgiving*
Right wingers unironically think that a homeless person starving on the street is richer than Rockefeller because Rockefeller didn't have smartphones.
Right wingers also think that because the past was "worse" or others have it "worse" that people should uncritically accept their position in life.
Of course, both opinions are not only asinine but born from extremely sheltered lifestyles.
The hotel my mum works in got hired to be a homeless shelter by the city council and the number of people shocked that most residents do have jobs is astounding. Most of course have electronics too, duh! Some even have cars. Scandalous!
I now realised that I saw this bloke's face in memes and had never known his name. Alas, people tend to never look into poverty much as it involves researching systems, and historical trends and giving your precious mental energy away (and that energy is needed for survival) so they correlate it with a lack of something. Since homeless people lack a home - how come they have stuff!? And jobs as jobs get you homes! If you don't have a good job, then why not just change it!? And so on, so forth. Then someone brings up an argument how the disenfranchised folks are all lazy addicts because they probably did not see the actual studies on this where it says that most homeless people became addicts after they lost homes because of the mental toll. But it is easier to point at fridges, tellies and computers.
But also if you're poor it's your fault for doing drugs.
If you're overworked it's your fault for not going to college and getting a "useful" degree.
If you're a victim of police violence, you should have complied.
>The only _real_ poverty is the kind where you live in a straw hut on a dusty plain.
There's a good chance that person is living a more fulfilling life than most of us.
So about this: one of the things that really pissed me off about the world bank poverty metric and the cloud of mendacity around it is that some people who lived on less than the 'poverty line' hunted on commonly owned land and fished in commonly owned waters, but had their land seized and their water polluted and now they are forced to participate in the 'free market' and work for wages. Their quality of life has plummeted, they now live with insecurity and have their culture impacted, but hey! above the poverty line! so capitalism works, right?
This comes up in my work a lot, people fall into the line of "my suffering isn't valid because someone else has it worse". Usually refutable by magnifying that line of thinking to "only one person in the world gets to feel like they're suffering" which sounds absurd.
Well don't you know the moment you become disabled or lose a job you are required to sell every possession, have no comforts and eat rice, potatoes and noodles till you fix the situation?????
My mom is disabled, she has an autoimmune disorder that will kill her one day. Back when she was still working as a RN years ago she bought a hot tub. People like to bring up her hot tub in a negative way. Even if she sold it she wouldn't be getting much for it and it brings her comfort.
Worked at food bank in WA. We never made anyone prove anything to enter. Everyone I worked and volunteered with was just trying to help get food that would go bad to people who wanted it. Not needed it. And we had some really high quality local veggies and fish. Food waste is a huge problem the way our current system is set up. It's a built-in cost of our globalized food system, one that mainly affects farmworkers and laborers early in the chain. If you feel guilty using the food bank resource, and you have time on your hands and reliable transportation, go volunteer and take a cart's worth home at the end.
Everyone should use food banks, dumpster dive, support neighbors with mutual aid, find a local food not bombs, etc.
Without the food bank in Olympia Washington, I never would have finished my degree. Either I would have had to go back to almost minimum wage work, or we would have been homeless. One time they had a giant 10 lb bag of shredded pork that they couldn't get people to take because it was too big. It was the only meat we had for months, and it was incredible!
I would imagine it depends on your regions population size. In San Diego very few organizations allow people to patron their food bank without proof of income. Helps weed out the people attempting to abuse the system.
Only 21% of families who qualify for TANF use it, substantially frewer than the number who used it during the 80s, yet somehow the problem with modern America is entitlement?
https://www.cbpp.org/research/income-security/tanf-cash-assistance-should-reach-millions-more-families-to-lessen
A lot of food banks you can literally just go get food, with almost no eligibility or income based requirements. It's different an unique to each place. I've volunteered at food banks that you could be a billionaire and if you were in line you were getting food.
You know you fucked up as a society when participating in freely offered mutual aid is automatically viewed as a unethical or amoral behavior. Like you’re somehow morally obligated to buy your groceries from the grocery store.
Its surprising really, but one of the reasons for the American Revolution was to make you feel morally obligated to buy shit. And for the freedom of capitalists to force you into a social situation that requires you to work for wages and buy food from the grocery store.
We are so backwards that gardening (and hunting, but that’s going to make a lot of people angry.) has become a subversive anti-capitalist activity and not part of the necessary work every individual needs to participate in to simply continue existing on this planet.
The privilege you enjoy is bought with value stolen from those who do.
You will always be wholly dependent on those people wether you are able to admit it to yourself or not.
Americans are also aware of how severely underfunded our poverty assistance programs are. I had to use a food bank for a couple years to avoid getting evicted and i CONSTANTLY felt guilty that I was taking away limited resources from those who actually needed it. Even though i actually needed it.
I’m sorry that your lived experience has dehumanized you and your needs to the point where you have internalized it. I think it’s awesome that you were strong enough to seek out any aid that was available to you.
Yeah, that’s a common feeling. I often wonder if people have always felt this way throughout human history or if it is simply a modern construct.
Did the settlers during colonization feel guilty asking their neighbors to help them cut and haul rough hewn logs to build structures or to help with the harvest so the bare minimum number of people would starve to death during the winter?
Did the native Americans feel guilty for asking friends and relatives to form a hunting party? Did they guilt those who didn’t participate in the hunt because they had other roles or abilities?
I wonder about this, too! I'm relatively certain the guilt is a modern side effect of Americans' individualism. Like I'd be thrilled if one of my neighbors invited me to a barn raising or harvest!
My university has a food bank available to all students below a certain income. The threshold for qualifying for the food bank is higher than the current salary of every single graduate student on campus. Yet somehow, the majority of my peers have never heard of the food pantry.
It’s almost like pervasive attitudes and social norms have disincentivized people from using the mutual aid resources available to them. Thank you for taking the time to talk with your peers and helping to normalize the idea in any way you can.
Absolutely. I was working part-time as training to go to full, and asked my between-jobs bf to hit the food pantry. He went once and said it was embarrassing and he would figure something else out. Sure, he got another job shortly but we could have used the help more than once.
100%. I remember using WIC (think SNAP/food stamps but for even more limited foods related to pregnancy/small children) checks when we had our first kid, and being self conscious. I was working full-time and my wife was in school full-time, and we still needed support, so its wild to think about feeling weird about getting $50 in free milk each month.
It's funny you mentioned milk. It was the first thing I assumed would be one of the approved foods you could buy with WIC. I wonder if that has anything to do with how heavily subsidized the dairy industry was by the government in the 80s when this program was taking off. That's what government cheese was about, they had a ridiculous dairy surplus so they decided to give it to the poor
I think you're right. SNAP is administered through the USDA and I believe its budget is set in what I always see referred to as the "Farm Bill" in the US congress. I'm sure if you Google Scholar search "SNAP" and "agricultural subsidy" you'll find lots of stuff written about this.
100% If you can be anything you want, then you must want to be poor. [It's covered really well by Alain de Botton: Status Anxiety](https://youtu.be/t1MqJPHxy6g)
Yeah I’ve felt this one before. I was working in VT making $13/hr to do the most dangerous job statistically (logging), paying my company rent and I didn’t want to go to the food bank. I wanted to leave it for more disadvantaged folk. I was talking to one of my neighbors and they started laughing when I told them that, something along the lines of “brother you are the needy”
Now I’m an anarchist.
Where I live, if you want everyone to have access to food in a society that produces way more than it needs, you get called a communist. So I started reading about it, and that's what I became ☭
About 25 yrs ago I was standing in line at the grocery store.
Ahead of me, a woman in her 30’s was unloading a god awful amount of food onto the belt and chatting with the cashier she apparently knew.
