Off the keyboard of RE
Follow us on Twitter @doomstead666
Friend us on Facebook
Published on the Doomstead Diner on November 7, 2014
Discuss this article at the Diner Pantry
Day 1: Thursday, November 6, 2014
As I mentioned over in The SNAP Card Gourmet thread, in conjunction with trying to live on a Poverty Level Budget, I am also Volunteering at one of the local privately run Food Charity Pantries on Thursdays. The Pantry is staffed by Volunteers and is Open Mon-Thu from 1-5PM.
It is housed in an old building with no markings, you have to know it is there and what it is. It is on an oddly shaped triangular piece of property across from a defunct rail line in Palmer AK. I’ll get some pics eventually, but for the first day I didn’t want to put off any of the people by shooting pics. It was at one time a home, then a local grocery store for a while, at least that is what one of the veteran volunteers told me. I don’t know how long it has been operating as a Food Charity Pantry.
The sources of Food come from Da Federal Goobermint, local Farmers, local Food Stores that donate some stuff, and Food Drives done by various churches and organizations like the Boy Scouts etc. The Mormons dropped on us several ENORMOUS bags of powdered milk and flour and dried beans that have to be divied up into individual portions.
There are regulations of course that have to be followed from Da Goobermint on handing out the Goobermint stuff, there appears to be more discretion in distributing out the stuff that is donated by private organizations. For Da Goobermint stuff, you can come in once a month, and by no means could you feed yourself on just this stuff. However, observing the size of the boxes and what went in them given to the patrons who came in today, in total I think you probably can make it through 2 weeks at least on one of these boxes.
Getting my feet wet today, my first job was in taking various boxes of Donated Canned Food and placing on the shelves by type. Canned Chili goes here, canned veggies there, tomato sauce another shelf, etc. It’s not too carefully organized because what you get in changes all the time, although some things are very regular, like canned soups.
Organizing up the latest round of donations with one other Veteran Volunteer took about 2 hours. The Canned Food area is in a room about 400 sq ft I would estimate, but very odd dimensions so it is tough to be exact. Also in this area is a large Walk-In Freezer where much of the Meat and Fish is stored, but there also are 2 or 3 other large Chest Freezers which have a lot of perishable meats in them as well.
After finishing organizing up the Canned Goods, my next project was making Bags of Spuds from large 50 lb bags donated by local Alaska Farmers and stored down in the Basement, which is very cool and good storage place for root veggies. I used old shopping bags from stores to make each portion, which was about 5 lbs. After bagging and tying them up, I brought them upstairs to the main distribution room, and the clients could take one on the way out the door. Not sure if everyone was eligible though for one of these bags.
Far as the patrons are concerned, it was mostly Old Folks today, though there were some teenagers as well who came along with grandma and carried out her stuff. Mostly White folks. When I dropped in there last week to Volunteer, there was a family of four with 2 little girls around 5 and 8 or so, they were Natives.
Over the 4 hour period we were Open today, I would estimate we served around 16-20 people/families, around 4-5/hour. There is one person working at the laptop checking off what is given out to each person and they have a certain amount of flexibility in selecting stuff to go in their box, so each person takes 10-15 minutes to serve. Another Volunteer goes and finds the stuff they ask for if we have it. With One Trip per Family allowed per month, with 4 days of operation/week, we can probably serve around 350 folks in need of Food Assistance. There are I think 2 other Food Pantry Charities in the neighborhood, if they are similar in size, then total would be around 1000 Families/month, which I think is plenty for our size community right now, since total population of Palmer is only around 6500 Human Souls. In order to be Eligible, you have to prove your Residency in Palmer, and have your Social Security Card, proof of Income etc. I am not sure yet what the income eligibility requirements are, how low your income needs to be. Over 60 folks do seem to have additional eligibility, not sure how that works yet either.
