What is the worst thing you have done to eat when you were poor?

[Maleficent13]

Shugardrawers, your story made me cry.

I am grateful and fortunate that we have always had food.

 

[disneyaggie]

I remember several years ago, I was struggling so hard financially. The company I worked at had our paychecks and our mileage reimbursement checks bounce. So every check I had written off of them had bounced. First time in my whole life I had this happen. I lost thousands of dollars total in salary, reimbursements and bounced check charges (money I did not have just laying around). I had to cash in what little savings I had and my small 401k to at least cover my checks.

I remember being so careful with my checkbook that I just prayed, "Please Lord, do not let me mis-add and bounce a check". I remember little beads of sweat forming on my upper lip everytime I dinked away at the calculator for the final total while balancing my checkbook, praying that I would have at least 5 cents in my account to keep it positive. Every month God provided.

It was during this time I budgeted out $1.00 a day for lunch. I remember going through my coat pockets, old purses and anywhere else I could find loose change to pay the 7 cents for the tax. Thank the Dear Lord McDonalds and Wendy's had their $1.00 menus. That saved me! I also was able to find something in the pantry that I had stocked before my financial crash took place. I will always thank God for helping me through this and I am always thankful for everything I now have and am even more sensitive to those who are not as fortunate.

 

[mainewmn]

Food stamps would have to be about the most humiliating experience I ever had to go through in order to get food for my guys. However even that wasn’t enough to last me a month with 2 kids so I use to feed the kids first and only eat what was leftover of their food after. During that time I also worked at a restaurant where they feed the wait stuff one meal off the selected menu for free during your working hours. I also remember counting in my head everything I would add to the basket because I didn’t want to get to the register and not have enough $ to pay for it.

Thankfully this was a LONG time ago and we no longer have to do that. I have since finished college and remarried. Reading this thread tough made me realize just how rich we all are having had the chance to travel, have food in cabinets and other “luxuries” while there are others out there that don’t even have enough food.

 

[Miss Jasmine]

I am very thankful that I can say that the worst time foodwise I went through was being a poor college student living on ramen or scraping up enough money for one meal that day at the all-you-can eat place.

Some of these stories make me want to cry.

 

[LukenDC]

When I was nine, my family was very poor. One day we did not have enough food in the house, so my mom made hashbrowns with potatoes that had gone bad. It was such a hideous meal that to this day I cannot eat hashbrowns.

 

[Mom21]

I posted this as a kind of silly thread. Now I am sitting here crying. I am so sorry for any person that really doesn't have enough to eat. Like I said I just struggled a bit, but nothing like some of you have. What some people don't realize is that this is so common in our country. One of the richest countries in the world, and we have children starving everyday. My dd has never knows this type of suffering and likely never will. Makes me think. What can I do to help? Where do we start? We are so lucky.

 

[jennyl772003]

I remember eating government cheese growing up. My mom would make us powdered milk to drink. We also had the free lunch at school.

The worst was when my son was an infant. His bio dad (my BF at the time) wasn't able to hold a job. I had worked until the day before DS was born, but couldn't go back right away since DS had some health problems.

We ate a lot of dinners at mom and dad's, but the worst was when a friend of BF's brought over food from his church's food pantry for us. I just felt so helpless.

I ate a lot of rice back then. I would boil it up and pour milk and sugar over it. The other meal I ate a lot of was sugar toast. It's probably no surprise that at 2 weeks post partum I weighed LESS then I had before getting pregnant.

I am very grateful that I dropped that bum and eventually married DH.

 

[alliecats]

We'd go to a neighbor's house (single little old ladies were best) and ask to use the bathroom because there was no water at our house. That usually led to us getting to bathe and was always followed up by a big meal with leftovers to go. They'd bring us snacks frequently.

School lunches used to come in 2 prepackaged containers. One for hot food, one for cold. I'm not sure exactly how but the lunch lady learned of our circumstances. Rather than throw them out she'd box up the cold part and drop it off on our porch.

One neighbor kept a very well stocked pantry in her unlocked garage. More than 1 can of peaches or soup found it's way back to our house via my brother. No judgements please, we were kids and we were hungry.

Much of my mother's jewelery and anything else they'd take wound up at the pawn shop. We'd sneak in while she was passed out and take something then hock it. Then we'd head to the grocery for crackers and vienna sausage. Again, don't bother with the judgements. :

I don't see why anyone would judge hungry kids for their actions. At least, I hope they wouldn't. Your story makes me so sad. I grew up very poor, too, and though I don't have any specific stories to share, I can relate.
This reminds me of the commercial where the mama steals ketchup from a fast food restaurant and then goes home to make soup out of it for her girls. That commercial breaks my heart every time I see it.

 

[malibuconlee]

I remember getting on free lunch when my step-dad was laid off of the factory. I remember asking my friend to go into the office with me to drop off the papers for it. That was in middle school.

Tell me tho, WHY OH WHY do they make the free lunch kids go thru a special line to get their lunch ticket? I think that's why I quit eating lunch at school in like 7th grade.

Then when I was in high school my mom and step-dad got divorced. Single mom, she lost her job when I was in 12th grade and we went on food stamps. I worked at a deli in a grocery store and I remember going to Aldi's to get food with my little sister using the food stamps because I didn't want the people at work to know. There was a girl I had known in high school working there. That was hard handing her the food stamps (back before those EBT when they were actual coupons).