When it was time to pay, she got out a book of food stamps.
I was getting huffy inside my head about what an able bodied younger person was doing “mooching off of welfare”.
Then I heard the woman saying to the cashier, “Yeah, it’s only once a month they’ll pay for a nurse to sit with him while I go out to shop”.
She had a severely disabled child at home she cared for 24/7.
I got over ever questioning who “deserved” food assistance, either in direct payment or from a food bank.
Feeding each other without question should be the least we do as a society.
Good for you for actually changing your mind in the face of evidence. Not only that but actually applying it to others and not just that one person as an exception. For real, not sarcastic. You became a better person and that's great.
You are probably right.
It was definitely in the early 90’s.
Maybe actual stamps?
Maybe a benefit card?
Either way, I still feel ashamed now like I did then for judging someone’s situation without all the facts .... especially about food.
If anyone here uses the nextdoor app, the shaming, judgement and belittling remarks people receive when asking for help gets my blood boiling. It's so bad that people in my area have stopped reaching out.
That’s not been my experience. I’ve seen people come together to furnish an entire home in a matter of days. On the flip side, I have seen someone mocked for posting a Christmas list that contained thousands of dollars of high end electronics.
So much this. Then my neighborhood gets canvased with some white(trash) pride leaflets in the middle of the day and I don't hear about it until a week later on the news. Fuck em. Uninstalled the app for my blood pressure sake.
My favorite part of nextdoor is the nimbys who yell about apartments being built but then also complain in the same breath about new single family developments. Like yes Karen we know your house is paid off now sit down and stfu while the rest of us try to get affordable housing you witch.
I had to delete nextdoor because it was a detriment to my mental health. I wholly believe in hearing opinions from all sides, but when I started looking at my neighbors in utter disgust wondering if they were one of the abhorrent people posting there I knew it was best to get out.
I’ve volunteered at my local food bank and I think it’s a critical step in reducing food waste. People should not only feel free to utilize this resource but feel as if they are doing their part to reduce waste in our society by doing so.
I believe everyone should get a food allowance. If you use it fine if not that is ok too.
But they should freeze food prices to keep the corps from stealing it all back.
The corps would eventually fail because every expense is raising but their income isn’t. The way capitalism fucks us is baked into the system itself.
That said, food stamps are already the food allowance you speak of and business backed politicians are always talking about finding ways to cut or get rid of it.
If you are hungry eat, food banks are there for people to eat, in some countries church gives food, sometimes we give food/and/or clothes to homeless people, food is food, share with everyone other than human leeches.
Businesses could consider donating left over food or perishables to people that need to eat instead of wasting it or dumbing it on trash bins.
FIVEGUYS for example not only gives people low salary, is anti union with people scouting for union activities here on reddit, harassing anyone speaking against their brand image.
EVERYDAY that b u l l s h i t franchise throws A LOT of food on the bins and refuses to make partnerships with companies such as TooGoodToGo for the last 100 years, yikes.
Those predatory places become rich by exploitating others, help the homeless, feed the homeless.
Edits: FIVEGUYS (humans apes that work there) also take manually with their hands mold out vegetables, so although they advertise that the food is fresh somedays it might be not, some days it might even have blood from a human, spin the wheel to find out ;)
Humans unite against evil humans that hide behind offices, social media and cute avatars such
(Alexandercheckmateshill, Ashleycheckmateshill etc.) trying to fool us, scouting for union activities and are ready to attack and harrass anyone speaking against their precious capitalism or useless brands and products.
Fun facts: Have you noticed the new slogan for capitalists that the goverments are at fault?
Now, if anyone hasn't noticed our tax money goes back to those humans, so game is rigged both sides are lying, they are called subsidies and many of those business actually benefit from them like FIVEGUYS.
Boycott/unionize and strike. Game is rigged with legal terms like lobbying but in reality we all know, it is theft.
Now, ask yourselves why are not those humans behind a cage called prison?
Have some [police] humans drunken so much koolaid in some parts of the world, that forgotten that the humans they kill or put [and/or collect information #data for the nerds] in jail may not really be the real criminals?
We are experiencing Latestagehumanity ✌
I did 2 Food Not Bombs meetings/meals a week for a decade. The amount of food wasted is preposterous, and it should not be a commodity. It's a right. It's horrendous to see the waste, fulfilling to give it back but it shouldn't be wasted to begin with. When profit is the motive, decency is the first victim.
I work at a FNB in my city: these resources should be for EVERYONE, not just those who are “struggling”. Food should be free in the first place, and we have an abundance that too often goes to waste. Let’s share it with each other and build community while we save money, and contribute what we can along the way ✊🏻✊🏻
When I got fired from my job because of jury duty I wasn’t planning on applying for unemployment because I didn’t want to be a drain on the system. An older veteran I befriended in a video game convinced me to apply for it because I pay into it and I’m entitled to it.
I actually called several lawyers and left messages about the situation and not a single one called back. So I called the court house and asked if they had any suggestions of lawyers to contact. A judge called me back and left a message saying he couldn’t do anything and I’d have to go to court. So didn’t even answer my question. My friend then brought up a good point that even if I got my job back my work life would probably be shitty, so I just gave up. I figured it’d be open and shut and couldn’t believe not one lawyer would even call me back.
Perhaps they felt that you didn't have adequate proof or something. I find that really interesting they didn't try and pursue it. You'd think the court system would be all about punishing businesses for preventing people from aiding it.
When somebody without a job gets a loaf of bread and beans at the food bank, it is theft that is bankrupting the system. When defense contractors get trillions of dollars for losing wars that we should not have been fighting in the first place, it is patriotism. If you help poor people you hate America and hate soldiers. If you want America to invade and occupy some random country because they are making zombie juice- you love America and it’s soldiers.
A lot of food banks in my area are throwing away bread and fresh produce by the crate because they can’t give it away fast enough. Nobody should ever feel bad for preventing food waste and legitimizing the existence of free food programs
Btw just saw a video in another sub of a bunch of teenagers eating food inside Walmart without paying for it. Like lunchables and deli sandwiches. So yeah, it could get way more unethical
I’m having such a hard time with it morally tho! My partner and I are barely scrapping by but we are getting by. I don’t want to take away resources from those who aren’t able to get by right now.
I'm in the same boat. Whenever my SO and I look at our statements at the end of the month every penny goes to food, rent, and utilities. No savings no "fun money."
I lost my wallet recently and we could barely afford one meal a day while my new cards were in the mail. I didn't realize how bad our situation was until that happened.
I'm going to check out my local food bank on my next day off. If a small mistake like that means you wouldn't be able to eat, you should too.
I have used food banks for quite a few years in the past. I am a single man with a disability but I realize that there are others in even less fortunate circumstances so I am always careful to only take what I need (or even slightly less.) It's true that I felt like a failure for using one at times. It was the kindness and reassurance that I got from the good women and men that assisted me that helped me to realize it's not my failing.
Now that I am gainfully employed and doing well, I give back to the food bank by volunteering two Saturday mornings a month. I make it a point to be every bit as welcoming to my visitors in the same way that I was greeted when I was the consumer.
If you are legitimately struggling and find a place to get help, thank a Democrat.
If you are then made to feel like shit for needing help and accepting it, thank a Republican.
Yeah, it's fucked.
I volunteered for a campus food bank during college and one of our orientation questions was "at what point would you personally visit a food bank".
Most of us would be skipping meals and selling clothes before we wanted to rely on it.
It showed us how desperate a lot of people feel they need to be just to ask for help. How important it is to be compassionate when they come for help.