Given that Palmer is a Farming community with a small population, I think it would be quite easy to ramp up similar Food Distribution to serve more of the population if/when there is Dollar Collapse and failure of JIT shipping. However, over time the amount of Canned Goods would begin to disappear, and this would have to be compensated for by what can be produced locally. The variety would drop considerably of course. However, as long as the transition was made over a couple of years, I don’t see any reason why anybody up here would Starve or need to go Cannibalistic.
Other things I am not yet certain of is how this works in conjunction with the SNAP Card program. I THINK it is entirely separate, even the Federal Goobermint end, so you can get a Box of Food from us in ADDITION to what you can buy with your SNAP card. Together, this is DEFINITELY plenty of food to eat each month. I am pretty sure you also could hit the other Food Charities here once a month, because this is not Networked so nobody at one Charity knows what another Charity has handed out to a given Family.
It would be much harder/impossible to do something similar in Big Shities, because the population is so large and because once JIT distribution fails, these locations do not have local food production to fall back on. Another good reason to GTFO of Dodge and move to a low population zone with local food production.
It’s really nice to be doing something Local now as well as writing on the net in covering the collapse. All the folks volunteering were nice Old Ladies, I was the only Male there, although there is supposedly one other guy who volunteers and drives around to make Pickups from the local farms. We are fortunate that real collapse hasn’t hit up here yet, although definitely there is a significant portion of the population in need of Food Assistance. Since the SNAP Card program probably will not last in perpetuity, it is important to get these Local Food Charities functioning well to be able to handle larger numbers as time goes by here and more folks fall off the economic cliff.
I will keep a Diary here of my days working at the Pantry. It’s a very good feeling inside doing this, so I recommend it to every Doomer not himself or herself yet off the cliff. Even the Bible says this is a good thing to do.
Matthew 25:35
For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,
Isaiah 58:10
If you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday.
Proverbs 28:27
Whoever gives to the poor will not want, but he who hides his eyes will get many a curse.
James 2:14-18
What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
On this topic, Panentheists and Christians (real ones) can agree.
RE
“it is important to get these Local Food Charities functioning well to be able to handle larger numbers as time goes by here and more folks fall off the economic cliff.”
The problem seems to be finding the food for the food banks, Can your food bank ramp up more food for more numbers that easily? In a collapse with no power then what.
I love your optimism but it seems a bit overly optimistic. Maybe its just me but I think food is going to be much harder to come by in a collapse. I also think farmers are going to have a much harder time maintaining and fueling equipment to produce food as well as getting and paying for fertilizer for their fields. Not sure the food bank is the solution. Working at the farm for food might be whats required. A hoe and shovel might be the tools of the trade that are needed and a rifle for guard duty at night watching over the fields and pastures.
Sorry forgot to add, The Christian virtues are exactly whats missing in this country and why we are were we are today. Very few give a shit about their fellow man. Maybe thats why the food banks are struggling so badly to stock shelves.
Gooberment schools feed kids a Michael Obama approved breakfast and lunch. Old people can get hot meals on wheels delivered several times a week. Gooberment gives SNAP to everyone to load the cart up with lobster, sugary soda, ding-dongs and Cheetos, and to pay for meals at McShits. Hit up food pantry monthly for bags of stuff. Poor people in 3rd world countries are malnourished and skinny, our poor are morbidly obese because they are being fed 6 free meals a day. It takes money and effort to be trim and fit in our society; it is most often attained by higher status, wealthier people who can afford to eat gluten free, exotic imported “super foods”, paleo, vegan, personal trainer, organic, GMO free, no sugar, yoga class, vitamix, detox, small plate “tapas” at the swanky hipster restaurant, spin class, fitness bootcamp, etc etc ad nauseum. Think of Gweneth Paltrow’s GOOP lifestyle and barf. Poor people just get stuffed full of free shitty food 6 meals a day and blow up like beached whales.
In the wild you don’t see any ‘skinny’ lions or tigers. Know why? Because they die. Only the fittest survive.
Should be no different for the human race. IMO – if you can’t even feed yourself – what good are you?