I ate a lot of meals at the deli on days I worked.

Even the first couple of years after DH was out of college we were deciding who was going to buy what groceries that week. I agree with other posters. I have a fridge and pantry stocked with food. DH's sister even has made comments about our stockpile. I like to have it because I haven't always been that lucky.

 

[DVC Sadie]

Man a lot of us have come a long way from very meager and in some cases brutal existances. I don't have any stories I am willing to share but am so very grateful for how far we have come.

 

[grinningghost]

Man a lot of us have come a long way from very meager and in some cases brutal existances. I don't have any stories I am willing to share but am so very grateful for how far we have come.

Definitely. We all need to be grateful for what we have now, and be proud that we did what we had to when things were tough.

 

[ChrisnSteph]

I moved out (due to some serious problems at home) when I was 17, and for a year I bounced from friends house to another so because I didn't have a permanent place to live, and I was going to school so I had no money. I dated some weirdo guy just because he would give me rides here and there, take me out to eat and to the movies. Nice, hunh? I try to block that year from my memory!

 

[alliecats]

Tell me tho, WHY OH WHY do they make the free lunch kids go thru a special line to get their lunch ticket? I think that's why I quit eating lunch at school in like 7th grade.

I always brought my lunch but I would rather have gone without than go through that. They made a big deal out of it in my schools, too, at several different times in the school year. First when passing out and collecting the free (and/or reduced cost) lunch request forms, then when distributing tokens (a different color for those who paid), etc. It's almost like they wanted to make it as obvious as possible. And I don't care how busy people are, it doesn't take any less time to announce things at the top of your lungs as it does to be subtle about it. Those kids always looked humiliated, and it was not their fault they didn't have any money.

 

[tw1nsmom]

I didn't have to worry about not having something to eat growing up. We ate a lot of pasta and hamburger based dishes, along with some government cheese, but there was always plenty of food (if you saw the size of people in my family you'd know we didn't miss many meals).

When I had my first apartment and was working in DC I had my first experience with not being able to afford groceries. Between rent, student loans, transporation...I had trouble making ends meet. My DSIL had stocked my kitchen as a housewarming gift. It got to the point that I had eaten all of the supplies she gave me (lot's of meals of rice with garlic powder and salt). The chef at work knew I was scrimping. They would hold these elaborate lunches for executives and dignitaries. The leftovers would be put in the employee lounge. People making $100,000 would attack the food like they hadn't eaten in days. Chef made it a point to call all of us young/poor people to let us know he was putting food out about 10 minutes ahead of time. I would fill up on free lunch and go home to eat a dinner made out of condiments.

I have a friend that didn't have any money in Graduate school. Her parents refused to help out. She lingered after lectures and would bring a garbage bag and gloves. Most of the students who had soda during class would leave their cans or throw them away in the trash. She would pick them all up and return them for the deposit. She used the money to buy Ramen or Mac and Cheese.

 

[jonestavern]

The nice thing about this thread- - it reminds me how far all of us have come. I just enjoyed a nice Easter dinner with family and friends. There were many times that we couldn't even have that. Just made me grateful for where I stand today.

Amen!

Jean

 

[blondewithbrains]

I absolutely can't imagine having to go through all of that. I feel so lucky.

 

[Miss Jasmine]

I don't know why I didn't post this earlier, I guess I wasn't thinking... June 6th is National Hunger Awareness day. I know that local food banks and such usually do something to commerate the day. I am organzing a "Skip Lunch Day" in my workplace in conjunction with Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida. Basically you skip eating lunch and donate the amount of money you would have spent on that lunch. In our case, I am hoping our Director will buy us lunch and all the employees will make a donation (I am working on the details still).

http://www.hungerday.org/content/index.php

 

[Marseeya]

That was hard handing her the food stamps (back before those EBT when they were actual coupons).

Those EBT cards were no better.

The two grocery stores in my town had the card machines all set up for them, then you'd enter in your pin just like a credit or debit card. Sounds nice and discreet, right? Nope. Each and every time someone uses an EBT card to this day, the cashier will say loudly, "Food stamps?" When I use a debit or credit card, they don't say, "Debit?"

WIC was another difficult thing to be on. I probably earned more money than most of the cashiers in that store, but they still gave me a hard time about it.

 

[liamsaunt]

My senior year of college was really tough for me financially--I had no money. My DBF (now DH) used to buy me groceries when he would visit, but I did not see him for the last two months or so of the spring semester because he was studying for his finals at a school in another state. I would buy a loaf of day-old bread at the bakery across the street from my apt. and make it last for three days. I also ate a lot of tinned soup, As the weeks went on, the bakery started throwing in an extra loaf of bread for free. It was awful. I lost so much weight--when I graduated, I only weighed 87 lbs! Thankfully, I moved back in with my folks for a while after graduating, and my mother's cooking restored my weight to normal over the summer.

 

[SillyMe]

Food stamps.

There's not much more degrading or humiliating.

Ditto.

Back then the food stamps were like paper dollars that you had to tear out of a booklet. One time when I went shopping the clerk was so pissed that I had food stamps, she stood there complaining the whole time she was checking me out. She threw my stuff in the bags and she was very huffy with me. I stood there in tears. My sister was with me (because she had to drive me there...I didn't have a vehicle). I walked out of the store and my sister went over to the manager and complained about the way the clerk treated me. I was never so humiliated in my life.