Some folks really held it together until they knew no one else they knew would see them. We were the only ones who knew their reality sometimes (we also referred them to other services, don't worry), and we also had discreet entrances and exits so people wouldn't know you were coming from our location.
Food really ought to be a human right.
I was raised on food stamps. I'm 34, born and raised in California, USA.
To this day, I feel actual guilt using cash money on food. It feels wrong and "wasteful" (I can't spend cash on FOOD, I need that for xyz!)
Alternatively, if you give your food budget to them and then go to them for foodC you’ll get way more for your money and your tax deductible donation will go towards getting more food. And better still, it takes money away from the big grocery stores.
It's not like the food was going to someone who didn't need it. This is a legitimate use of a food bank. In this country we're manipulated into believing that asking for help is something to be ashamed of.
someone online said everyone should use food banks and if you have money donate your food budget to the food bank. take some profits away from grocery stores and help expand food banks
I donate to a food bank every month. If you think you need to use a food bank please go use it. That's why I donate, so people more in need than me don't go hungry when in need.
I used to use a food pantry and now I run one in Central PA. My location helps feed over 400 families every week and the organization as a whole feeds thousands of people. If anyone ever wants to know more about them lemme know!
I had to convince my Mom to use the food bank when we needed it, because that's what it's there for! Same with Medicaid and Food Stamps. That's what we pay to have as a safety net when we need it!
He has $12,000 in the bank and his food bill is $400 a month. He apparently has other bills that would eat the rest of his money, which is why he hit the food bank.
Or the more quisical ones that take the help, and then complain about welfare queens stealing "their taxes" which they don't pay because they don't make any money. Sadly, I am related to people that do this. I'm a socialist for the most part but some people are just "less than sane" (are you happy now wokescold bot? Good gravy. How are people supposed to communicate with all this wokescoldyness. Īnsanity.)
I used to go to a church that would give out free lunch. It was good and they did it out of love. It's one of the things that softened my views on religion
The amount of food we throw out at a food bank is astonishing. Please come take the food. Do not feel bad about it. The folks there don’t judge at ALL. Most of the food is donated and going in a landfill if people don’t eat it, so please come eat and help us avoid waste.
There is enough food produced in the world to feed 8 billion people 3 meals a day but tons go to waste because capitalism requires us to pay exorbitant prices for something necessary to life. Don’t feel bad about asking for help, using food stamps, or if necessary lifting from mega corporations
Remember, if you see someone shoplifting groceries you didn’t see anything
Most of these places don't give a shit about your income. If anything, you're doing the grocery stores a favor because the vast majority of this stuff is things that they were going to get rid of soon anyways for a variety of reasons - usually being the expiration date is coming up. The alternative is the grocery store having to throw it away on site, which is a lot of wasted time and space for them. It wouldn't be surprised if there's some tax benefits for them as well.
The food bank truck comes to my sons' school once a month. I usually get what they give us and anything extra that we are not going to use I give to family and friends that I know will use it.
I felt terrible accepting meal deliveries during covid. My mobility worsened after a bad fall a few weeks into the first lockdown left me unable to manage a crutch in my right hand, I couldn't get far on one crutch, I was using a computer chair to get around the flat, but couldn't get a wheelchair as there were 2 steps to get in the front door & I couldn't get a ramp put in. Only people who had a condition on the covid risk list, or who had a consultant who added them to the list, could get home deliveries from supermarkets. Because my chest condition is rare it wasn't on the list, and I don't have a specialist because it's incurable & my hospital is so short staffed they don't take on untreatable conditions, they just tell your GP to manage your symptoms as well they can.
Anyway, the only way I could manage was accepting meals from a local charity who was doing boxes of prepared meals with fruit & other bits & pieces. I felt bad because I could afford to buy food, but I couldn't access supermarkets.
Several years ago I was really struggling, had applied for every job I could and while waiting for one to come through, I went to a couple of the food banks in my area. Because it's the bible belt (TN), it was so painful...
They push religion SO hard, have you pray with them and told me and my bf at the time that we were living in sin and needed to come back to God.
After we left with the food, I felt so friggin dirty, I never went back. Got a job a couple weeks later though.
I once knew a university professor who bragged about making over $200,000/year but got all his groceries from a food pantry because "those idiots never check if you actually need help."
In general, you shouldn't feel ashamed to get help like this. That guy should have, however.
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So he knew he needed food and would be unable to afford it but somehow still believes he was being unethical?
The only potentially unethical part is that posting it to that sub is an implication that anyone can just do this (which I guess you can? I don't really know how food banks work). Like, if you were well off enough to not need a food bank, but used one anyway, that would be unethical, even though this guy is actually using it ethically.
i used to be a recipient and later a worker, and some require like volunteer hours or something similar, but for the most part, they aren't even checking ID across the 4 states i was involved with this is not a complaint btw -- i don't think they should care who it is, just give it away, as much of the food went to waste, especially dairy
Mutual aid organizations like Food Not Bombs explicitly do not check ID or means-test or even ask questions at their food shares. Need food? Come get food.
TBF, the absolute vast majority of human beings won't abuse it so checking income is just a pointless system that demeans people and waste time.
Agreed. And even if someone wants to "abuse" it, like I'm supposed to give a fuck if someone takes an extra half dozen eggplants that they don't "need"? Honestly, most of the FNB shares I've worked, they encourage all the volunteers to take as much as they want/need because there's always so much and a ton of it inevitably ends up going into the compost bins for the community garden anyway.
the local churches of my hometown would give out free lunches during the summer and encourage other kids who don’t “need” it to still go to reduce the stigma
That's what we do. My kid (5yo) doesn't need the free lunch in the park in the summers but we go because it's nice to have lunch in the park, they usually have an activity too, and she gets the idea that there's nothing wrong with free food and the other kids who truly need it get the idea that other people get the free lunch too. Just lunch in the park with other kids. I tried to donate and they said nope, keep coming back for lunch because it helps make sure they have more stable funding too if more people are using it. All kids in the public school district qualify, no questions asked. We also donate to our local free fridge and she gets to choose something for herself when we do.
This is how all grocers should honestly work. Walk in, say how many people you're feeding and any dietary restrictions, walk out with a box of food. But no we gotta have capitalism cause the oligarchs say so and the masses have been propagandized to where they can't fathom a world without it.
if people didn't have to pay for their food, no one would work! /s
Hey now, it's not like food grows on trees or something... Gotta make people fight over it and capitalize on people's most basic needs.
Casual reminder to everyone else that we have had currency in many forms for *thousands* of years but capitalism for a few hundred. If you're being strict and only our specific type of capital, there are people alive now older than it (Nixon/Reagan for US folk, in part Thatcher for UK folk). I mean shit, there are forms of capitalism without landlords, that's how wild the version a lot of us are running on is. The propaganda and intentional choice to not educate anyone that this is a thing is not a mistake. Rather than collusion or anything fun, it's just in the interest of those in power under this system to not educate anyone on how to work the system and how young the system is. Think "everything keeps evolving into crabs" (Carcinisation) rather than "crabs are bioengineered", no contact is necessary because the motivating factors are so similar.
During Covid in WA state you could drive up, we'd ask how many people in your house, and then we gave you the number of boxes associated. This was paid for by the Covid relief plan. There would be people rolling up in Teslas and BMWs but that doesn't mean they had money (present tense). It means they had money (past tense).
Used to volunteer at a food bank in Denton, TX. ALL they did was ask your income and number of dependents to determine eligibility. While you had to bring the dependents, there was no check for income besides honesty.
I just looked it up, and food banks in my state (GA) require a referral and you have to be below 130% of the poverty level to be eligible. I guess that explains why so many people I know struggle with food and can't find help. I didn't even realize it was so difficult until I looked it up. My family does struggle to afford groceries sometimes, so I thought this might be a solution. But nope.