To quote the article: “Since the SNAP Card program probably will not last in perpetuity”
This guy is fucked up! He wants to perpetuate SNAP! What a moron.
Nice RE. Our church has a food pantry, and we also do a program where we deliver meals to underprivileged every Sunday. No requirements to get a meal. The good news is that local folks often donate meat from the farm or wild game.
I work in our local food bank. We give food out to around 80 people each month. It’s connected to St. Mary’s, A catholic organization. The man who mainly run’s the place has a van(contributed by a car dealer) and has certain store’s he get’s food from. The only beef i have had . Is the amunt of bakery goods given out,Lots of donut type of stuff.We do give out beans and pasta and potatoe’s, Vegetables also,funny how people don’t like veggies.But otherwise it’s a good thing as far as i can tell.
This is a small town though.
Next to my favorite PM dealer there is a “church” that operates a food bank. On my ritualistic Saturday morning PM buying trips there are about 150 to 200 “poor” people milling about waiting for their free shit. Me and the guys at the PM shop get a kick out of watching the ignorant……..I mean indigent people pull up in their Mercedes and BMW’s to get their free shit when their name is called. One guy even has the balls to drive up in a fucking red Ferrari! Happens every week without fail. If I ran that “church”, no one driving a luxury car would get so much as a rotten tomato.
“In the wild you don’t see any ‘skinny’ lions or tigers. Know why? Because they die. Only the fittest survive.”-DM
You see skinny predators all the time in the wild. Whenever there is a drought and the amount of prey drops, the predators go hungry. This is a problem of a lack of food.
There is no lack of food here, what you have is a distribution problem because the money created by the oligarchy is not moving through the economy, so more people all the time do not have money to buy the food.
Up here prior to the invasion of the Europeans food was distributed through the Potlatch Economy, which is a Gift economy. This is a much more just type of distribution system.
Ideally, once the centralized industrial food production model collapses, we will have grow domes and aquaculture tanks maintained and operated by our community and be able to continue the process of distributing food to those in need.
RE
@RE: “Up here prior to the invasion of the Europeans ”
Is this some sort of joke? Before the Europeans the injuns were shitting in the weeds. Sure it worked for them cause there was only a miniscule population density.
A Gift economy? Isn’t that Section 8 / SNAP / AFDC / Medicaid ………
Damn, your alerting on anything an everything. Just keep telling yourself, greed is good.
“Is this some sort of joke? Before the Europeans the injuns were shitting in the weeds. Sure it worked for them cause there was only a miniscule population density.”-DM
Population density here is still pretty low.
Estimates for Alaska had between 60-100K Aleut, Inuit, Haida and Tlingit occupying the territory in the 1500s before the Ruskies started showing up. There’s around 650K people here now, but even without fossil fuels we have much better food production and collection methods available. Feeding 650K people would not be difficult at all, in fact you could do it just from the fisherie if you stopped exporting the fish to Japan, China and the Lower 48.
The Potlatch Economy of the Pacific Northwest was very well developed, and besides Alaska incorporated Tribes down through Washington and Oregon into California. Estimates are total around 250K to 350K people were part of this larger system.
[img
[/img]
There is no reason a similar economy cannot be developed, beyond the prejudices of people who believe in monetary systems and who live selfish and greedy lives.
RE
Hopefully ur done pissing and moaning about your pantry and u filled it up while you were typing ur bullshit. Sounds like you have an early winter storm heading your way. I’m hearing it’s gonna be a motherfucker. Good luck and hopefully you are not too close to the waves.
Good luck
That storm is out in the Bering Sea. Weather around here is average, in the 30s mostly. No snow cover yet. Pretty windy though most days.
RE
There is no reason a similar economy cannot be developed, beyond the prejudices of people who believe in monetary systems and who live selfish and greedy lives.
That’s poetic or philosophical. It reminds me of the story of Alan Ginsburg, he told his shrink what he real wanted to do was write poetry. The shrink asked him, why don’t you do it? Alan worried that other shrinks might not agree. The doc said, we have no party line.
