Okay, I'm sorry but the WaPo story on the middle class getting their food from food banks (titled "Whole Foods to Food Bank") kinda disgusted me.
The Germantown woman was loading boxes of food from the Manna food bank into a shiny sport-utility vehicle one recent afternoon when she was approached by a donor dropping off food.
"What group are you with?" the donor asked the woman, who promptly burst into tears. With her Toyota Sequoia and quilted Vera Bradley bag, she had been mistaken for a volunteer -- rather than a client waiting to take home a bag of potatoes.
"I'm a mother of four just trying to feed my kids," the woman sobbed to the donor, who was taken aback, then sympathetic.
...
Out in the Manna parking lot, the Germantown woman -- who was visiting the food bank for the second time and did not want her name used to spare her children embarrassment -- was inspecting her food allotment with the zeal of a soccer mom at Whole Foods. She turned to Manna for help after her husband refinanced their home into a costly subprime mortgage and then moved out. She has been able to get the mortgage modified, but her finances remain precarious.
She checked the expiration date on a carton of soy milk, unscrewed the lid of a jar of organic peanut butter to make sure it was sealed and read the label on a tube of ground turkey. The turkey did not pass muster, and she politely returned it to a Manna staffer. "I don't know what's in it," she explained.
"It's a double-edged sword," she said. "You can't go without food, but certain foods at Manna, no way I'm going to feed my kids. It's kind of snotty." She rejoiced in a big bag of day-old bagels, sport drinks and doughnuts, treats she could no longer afford to buy her sons.
I'm not quick to violence, but I would have punched the lady if I was that food bank volunteer. Here's a lady rolling up in her $40k SUV that only takes items like soy milk and organic peanut butter. She rejects the ground turkey because it didn't pass muster? She's supposedly there to feed her kids because she can't afford food, her half million dollar house (in that area, it may be more), and her $40k SUV.
At the least they should have taken the food they gave her and given it to people that really need it. I'm a big believer in helping those that are needy. Food banks are having a ton of trouble right now (please donate if you are able) and this lady acts like this? You ask for help, you take what you can get. If you aren't at that point of taking what you can get, you don't need a food bank. Be thankful that there are people to help to you when you need it and remember that when you are blessed to have material possessions.
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