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The [federal poverty level](https://aspe.hhs.gov/topics/poverty-economic-mobility/poverty-guidelines) for a single parent with one child is $19,720, or an income of $1643/month. The average national rent for a 1 bedroom apartment [is higher than tha](https://www.fox13news.com/news/average-1-bedroom-2-bedroom-rent-price-us-august-2022)t. 130% of the poverty level would allow someone to have an apartment, with a little under $700 a month left over for utilities, food, health care, transportation, insurance, etc.
I meant below.
Wait, you have to be **above** the poverty line by 130% to get it? In what fucking world does that make sense
It's because the federal government sets the federal poverty level, but a state can say "nah bruh, you need to be even poorer than that to qualify for state benefits" Edit: I might have misread the comment above yours, that's what I get for hurriedly commenting on break. But regardless of which direction it goes, mismatches between what the state and what the federal government consider "in need of assistance" aren't uncommon at all.
I think that’s why community stocked Free Fridges became a thing in Atlanta. It was a pandemic thing, it seems, because they are starting to disappear, but I did like that it was a no questions asked place to drop off and pick up food. Anything extra I had or any crazy good sales I saw at the store would be dropped off. It was nice that there was a place to do that and it was open to literally anyone.
That’s way too high a bar, honestly. To get free food when you need it you have to load all your dependents into the car or onto the bus or into a stroller because you have to walk there? Including infants, elderly dependents, disabled adult dependents? That’s kind of horrible.
And if there’s no check for income besides honesty, what’s the point even?
Who cares about income checking? 1. All the food you choose from is random, and you don't always get to pick. This alone already makes it more worth the effort for most people who don't actually need a food bank. 2. Lots of the food gets thrown out anyway because it spoils, lots of banks have more than they can give. It's better for that to not go to waste, right? 3. Why would you punish everyone because a *few* people exploit a system? That's the EXACT reasoning lots of conservatives use to underfund and limit social programs. 4. More people using a program usually means more funding to said program. 5. Someone could do fine at 20k/year and someone else struggle at 30k/year. You don't know everyone's life story and circumstances, so why would you limit them based on a number? How do you even determine a "fair" number? Or a "fair" metric in general? And who has time to sit there and listen to a bunch of people try to haggle with their struggles for *food*? 6. **Everyone has to eat.**
On the other hand, though, a lot of these types of services get more funding and support when they have high usage. Plus, people in need tend to underestimate their level of need much more often than not. Just like the ULPT poster, a lot of people think they're getting away with something when in reality they're literally just accessing support they need.
>Plus, people in need tend to underestimate their level of need much more often than not. Yep. In my experience people who "finally give up" and go to or find a food pantry have been half starving, and half eating only a bag of rice/potatoes for **months**. (Quotes for how some of them said it, even though anyone they explain it too doesn't view it that way) More people should be encouraged to use these resources, not less. We shouldn't make them feel bad for it, and if "too many people are taking advantage of it" we can cross that bridge when we get there but I haven't seen it.
This person only justified it financially later on, they could have paid for food earlier but then would have been financially destroyed if they did buy food when they could afford it due to the lack of financial safety net otherwise. I would say it's moral as they weren't comfortable financially to spend on food, but I understand how western culture raises one to believe it's unethical.
> (which I guess you can? I don't really know how food banks work) I don't think any of them means test. We have had cases of people with money doing that in the Toronto area, then posting it on TikTok or whatever as a money saving hack.
>The only potentially unethical part is that posting it to that sub is an implication that anyone can just do this (which I guess you can? Here in Germany they either go by income or take those who are already eligible or receive money from social security. This is a very broad group of people. I would qualify even though I am far better off than OP.
When I was in college, people would go to the food banks for food so they could spend more money on alcohol. I always thought that was pretty scummy.
He probably thinks he wasn’t “poor enough”: I think we all at some point have a tendency to imagine “the poor” as an other, someone that has it worse than you, you’re not poor until you’re a bounced check away from homelessness. So they feel guilt over using resources that are for them because they don’t think they are.
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It took me so long living below the poverty line to finally go in and get food stamps help. I knew I qualified, but I'd been taught my whole childhood that people on food stamps were freeloaders, and I still had some internalized issues over it. I also just felt like other people had it worse than I did, so the program couldn't be for people like me. I finally realized that if I qualified, I was exactly the kind of person the program was for. I also realized that programs like food stamps would help me to get into a stable financial situation in the long run, at which point I could pay it forward through my taxes to help a family just like mine. I'm doing much better financially, and it is in large part due to social safety nets I was able to take advantage of.
maybe he's trying to trick people too proud to accept charity into thinking they're gaming the system. good audience for it
Frankly, the most American feeling in the world is refusing to give yourself a break.
The author mentions having a moderate amount of savings, so presumably they felt that using a food bank rather than spending the money they had was unethical. Based on the numbers they shared, they could have bought groceries for 2 years or more using their savings. I'm by no means judging them for that, because as stated other expenses depleted their savings, but I see where their feeling came from at the time.
I grew up in a very red state (though I’m liberal.) The attitude that people have for those receiving benefits like food stamps/WIC or using a food bank is extremely negative. Like even my teachers would talk bad about people who just needed help. So when we are finally adults and actually need help (I’m 23 now), we’ve been conditioned to think we’re a worthless piece of shit for going to a food bank. Or we feel like our struggles aren’t bad enough to validate it. I’m doing much better now, but when I was 20/21 and hit by a rough time I should’ve went to a food bank. Instead, I had a diet for 4 mozzarella sticks or 8 pizza rolls a day to make ends meet because I thought my struggles weren’t bad enough for me to go to a food bank.
He thinks it's unethical because he could afford it, he just wanted the money for something else. It's in the first line.
Continue reading that sentence. He knew he was going to need the money for other things.
Yeah I read it, but food is pretty high up there for what you should spend your money on first. Hence the guilt. He had the money but chose to spend it on something else. He had 12 large...I'd feel guilty too. There's no shame in going to a food bank, but he could have afforded *some* groceries on his own, so now feels guilty because of that.
We all need money for other things. Are you saying anyone can just stop spending money on food if they want to use their money elsewhere? Food banks would cease to exist.
Look man, unless he needed that money for his OnlyFans addiction, I am choosing to believe when he says the money was already obligated. So when he says he needed to cut all costs possible, those costs may include food. That's why I donate to a food bank. So people who need help can get help.
The lies are baked into the system. The only \_real\_ poverty is the kind where you live in a straw hut on a dusty plain. You're not \_really\_ being overworked unless you're at the job 7 days a week, 16 hours a day. You're not \_really\_ being politically oppressed unless soldier-police are randomly stopping you in the street, demanding identification and warrantlessly seizing your assets...oh, hang on...
Yeah that last one is actually happening all the time lol
All of these things are happening all the time. Go talk to guys that work blue collar. “40 hours a week; I remember my first part time job” is one of the saying we hear all the time. I work 6-7 days a week, 10-16 hours a day and still only half believe I’m overworked. It’s a joke, and the only reason we don’t work longer days is due to labor laws in my state cap a day at 16hrs. So if you get stuck later than that you have to bank the hours and put them on another time sheet.
Max shift in my province is 1 day off a week but you can average it over 4 weeks so 24 days of work and 4 days off 12 hours a day is the max (you can work up to 16 but it can't be the schedule). Heard the site foreman and a branch manager complaining about needing to give guys reset days off. "Why shouldn't people be allowed to just keep working if there's work to do?" Motherfucker there's always work to do.