I use to worry my opinions wouldn’t fit here but now I just worry when others start agreeing too much, either they aren’t thinking or I’m totally wrong. Nah.
What a remarkable tale RE. It is most gratifying to see you performing such magnanimous constructive deeds.
Your writing in this posting also has a quality and demeanor about it that is lacking in most of your other gonzo style postings.
Sincere, down to earth, workable community charity and community interest and care for those in need. This work has given me an entirely different view of you and your character
I salute your community spirit; and hope that my postings and ideas were prominent in this wonderful direction you have taken.
Regards and Thanks for your splendid contribution. GO
[img
[/img]
There but for fortune GO, go you or go I.
RE
True RE, and most fortunately for us.
Some poor folks seem truly screwed by circumstances way beyond their control or doing.
It has always been a problem for me spiritually, wondering why a just loving God would create or allow so much misery, and to what purpose.
While I was jesting with you previously, in all seriousness your work at the food pantry is just marvelous.
Anything folks can do to alleviate the misery of others is a noble activity, worthy of much praise and thanks.
Looking forward to more articles on your experiences and the people at the pantry. The elderly ladies must be a most enjoyable group to be around. I conjured up images of Aunt Bee on the old Andy Griffith show when you mentioned them.
[img
[/img]
It’s quite EZ these days to become mired in Negativity, it’s all Hopeless, Mad Max is around the corner, Near Term Human Extinction, yadda yadda.
Metaphors abound here, Darwinian Survival of the Fittest, as though sitting in front of a Bloomberg Terminal pulling down 7 Digit Bonuses makes you “fit”, or even chopping wood down some dirt road in Appalachia makes you “fit”. Foolish thinking of foolish people.
As a society, as a species we have to remake ourselves, and leaving behind greed and selfishness and realizing we are not the Masters of Nature, but Nature is Our Master is what we must do to survive.
All depend on each other. No Man is an Island
“XVII. MEDITATION
[img
[/img]
PERCHANCE he for whom this bell tolls may be so ill, as that he knows not it tolls for him; and perchance I may think myself so much better than I am, as that they who are about me, and see my state, may have caused it to toll for me, and I know not that. The church is Catholic, universal, so are all her actions; all that she does belongs to all. When she baptizes a child, that action concerns me; for that child is thereby connected to that body which is my head too, and ingrafted into that body whereof I am a member. And when she buries a man, that action concerns me: all mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated; God employs several translators; some pieces are translated by age, some by sickness, some by war, some by justice; but God’s hand is in every translation, and his hand shall bind up all our scattered leaves again for that library where every book shall lie open to one another. As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come, so this bell calls us all; but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness. There was a contention as far as a suit (in which both piety and dignity, religion and estimation, were mingled), which of the religious orders should ring to prayers first in the morning; and it was determined, that they should ring first that rose earliest. If we understand aright the dignity of this bell that tolls for our evening prayer, we would be glad to make it ours by rising early, in that application, that it might be ours as well as his, whose indeed it is. The bell doth toll for him that thinks it doth; and though it intermit again, yet from that minute that that occasion wrought upon him, he is united to God. Who casts not up his eye to the sun when it rises? but who takes off his eye from a comet when that breaks out? Who bends not his ear to any bell which upon any occasion rings? but who can remove it from that bell which is passing a piece of himself out of this world?
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were: any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee. Neither can we call this a begging of misery, or a borrowing of misery, as though we were not miserable enough of ourselves, but must fetch in more from the next house, in taking upon us the misery of our neighbours. Truly it were an excusable covetousness if we did, for affliction is a treasure, and scarce any man hath enough of it. No man hath affliction enough that is not matured and ripened by and made fit for God by that affliction. If a man carry treasure in bullion, or in a wedge of gold, and have none coined into current money, his treasure will not defray him as he travels. Tribulation is treasure in the nature of it, but it is not current money in the use of it, except we get nearer and nearer our home, heaven, by it. Another man may be sick too, and sick to death, and this affliction may lie in his bowels, as gold in a mine, and be of no use to him; but this bell, that tells me of his affliction, digs out and applies that gold to me: if by this consideration of another’s danger I take mine own into contemplation, and so secure myself, by making my recourse to my God, who is our only security.”
