Member-only story
Being Food Insecure in the Pandemic
It is raining. And I’m in my car that I don’t know how I’m gonna pay for, but that’s further off. They don’t repossess cars for months. An average human being can go for three weeks without eating.
I know going hungry will solve nothing for anyone. It is scary. I am viciously triaging my needs, as we all are to one extent or another now. It isn’t yet clear if or when a shelter-in-place order will come or how much it might stop grocery trips.
They don’t want to let anyone inside the food pantry because of fears of the pandemic. Which makes perfect sense. So we wait in a line of cars in the rain. People come out, volunteers. They’re donating of themselves by meeting a bunch of strangers to make sure that those strangers can eat.
Many of these volunteers are not young. They are literally risking their lives to make sure that strangers can eat. One of the most gracious charitable things I’ve witnessed.
Like the man directing the incoming cars, greying hair and a very warm smile, he gets me a one page form to fill out, on a clip board, that I’ll give to the people dispensing food. When I’m finished he comes back to my window and says, “oh good, I can use that,” about the clipboard and hurries back to the line behind me.