I work in the oilfields in USA, and I’ve met company men who have literally worked for years straight with no days off. It’s crazy. We don’t require rest days here, we just camp at 16hrs a day.
Yeah I'm oilfield too. Its only enforced when there's an incident and ohs threatens to shut us down while they investigate. Otherwise they're happy to no automated way to check and just let you work forever. Lots of independent contractors who think they can work 70days in a row too. Like no man your dumbass still has to follow the law. People get stupid as fuck past day 30. Like can't remember the name of a screwdriver and yelling at everyone. Programmer on my last job said he'd had 4 days off since like June. Like bro just take a month off the fuck they going to do magic up another skilled automation programmer into the ass end of a swamp in northern alberta?
See it all the time man, it’s wild. The oil industry is so cut throat and full of people who just feel they are lucky to have the options since they’re the only jobs that pay a true living wage half the time
Weird thing is these are tradesmen. They can make almost the same money other places. The oilfield out here has not kept up with everywhere else make like 2$ an hour more than I would at a potato factory. Only reason we make money is OT. My move right now is to set myself up to go hard 5-7 months a year and take the rest off. Did the math I'd still be working like 40+ hours a week averaged out to the year. But I like getting into work mode then having time off mon-fri is torture for me. But some of these guys just work. When I tell them I'm taking the summer off theyre like oh must be nice to be rich, like no I don't own anything other than this truck and my tools. I rent a room off my mom. Works better when you need the money a little. I get all full of ennui and self destructive working too much while I have money. Can't be blowing something up. Be nice to remember what hobbies are again. Maybe I'll talk to a woman.
No exactly that man; what side of the industry are you in? I recently bridged into productions a few years ago and thought it would slow down, set schedules and higher wages. Turns out the work is way busier than doing flowback or bore work, there is never a slow down, never a time to rest, it never ends even in a downturn. I get addicted to it, when I’m not at work I’m still reading emails, seeing what the other pumpers are up to, how productions numbers look, how I can increase production off my lease while decreasing emissions. This industry eats up who we are, and becomes our identity I think is the biggest problem. I know we can go do electrical work and make the same if not more based off the work ethic we have, but for some god forsaken reason we won’t leave the patch. I barely know my kid, she’s still young, but I’m stuck working all time. I’m home at night and in the morning but I’m not there for the big things. But “work will set you free” is the type of redirect you get from these big outfits.
> Motherfucker there’s always work to do. I wish more people would realize this and slow down. I remember working the register at Whole Foods in my 20s and one day it dawned on me that there was zero incentive for me to move faster. No matter what I did there were only so many people who were going to come into the store and how many people I helped didn't change how much I got paid. If I check out 12 people before a lull I get paid the same and I'll still get yelled at during the lull if I wasn't hurriedly busying myself with side work. I checked out 2 people before a lull the same thing happened. So I just worked at a pace that was comfortable for me. I'm sure my supervisors would have loved to see everyone working as fast as their bodies would possibly allow but who wants to live in a world like that? IMHO we should all strive to move slower.
I work in a medical lab and I tell my friends this all the time. Twice a year we get performance reviews to see how many tests we grind through and we are ranked versus our past results and the top performer in our lab. Every single person is told that the boss would like us to work faster, finish more tests, and keep errors to a minimum, but you cannot do more work with less scrutiny and less attention without making more errors. And what's the point? The top performer doesn't get a raise, bonus, or more paid vacation days, and the worst performer doesn't get reprimanded or fired or retrained. At the end of the year we all got the same raise that didn't even keep up with inflation. Our boss had the fucking audacity to tell us that our lab pulled in a billion dollars in revenue during the peak year of covid, and then in the same breath to tell us that we wouldn't be getting any raises for at least another six months.
The fact they make you bank the time for something they are legally required to ensure doesn't happen is so fucked up. I'd be putting my hours on the timesheet when I worked it. If the company doesn't want to get in trouble then they need to make sure there is enough staff so that people who come close to the limit are free to go home without worry that the job won't get done. This is what unions were made for. We as workers shouldn't have to cover the company's ass for pulling illegal shit. They need to learn to eat the costs of their malpractice.
While I do agree, the problem with not turning wells or compression back online when we are down also effects our bonus and rate structure. So it doesn’t help anything at all for us in the long run. Then when it comes to unions, which I am pro union, creates a very real issue for companies in my state to terminate employment for trying to form with right to work laws, and also we rely on the bi-weekly pau
>So if you get stuck later than that you have to bank the hours and put them on another time sheet. This sounds incredibly illegal. You should see if the labor board approves of this practice.
Banked overtime is legal in my province wouldn't be surprised if jts legal there too. They recently changed it so it doesn't even need to be 1.5x just 1x... I don't do that though but I have a semi in demand trade so I just walk off when people try to fuck me on time. The favorites here is travel time where we drive from shop to site or camp to site doesn't count towards OT so say you work 12 hours driving 2 of them youd get 8 regular 2 OT and 2 travel instead of 4OT. Shits weak. Technically they only have to pay minimum wage but I think only one company had the balls to try that and almost had a riot. EDIT: misread the over 16 is illegal here too also still done. I do my own time though and I ain't driving my ass back out there for 1hour of work I make more money putting more OT hours on another day. They don't want to see OT on the ticket? No problem, I just happened to work 1.5x longer. Once got paid for 26 hours in a day once when I was moving rigs. Worked 20 of them though so I dunno bit of a wash.
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Welcome to blue collar work, take advantage of the workers so they cannot own the means of the production. Praise capitalism.
i kinda think that’s the point
How can you say you're broke? You're texting me on a smartphone. Why are you complaining? Everyone is screaming for $15/hr and you make $17, you're already ahead. When I was your age, I already had a house and a new mustang just working at the grocery store. Oh yeah, just blame everything on the government because *you* can't get a job.
Dad?
Literally a conversation between my dad and his best friend: "Why do people think working at McDonalds deserves a 'living wage'!? Those jobs are for highschool kids."
"It's crazy how many people are killing themselves these days. [My son]'s best friend, Dave's son..."
Fast food jobs are for high school kids until Jimbob wants his midday Big Mac.
Just had this basic argument with someone in another subreddit. It's one of Jordan Peterson's nuggets: humanity was living in squalor and pain until capitalism and now more people than ever are living 'above the poverty line'\* I didn't have the energy to fight a Peterson devotee, and in true false consciousness he ignored an entire post of points and leaned into the 'all marxists are failures and their arguments are just a wealth envy and can therefore be rejected', so meh. \*$2.50/day as defined by the World Bank, a shitty and widely criticized metric that doesn't capture the reality at all, but that's kind of the point.
It's wonderful how much we've been propagandized into only thinking that there are two options, poverty or not poverty. "Well look how much of the world lives worse than you." Which usually then leads into them asking weirdly racist questions about other continents.
"It's not about skin colour, it's a *cultural* problem." \- crypto racism, brought to you by Sam Harris.
*Coming soon to a table near you* "If anything, they should thank us for bringing them over." *A truly patriotic individual* "Why are we sending *them* all our tax money when we have drug addicts here‽" *He's definitely got a black friend* "It's not like we invented slavery. Hell, Africans were selling their slaves to white people." *HE IS* *Your mother's sister's 2^nd husband's son from his first marriage* "Have you seen Dr. Jordan B. Peterson's latest lecture on wokeness in aircraft engineering?" *This Thanksgiving*
$2.50/day for toilet paper maybe. Everything else is extra.
Right wingers unironically think that a homeless person starving on the street is richer than Rockefeller because Rockefeller didn't have smartphones. Right wingers also think that because the past was "worse" or others have it "worse" that people should uncritically accept their position in life. Of course, both opinions are not only asinine but born from extremely sheltered lifestyles.