RE
yahsure,
Yes, a lot of carbs being handed out to those folks, which is one of the reasons so many poor are obese.
Killing them with kindness? Wicked choices there.
Maybe in time, you can influence a shift in what goes in those food bags and boxes.
But I sure don’t know how you force adults to eat their veggies.
One In Three Children Are Under The Poverty Line In This Developed Nation.
[The following post is by TDV Chief Editor, Jeff Berwick]
I often call the US a “third world country”. Of course, in some ways I am kidding as the original meaning of 1st, 2nd or 3rd world countries was the following:
After World War II the world split into two large geopolitical blocs and spheres of influence with contrary views on government and the politically correct society:
1 – The bloc of democratic-industrial countries within the American influence sphere, the “First World”.
2 – The Eastern bloc of the communist-socialist states, the “Second World”.
3 – The remaining three-quarters of the world’s population, states not aligned with either bloc were regarded as the “Third World.”
4 – The term “Fourth World”, coined in the early 1970s by Shuswap Chief George Manuel, refers to widely unknown nations (cultural entities) of indigenous peoples, “First Nations” living within or across national state boundaries.
In those terms, the US is clearly not a “third world country” as the meaning of a 1st world country is that it is under the American influence.
However, this term has now morphed over time so that people call a generally poor and dangerous country a “third world country”.
In those terms the US fits the bill more-and-more every year.
The United States is a terrible place to raise children, according to a new report from UNICEF. Nearly one-third of US children are currently living in households with an income below 60 percent of the national median income for 2008: $31,000 per year.
That might sound like a lot of money, and at one time it was. But thanks to a little understood economic tool known as inflation, $30,000 is not what it used to be. As Wikipedia explains,
In economics, inflation is a sustained increase in the general price level of goods and services in an economy over a period of time. When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services. Consequently, inflation reflects a reduction in the purchasing power per unit of money – a loss of real value in the medium of exchange and unit of account within the economy. A chief measure of price inflation is the inflation rate, the annualized percentage change in a general price index (normally the consumer price index) over time.
Inflation is something of which the American consumer is well-aware. It is a constant reality in the USSA.
[img
[/img]
Link below to entire article with many graphs of interest included.
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheDollarVigilanteBlog/~3/CPLhuHDUkPs/one-in-three-children-are-under-the-poverty-line-in-this-dev.html
A large part of the reason poor folks are obese is because cheap foods are deficient in vitamins and loaded with high fructose corn syrup.
One of the things you can do in distributing out food is to encourage better choices, since the food is coming free either way.
What is tougher to do is to get the people who donate food to make good choices in donations. One of the Diners mentioned though that in some places the pantries will hand out double portions to folks who will take fresh veggies.
RE
If I am ever street people, freezing my balls off outside and starving; please, feed me anything you want and don’t worry about my friggin waist line or daily vitamin intake PLEASE.
I’ll take anything, stale bread, twinkies, candy, hot dogs, potato chips, pepsi, a slice of pizza, anything you got please, fresh veggies as well but not a requirement.
[img
[/img]
This type of Food Assistance doesn’t help Homeless people. In order to be Eligible, you have to show Proof of Residence in Palmer, and Homeless people don’t have a residence.
Mainly it helps the Working Poor, Elderly on Fixed Incomes and people recently Unemployed but who have not yet been evicted or foreclosed on.
Besides this, it’s difficult to store and cook food if you are Homeless. Soup Kitchens with prepared meals are the way to go for this, but we don’t have any here that I know of, other than Thanksgiving and Christmas when numerous churches do Dinners for the poor.
RE
That is a GREAT Classic Rock Tune EC! I will add it to the Diner Juke Box!
Thanks!
RE