The United States has coined a new phrase about hunger. It's called "food insecurity". I think of that as meaning that families are not always sure where their next meal will come from, and it bothers me that people in this abundant country should have to endure that. Although I'm aware that it isn't a matter of levity for many, I'd like to wisecrack that I, most obviously, haven't missed any meals.
Throughout this whole pandemic, where people have lost jobs because the workplaces have shut down due to the Coronavirus, there have been changes in availability of foods and necessary products, tied up with the ability to pay for what one needs. For quite awhile, as an example, toilet paper was hard to find. (Toilet paper, for God's sake!)
Here is the progression of how I was affected by food insecurity and the COVID-19 pandemic:
1. In March of 2019, I was preparing to fly to the Seattle area where my daughter and family lived. They were going on a vacation to Canada, but my teenaged grandson and their cat would stay behind. I was being flown in to be Chief Cook and Bottle Washer, and Cat Sitter. The pandemic, which had been building for awhile, hit like a hurricane along about the same time, with the Seattle area being the actual entrance place of the virus in the US. In short, I would be flying right into a hotbed of contagion. I was/am considered "high risk" due to my age and underlying conditions, so I was preparing for the worst. My daughter sent me a couple of N95 masks and some gloves to wear on the flight. I purchased some Clorox wipes to stash in my handbag. And all the while, Megan (my daughter) was advising me that it wasn't too late to back out.
I worried about that. Virtually everything I was reading in the media was screaming at me not to go. I mean, if I went and caught COVID anywhere along the way, it would be my own fault...but...if I didn't go, my family would have to cancel their trip, and that was more than I could bear because--you guessed it--I would feel that also to be my fault. (Guilt: The Gift That Keeps On Giving!) Finally, I applied Murphy's Law to the proposed trip: suppose I was exposed to the virus somewhere in the airports or flight? The kids would leave on their trip, and I'd come down with the virus thereafter. Suppose I needed medical attention? Although Ryan and I would have a car available to us, he didn't have a driver's license, and I had no clue where to go. What if I had to call 911 for transport to a medical facility, leaving Ryan home alone with the cat until his parents could get home, which could have taken days. What if? What if? What if? Worse yet was the thought that I could bring the disease into their house and infect my family. (That would also be my fault.) Finally, with only a week left before my flight to Sea-Tac, I regretfully cancelled. My family ultimately cancelled their vacation, never blaming me once. (I think reality had also hit them.) And the rest is history. Much of the social world shut down, and so did I. Thus, I haven't seen my beloved family since Christmas of 2019, and it kills me.
2. What does all of this have to do with food insecurity? Quite a bit! With only "essential services" still up and running, schools closed, churches closed, etc., people were all at home wondering how to manage. Grocery stores were inundated, which ran them out of food staples in no time. Food processing companies were scrambling to keep up with demand, in spite of employees getting sick, etc. MANY companies stopped making their variety offerings and focused on just the basics to keep their product out there. Shelves were bare of the basics. If people couldn't find bread, they would make their own, so flour and sugar disappeared. Sanitation products became scarce. Canned food shelves were empty. Paper products were non-existent.
My parents were raised in the Great Depression. Both of them knew how to make food stretch. That is my legacy. I know how to make a meal out of scraps, but the meals still require basics: eggs, butter, flour, sugar, etc., and when those things are hard to find, things get tricky even for someone who is resourceful. I was thankful that I had people--mostly former students--who were looking out for me and would ask if I needed anything. At one point, I remember my GS Cookie dealer asking that, since she would be in Plainfield regularly, and I mentioned that I was out of Bisquick. So were the stores, but she and her mom went all around and came up with a substitute pancake mix that worked for what I needed.
What happened during the thin times was that I came to know that I could prepare anything I wanted if I just had the ingredients. Thus, I began to collect ingredients. Sometimes, it took weeks to find the ingredients I needed for my favorite dishes, and many fresh vegetable items rotted before I could get everything together to make them. I kept trying.
I am not a rich person. My retirement annual income is quite a bit lower than $30k, but my house is paid off and I'm scraping by so much better than I once did. At this juncture, I pay more for groceries because A) I buy items from Schwan, and B) I have Shipt do my grocery shopping and delivery for me to keep me out of stores and other public places. Every once in awhile, I actually go into a store.
3. There are so many people so much worse off than I am. I do everything I can to support them...some personal friends...and some people I don't even know. There is a fellow out of Bothell, WA, on the west side of the Cascades near Seattle, who discovered that farmer friends in his home town east of the Cascades were getting ready to plow under their potato crops because their restaurant buyers had dried up. This guy borrowed a truck and asked for volunteers to help on a local Facebook website. They drove to ONE potato farm to collect a few hundred pounds of potatoes to take to the west side of the Cascades for food banks. In VERY short order, The EastWest Food Rescue was born, and expanded into a huge project as a non-profit organization. People are being fed because of one man's vision. I'm not hungry, thank God, but I want everyone to have the blessings that I have. Any chance I get, I financially support the means to get food to people who need it more than I do!
Jesus was clear on the topic: "If you love me, feed my sheep." It shouldn't take a pandemic for those of us who are fed to help those who aren't. We are quick to collect and distribute food during the holidays, but hunger doesn't stop with one meal. It takes commitment to help folks. There should be no hunger in the United States of America.
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