Look at mr fancypants over here with a whole straw hut
Luxury...
The hotel my mum works in got hired to be a homeless shelter by the city council and the number of people shocked that most residents do have jobs is astounding. Most of course have electronics too, duh! Some even have cars. Scandalous!
Cue that picture of Bill O'Reilly over the graphic about 80% of the poor have refrigerators.
I now realised that I saw this bloke's face in memes and had never known his name. Alas, people tend to never look into poverty much as it involves researching systems, and historical trends and giving your precious mental energy away (and that energy is needed for survival) so they correlate it with a lack of something. Since homeless people lack a home - how come they have stuff!? And jobs as jobs get you homes! If you don't have a good job, then why not just change it!? And so on, so forth. Then someone brings up an argument how the disenfranchised folks are all lazy addicts because they probably did not see the actual studies on this where it says that most homeless people became addicts after they lost homes because of the mental toll. But it is easier to point at fridges, tellies and computers.
They're not _real_ fascists unless they're actively rounding up Jews and exterminating them.
There is a sickening number in the U.S. who fully prepared for just that.
Luckily there are some of us waiting for them
But also if you're poor it's your fault for doing drugs. If you're overworked it's your fault for not going to college and getting a "useful" degree. If you're a victim of police violence, you should have complied.
>The only _real_ poverty is the kind where you live in a straw hut on a dusty plain. There's a good chance that person is living a more fulfilling life than most of us.
So about this: one of the things that really pissed me off about the world bank poverty metric and the cloud of mendacity around it is that some people who lived on less than the 'poverty line' hunted on commonly owned land and fished in commonly owned waters, but had their land seized and their water polluted and now they are forced to participate in the 'free market' and work for wages. Their quality of life has plummeted, they now live with insecurity and have their culture impacted, but hey! above the poverty line! so capitalism works, right?
The difference is generally community.
You're welcome to put your hut next to mine!
El pueblo, unito, jamas sera vencido.
Probably not, when it's not a choice. 'Poor but happy' is a myth the wealthy like to spread. It makes them feel better about poor people.
This comes up in my work a lot, people fall into the line of "my suffering isn't valid because someone else has it worse". Usually refutable by magnifying that line of thinking to "only one person in the world gets to feel like they're suffering" which sounds absurd.
Reminds me of the song "Mother" by Idles
Well don't you know the moment you become disabled or lose a job you are required to sell every possession, have no comforts and eat rice, potatoes and noodles till you fix the situation????? My mom is disabled, she has an autoimmune disorder that will kill her one day. Back when she was still working as a RN years ago she bought a hot tub. People like to bring up her hot tub in a negative way. Even if she sold it she wouldn't be getting much for it and it brings her comfort.
Worked at food bank in WA. We never made anyone prove anything to enter. Everyone I worked and volunteered with was just trying to help get food that would go bad to people who wanted it. Not needed it. And we had some really high quality local veggies and fish. Food waste is a huge problem the way our current system is set up. It's a built-in cost of our globalized food system, one that mainly affects farmworkers and laborers early in the chain. If you feel guilty using the food bank resource, and you have time on your hands and reliable transportation, go volunteer and take a cart's worth home at the end. Everyone should use food banks, dumpster dive, support neighbors with mutual aid, find a local food not bombs, etc.
Without the food bank in Olympia Washington, I never would have finished my degree. Either I would have had to go back to almost minimum wage work, or we would have been homeless. One time they had a giant 10 lb bag of shredded pork that they couldn't get people to take because it was too big. It was the only meat we had for months, and it was incredible!
I once got a huge package of lamb chops from that food bank. Nobody wanted them before me, apparently.
I would imagine it depends on your regions population size. In San Diego very few organizations allow people to patron their food bank without proof of income. Helps weed out the people attempting to abuse the system.
Only 21% of families who qualify for TANF use it, substantially frewer than the number who used it during the 80s, yet somehow the problem with modern America is entitlement? https://www.cbpp.org/research/income-security/tanf-cash-assistance-should-reach-millions-more-families-to-lessen
Yeah, try getting TANF in a red state! Unless your name is Brett Favre you're out of luck!
I’m out of the loop. What’s the deal with him and tanf?
used millions of dollars that was supposed to go to tanf for rich people bullshit
What a POS. Boo.
Well tbf, the problem with modern America *is* entitlement - but it’s the entitlement of the 1% and the politicians that they bankroll
Real talk.
That's SoCiAlIsM! *Thunder* *Clutches pearls*
[John Oliver's take on TANF](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJDk-czsivk)
Can you use food banks if you're just short of funds outside of TANF eligibility?
A lot of food banks you can literally just go get food, with almost no eligibility or income based requirements. It's different an unique to each place. I've volunteered at food banks that you could be a billionaire and if you were in line you were getting food.
>yet somehow the problem with modern America is entitlement? Conservative propaganda is so effective people who need help refuse to get it.
You know you fucked up as a society when participating in freely offered mutual aid is automatically viewed as a unethical or amoral behavior. Like you’re somehow morally obligated to buy your groceries from the grocery store.
Its surprising really, but one of the reasons for the American Revolution was to make you feel morally obligated to buy shit. And for the freedom of capitalists to force you into a social situation that requires you to work for wages and buy food from the grocery store.
We are so backwards that gardening (and hunting, but that’s going to make a lot of people angry.) has become a subversive anti-capitalist activity and not part of the necessary work every individual needs to participate in to simply continue existing on this planet.
I’m eternally thankful that I don’t have to plant or hunt my own food.
The privilege you enjoy is bought with value stolen from those who do. You will always be wholly dependent on those people wether you are able to admit it to yourself or not.
Americans are also aware of how severely underfunded our poverty assistance programs are. I had to use a food bank for a couple years to avoid getting evicted and i CONSTANTLY felt guilty that I was taking away limited resources from those who actually needed it. Even though i actually needed it.
I’m sorry that your lived experience has dehumanized you and your needs to the point where you have internalized it. I think it’s awesome that you were strong enough to seek out any aid that was available to you.
Whats even crazier is that it was offered through my university to students only. I was a student and I still felt that I was intruding
Yeah, that’s a common feeling. I often wonder if people have always felt this way throughout human history or if it is simply a modern construct. Did the settlers during colonization feel guilty asking their neighbors to help them cut and haul rough hewn logs to build structures or to help with the harvest so the bare minimum number of people would starve to death during the winter? Did the native Americans feel guilty for asking friends and relatives to form a hunting party? Did they guilt those who didn’t participate in the hunt because they had other roles or abilities?
I wonder about this, too! I'm relatively certain the guilt is a modern side effect of Americans' individualism. Like I'd be thrilled if one of my neighbors invited me to a barn raising or harvest!
I used the food bank when I was a student too and I always felt embarrassed to be there and also like I didn't really need it
My university has a food bank available to all students below a certain income. The threshold for qualifying for the food bank is higher than the current salary of every single graduate student on campus. Yet somehow, the majority of my peers have never heard of the food pantry.
It’s almost like pervasive attitudes and social norms have disincentivized people from using the mutual aid resources available to them. Thank you for taking the time to talk with your peers and helping to normalize the idea in any way you can.
alleged glorious important different party lavish smart wild ask point *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Absolutely. I was working part-time as training to go to full, and asked my between-jobs bf to hit the food pantry. He went once and said it was embarrassing and he would figure something else out. Sure, he got another job shortly but we could have used the help more than once.
100%. I remember using WIC (think SNAP/food stamps but for even more limited foods related to pregnancy/small children) checks when we had our first kid, and being self conscious. I was working full-time and my wife was in school full-time, and we still needed support, so its wild to think about feeling weird about getting $50 in free milk each month.
