The economy has many people wondering what they will eat from meal to meal. Many are not getting well balanced meals and many are only getting one or less meals a day. Yes, it is true that many people are going to bed hungry each night.
The purpose of this post is to educate you of some programs that you may or may not be aware of. In the United States, there are government programs in EVERY state. It is run by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). This program sees that each state has government food to be distributed to those in need. This food is distributed to a food bank from the USDA and then the food bank distributes it to the local food pantries in each county.
The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) is a Federal program that helps supplement the diets of low-income needy persons, including elderly people, by providing them with emergency food and nutrition assistance.
The USDA site has links to cookbooks developed for Household Programs which include the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP), Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR, and The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP). These cookbooks are Free to download.
There is alist of food that may be available in your local food pantry available from the USDA. They offer frozen meats, fresh vegetables and canned meats as well as canned fruits and vegatables. You can add more nutritutional food to your families diet by going to your local food pantry.
If you cannot find a food pantry near you, just find the food bank in your state and call them. They can tell you where your nearest food pantry is. Food Banks do not serve families or individuals. They serve the food pantries. The food pantries serve the people.
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Comments: 47
Thanks for sharing.
No emergency food assistance given unless your go througha disater. Such as house burned down, hurricane, etc. Or you just entered the USA from another country. Anything else you get sent to local food banks. Most of which you can only go every three months. Only two I know you can go every month.
call the Salvation Army, see if they have a volunteer program for you they might be able to atl east pickup your Angel Fod box and THIOSE ARE a good deal, and see if you can get in the Meals On Wheels, (they ain't great tasting but they is free...).
good luck bud.
Lloyd
Rob, I know what you mean. My dad is in a similar situation. He gets about 880.00 in social security, by the time they take their part out, and that is not much for rent, power, heat, etc. He still has very expensive prescriptions that Humana doesn't cover. By the time he is done, there is almost nothing for food. It's sad, and I'm sorry you are going through it.
You need to check the links I have posted above. I ran a county wide food pantry for over 20 years and I know the food is there. The governement does give it to the food pantries but they do have to follow gov guidelines. Maybe the food pantry you are going to is not a member of the governement run program.
The guidelines go up each year so if you did not quailfy last year, you may this year.
In our area the Senior Citizens deliver meals each weekday. They are not the meals on wheels program. They deliver for free to seniors and handicap individuals.
Also many Churches pay for handicapped individuals to have food delivered to their homes once a month from local grocers. I know because I delivered food from the grocery store that I worked for to many handicapped people. I also took care of the checks from the churches each month
Is there a Catholic Community Services (CCS) near you? I think they have changed their name now though. They have a program that gets volunteers to help people who need someone to pick up food, take them to drs etc for free. Even though they are called Catholic . . . the money comes from many churches to pay the fees. The person who is in charge is Catholic though.
I had to close ours down this summer. I was too sick to go out and get money to pay the bills and such. Nobody else would. I kept it open as long as I could. Roger was doing my part for the last few months it was open and he could not do it and work too. Sad
We gave Del Monte canned food from the governement and the 5 pound boxes of the best cheese you ever eat. We gave away crackers and canned beef, pork and other foods. It was quality food.
I know that some churches that do Angel Food will deliver in special circumstances. We don't have it up here, but back home, one of the churches in the area does it, and since it's a small church, they ask for volunteers from my brother's church (he's a pastor) to help out with it every other month. They have 4 or 5 people that they deliver to that can't come out for it. They aren't all elderly either. One is blind, and one, like Rob, is missing a leg.
We are on the WIC program and we get lots of free milk, eggs, cheese, juice, and cereal each month. It really helps out a lot. When we first moved and they were not able to get me in right away for an appt to get my new checks the lady sent me to the food pantry with a paper and they gave us I think like 3 bags of groceries that included sugar, tuna, hamburger, mac n cheese, peanut butter, cereal, bread and tons of other stuff.
When we lived in FL we used to always do our grocery shopping at Save-A-Lot and would spend about $40/week for groceries for the 3 of us. The food is mostly generic brands but is a lot cheaper. About once a month we would spend a little more and buy extra meat and stuff, then portion the hamburger, pork, or whatever out into bags and freeze for separate meals, so we could have meat every night.
Good post. We need to keep sharing what is out there and what new stuff pops up as things change.
I was told that food stamps are available for seniors and anyone under a certain income but not sure what it is and it sure takes a lot of time at the County office to get those foodstamps. Supposedly after 1/20 food stamps will get more available with looser rules.