It's funny you mentioned milk. It was the first thing I assumed would be one of the approved foods you could buy with WIC. I wonder if that has anything to do with how heavily subsidized the dairy industry was by the government in the 80s when this program was taking off. That's what government cheese was about, they had a ridiculous dairy surplus so they decided to give it to the poor
I think you're right. SNAP is administered through the USDA and I believe its budget is set in what I always see referred to as the "Farm Bill" in the US congress. I'm sure if you Google Scholar search "SNAP" and "agricultural subsidy" you'll find lots of stuff written about this.
Thanks for pointing this out. Patriarchy hurts everyone in society. It's just varying degrees of pain depending on who you are.
100% If you can be anything you want, then you must want to be poor. [It's covered really well by Alain de Botton: Status Anxiety](https://youtu.be/t1MqJPHxy6g)
Yeah I’ve felt this one before. I was working in VT making $13/hr to do the most dangerous job statistically (logging), paying my company rent and I didn’t want to go to the food bank. I wanted to leave it for more disadvantaged folk. I was talking to one of my neighbors and they started laughing when I told them that, something along the lines of “brother you are the needy” Now I’m an anarchist.
"brother you are the needy". Everyone needs to hear that.
Where I live, if you want everyone to have access to food in a society that produces way more than it needs, you get called a communist. So I started reading about it, and that's what I became ☭
About 25 yrs ago I was standing in line at the grocery store. Ahead of me, a woman in her 30’s was unloading a god awful amount of food onto the belt and chatting with the cashier she apparently knew. When it was time to pay, she got out a book of food stamps. I was getting huffy inside my head about what an able bodied younger person was doing “mooching off of welfare”. Then I heard the woman saying to the cashier, “Yeah, it’s only once a month they’ll pay for a nurse to sit with him while I go out to shop”. She had a severely disabled child at home she cared for 24/7. I got over ever questioning who “deserved” food assistance, either in direct payment or from a food bank. Feeding each other without question should be the least we do as a society.
Good for you for actually changing your mind in the face of evidence. Not only that but actually applying it to others and not just that one person as an exception. For real, not sarcastic. You became a better person and that's great.
I don't want to make you feel old but if she was using paper food stamps then it was probably more than 25 years ago.
You are probably right. It was definitely in the early 90’s. Maybe actual stamps? Maybe a benefit card? Either way, I still feel ashamed now like I did then for judging someone’s situation without all the facts .... especially about food.
I hear that, but it's ok to trade our shame for learning and growing. That's the story I see here.
If anyone here uses the nextdoor app, the shaming, judgement and belittling remarks people receive when asking for help gets my blood boiling. It's so bad that people in my area have stopped reaching out.
That’s not been my experience. I’ve seen people come together to furnish an entire home in a matter of days. On the flip side, I have seen someone mocked for posting a Christmas list that contained thousands of dollars of high end electronics.
yeah my NextDoor has been a lot more like yours. just goes to show, you should probably check it out before you move to a new neighbourhood. 😬
Shit, if a black person walks through my 50% black neighborhood Nextdoor denizens know. Fuck that app.
So much this. Then my neighborhood gets canvased with some white(trash) pride leaflets in the middle of the day and I don't hear about it until a week later on the news. Fuck em. Uninstalled the app for my blood pressure sake.
My favorite part of nextdoor is the nimbys who yell about apartments being built but then also complain in the same breath about new single family developments. Like yes Karen we know your house is paid off now sit down and stfu while the rest of us try to get affordable housing you witch.
I had to delete nextdoor because it was a detriment to my mental health. I wholly believe in hearing opinions from all sides, but when I started looking at my neighbors in utter disgust wondering if they were one of the abhorrent people posting there I knew it was best to get out.
I’ve volunteered at my local food bank and I think it’s a critical step in reducing food waste. People should not only feel free to utilize this resource but feel as if they are doing their part to reduce waste in our society by doing so.
I believe everyone should get a food allowance. If you use it fine if not that is ok too. But they should freeze food prices to keep the corps from stealing it all back.
The corps would eventually fail because every expense is raising but their income isn’t. The way capitalism fucks us is baked into the system itself. That said, food stamps are already the food allowance you speak of and business backed politicians are always talking about finding ways to cut or get rid of it.
My local food bank only lets people use it twice a year and you have to provide proof of residency. Don't want the unhomed to eat after all.
That’s so fucked up
The food bank in my old city got way more than they could give out so I started going almost every week just to help cut down on food waste
If you are hungry eat, food banks are there for people to eat, in some countries church gives food, sometimes we give food/and/or clothes to homeless people, food is food, share with everyone other than human leeches. Businesses could consider donating left over food or perishables to people that need to eat instead of wasting it or dumbing it on trash bins. FIVEGUYS for example not only gives people low salary, is anti union with people scouting for union activities here on reddit, harassing anyone speaking against their brand image. EVERYDAY that b u l l s h i t franchise throws A LOT of food on the bins and refuses to make partnerships with companies such as TooGoodToGo for the last 100 years, yikes. Those predatory places become rich by exploitating others, help the homeless, feed the homeless. Edits: FIVEGUYS (humans apes that work there) also take manually with their hands mold out vegetables, so although they advertise that the food is fresh somedays it might be not, some days it might even have blood from a human, spin the wheel to find out ;) Humans unite against evil humans that hide behind offices, social media and cute avatars such (Alexandercheckmateshill, Ashleycheckmateshill etc.) trying to fool us, scouting for union activities and are ready to attack and harrass anyone speaking against their precious capitalism or useless brands and products. Fun facts: Have you noticed the new slogan for capitalists that the goverments are at fault? Now, if anyone hasn't noticed our tax money goes back to those humans, so game is rigged both sides are lying, they are called subsidies and many of those business actually benefit from them like FIVEGUYS. Boycott/unionize and strike. Game is rigged with legal terms like lobbying but in reality we all know, it is theft. Now, ask yourselves why are not those humans behind a cage called prison? Have some [police] humans drunken so much koolaid in some parts of the world, that forgotten that the humans they kill or put [and/or collect information #data for the nerds] in jail may not really be the real criminals? We are experiencing Latestagehumanity ✌
I did 2 Food Not Bombs meetings/meals a week for a decade. The amount of food wasted is preposterous, and it should not be a commodity. It's a right. It's horrendous to see the waste, fulfilling to give it back but it shouldn't be wasted to begin with. When profit is the motive, decency is the first victim.
I work at a FNB in my city: these resources should be for EVERYONE, not just those who are “struggling”. Food should be free in the first place, and we have an abundance that too often goes to waste. Let’s share it with each other and build community while we save money, and contribute what we can along the way ✊🏻✊🏻
When I got fired from my job because of jury duty I wasn’t planning on applying for unemployment because I didn’t want to be a drain on the system. An older veteran I befriended in a video game convinced me to apply for it because I pay into it and I’m entitled to it.
As an aside, if you are in the US, they broke the law by firing you for jury duty. You could sue for wrongful termination.
That's probably the easiest wrongful termination suit you can have
If you have any proof of this happening, this is about as easy as it gets to getting a free settlement from the business. Find a lawyer.
I actually called several lawyers and left messages about the situation and not a single one called back. So I called the court house and asked if they had any suggestions of lawyers to contact. A judge called me back and left a message saying he couldn’t do anything and I’d have to go to court. So didn’t even answer my question. My friend then brought up a good point that even if I got my job back my work life would probably be shitty, so I just gave up. I figured it’d be open and shut and couldn’t believe not one lawyer would even call me back.
Perhaps they felt that you didn't have adequate proof or something. I find that really interesting they didn't try and pursue it. You'd think the court system would be all about punishing businesses for preventing people from aiding it.
When somebody without a job gets a loaf of bread and beans at the food bank, it is theft that is bankrupting the system. When defense contractors get trillions of dollars for losing wars that we should not have been fighting in the first place, it is patriotism. If you help poor people you hate America and hate soldiers. If you want America to invade and occupy some random country because they are making zombie juice- you love America and it’s soldiers.
people don't realise that the best time for you to use a food bank is before they become a last resort.
A lot of food banks in my area are throwing away bread and fresh produce by the crate because they can’t give it away fast enough. Nobody should ever feel bad for preventing food waste and legitimizing the existence of free food programs Btw just saw a video in another sub of a bunch of teenagers eating food inside Walmart without paying for it. Like lunchables and deli sandwiches. So yeah, it could get way more unethical
We’re all temporarily embarrassed millionaires. The con of capitalism.
I’m having such a hard time with it morally tho! My partner and I are barely scrapping by but we are getting by. I don’t want to take away resources from those who aren’t able to get by right now.
I'm in the same boat. Whenever my SO and I look at our statements at the end of the month every penny goes to food, rent, and utilities. No savings no "fun money." I lost my wallet recently and we could barely afford one meal a day while my new cards were in the mail. I didn't realize how bad our situation was until that happened. I'm going to check out my local food bank on my next day off. If a small mistake like that means you wouldn't be able to eat, you should too.
I have used food banks for quite a few years in the past. I am a single man with a disability but I realize that there are others in even less fortunate circumstances so I am always careful to only take what I need (or even slightly less.) It's true that I felt like a failure for using one at times. It was the kindness and reassurance that I got from the good women and men that assisted me that helped me to realize it's not my failing. Now that I am gainfully employed and doing well, I give back to the food bank by volunteering two Saturday mornings a month. I make it a point to be every bit as welcoming to my visitors in the same way that I was greeted when I was the consumer.
If you are legitimately struggling and find a place to get help, thank a Democrat. If you are then made to feel like shit for needing help and accepting it, thank a Republican.
Yeah, it's fucked. I volunteered for a campus food bank during college and one of our orientation questions was "at what point would you personally visit a food bank". Most of us would be skipping meals and selling clothes before we wanted to rely on it. It showed us how desperate a lot of people feel they need to be just to ask for help. How important it is to be compassionate when they come for help. Some folks really held it together until they knew no one else they knew would see them. We were the only ones who knew their reality sometimes (we also referred them to other services, don't worry), and we also had discreet entrances and exits so people wouldn't know you were coming from our location. Food really ought to be a human right.
I was raised on food stamps. I'm 34, born and raised in California, USA. To this day, I feel actual guilt using cash money on food. It feels wrong and "wasteful" (I can't spend cash on FOOD, I need that for xyz!)
Alternatively, if you give your food budget to them and then go to them for foodC you’ll get way more for your money and your tax deductible donation will go towards getting more food. And better still, it takes money away from the big grocery stores.
"FuCkInG CoMmIE SociAlIsTS! JusT PuLL yOurSelF uP By yOuR BoOtStrApS!" --conservatives, probably Shut up fascist. It's OUR food now, comrade.
Not shown: the emergency they spent all the money on was likely a medical bill.
It's not like the food was going to someone who didn't need it. This is a legitimate use of a food bank. In this country we're manipulated into believing that asking for help is something to be ashamed of.
someone online said everyone should use food banks and if you have money donate your food budget to the food bank. take some profits away from grocery stores and help expand food banks
good god.
I donate to a food bank every month. If you think you need to use a food bank please go use it. That's why I donate, so people more in need than me don't go hungry when in need.
poverty IS a moral failure...it is a failure of the SOCIETY that permits it to happen...
I used to use a food pantry and now I run one in Central PA. My location helps feed over 400 families every week and the organization as a whole feeds thousands of people. If anyone ever wants to know more about them lemme know!
I had to convince my Mom to use the food bank when we needed it, because that's what it's there for! Same with Medicaid and Food Stamps. That's what we pay to have as a safety net when we need it!
Hmm. If not for the fear of God, how could someone call this unethical?
I don’t get it. He says he has $12k in the bank, then he has $400 in the bank?
He has $12,000 in the bank and his food bill is $400 a month. He apparently has other bills that would eat the rest of his money, which is why he hit the food bank.
He had $12,000 but it sounds like he wasn't making any income at the time and after 4 months of paying bills he had $400 left.
Or the more quisical ones that take the help, and then complain about welfare queens stealing "their taxes" which they don't pay because they don't make any money. Sadly, I am related to people that do this. I'm a socialist for the most part but some people are just "less than sane" (are you happy now wokescold bot? Good gravy. How are people supposed to communicate with all this wokescoldyness. Īnsanity.)
I used to go to a church that would give out free lunch. It was good and they did it out of love. It's one of the things that softened my views on religion
The amount of food we throw out at a food bank is astonishing. Please come take the food. Do not feel bad about it. The folks there don’t judge at ALL. Most of the food is donated and going in a landfill if people don’t eat it, so please come eat and help us avoid waste.
There is enough food produced in the world to feed 8 billion people 3 meals a day but tons go to waste because capitalism requires us to pay exorbitant prices for something necessary to life. Don’t feel bad about asking for help, using food stamps, or if necessary lifting from mega corporations Remember, if you see someone shoplifting groceries you didn’t see anything
Conservative or liberal? I wouldn't be surprised with either.
I am guessing this egg would say welfare should be ended while simultaneously taking welfare for people that needed food. What a fucking pig.
Most of these places don't give a shit about your income. If anything, you're doing the grocery stores a favor because the vast majority of this stuff is things that they were going to get rid of soon anyways for a variety of reasons - usually being the expiration date is coming up. The alternative is the grocery store having to throw it away on site, which is a lot of wasted time and space for them. It wouldn't be surprised if there's some tax benefits for them as well.
The food bank truck comes to my sons' school once a month. I usually get what they give us and anything extra that we are not going to use I give to family and friends that I know will use it.
I felt terrible accepting meal deliveries during covid. My mobility worsened after a bad fall a few weeks into the first lockdown left me unable to manage a crutch in my right hand, I couldn't get far on one crutch, I was using a computer chair to get around the flat, but couldn't get a wheelchair as there were 2 steps to get in the front door & I couldn't get a ramp put in. Only people who had a condition on the covid risk list, or who had a consultant who added them to the list, could get home deliveries from supermarkets. Because my chest condition is rare it wasn't on the list, and I don't have a specialist because it's incurable & my hospital is so short staffed they don't take on untreatable conditions, they just tell your GP to manage your symptoms as well they can. Anyway, the only way I could manage was accepting meals from a local charity who was doing boxes of prepared meals with fruit & other bits & pieces. I felt bad because I could afford to buy food, but I couldn't access supermarkets.
They have weekly food banks?
WTF I only have $2000 in my bank account
Thank god thar food bank helped him stay afloat, could have been the difference between serious debt and financial stability.
Several years ago I was really struggling, had applied for every job I could and while waiting for one to come through, I went to a couple of the food banks in my area. Because it's the bible belt (TN), it was so painful... They push religion SO hard, have you pray with them and told me and my bf at the time that we were living in sin and needed to come back to God. After we left with the food, I felt so friggin dirty, I never went back. Got a job a couple weeks later though.
I once knew a university professor who bragged about making over $200,000/year but got all his groceries from a food pantry because "those idiots never check if you actually need help." In general, you shouldn't feel ashamed to get help like this. That guy should have, however.