When we first became "poorer" it seemed like the world closed in around us. When we went to a grocery store, those items we would normally buy....vegetables and better foods were now priced beyond our reach and we were forced to pass up some of the better choices as we looked at those things that were now cheaper. The idea of passing up milk because the price was too high felt obscene but it was a fact of life. Soon the shopping trips became about grabbing the flyers out of the mailbox and seeing what we'd be able to buy this week. Whatever was cheap but still nutritionally sound became the pick of the week. We'd be stocking up on pork chops one week and the next it was hamburger (preferably pork or chicken if we could afford it and it was on sale). We watched like vultures for sales in places like Field Gate Organics for things like ground pork when it was reduced 50%. We also learned what a food bank was about.
Most think that they are doing their best when they donate to a food bank, and we definitely appreciate it, but it seems that people are either thinking with their pocketbooks as much as we are or just don't realize how desperately we need the right kind of food since we can't afford it. 90% of the items we get from various food banks is pasta, mostly white pasta. Macaroni and cheese dinners, pasta sauces with added sugar. Cookies and muffins and other sugary items. Tuna is a treasure we always love to see, and at one food bank MILK!! 4L bags of it and sometimes some sort of vegetables like cucumbers or potatoes.We also get more than our share of pork and beans and salt dense canned soups. It isn't that pasta and sauce is boring that we have a problem with...its that it is just not nutritionally sensible to eat. None of it seems sensible. Weight gain and cholesterol issues are inevitable. The food is better than being hungry, but you don't stay full long and it leads to nutritional deficits that make it difficult to stay energized and focused.
If I have learned nothing else, it is that chickpeas are good, and surprisingly they don't taste like anything else at all. They simply exist until you add something to them and then they seem to take on the flavor of the other things you are making.
We also know what "food budgeting" is about. It isn't about saving money for food, its about saving food to last the week. People in our home tend to skip breakfast or go to breakfast club at school. My sons in school get lunch vouchers to eat a sandwich at the cafeteria or they would be lunchless as well. I don't like it much but it is a reality. On a positive note though, I am going to be seeing a dietician soon, so hopefully she'll/he'll have ideas for what we can do to stretch food and make something nutritious as well so I can share the information with the rest of my fellow Club Members. I also see those on Disability as fellow members since it is just as bad to live on that allowance as it is to live on workfare.
We also applied for special diet as our funds dwindled. For those who don't know what that is, it is a special fund you can access if you have medical conditions that require you to eat special foods (things like cholesterol, diabetes, obesity etc). Well it isn't easy to get, it involves taking a form to your doctor to fill out.You also have to sign the form giving the doctor permission to share your MEDICAL INFORMATION with Workfare. You have no right or expectation of privacy. I suppose they do that to guarantee that we are not "cheating" the system. This paperwork MUST be repeated once a year. I guess they expect a miracle to happen and someone's diabetes to magically vanish or something but hey I just work here, I don't make the rules. My deferral paperwork is also done on a regular basis. Even if your doctor says you are not able to work (indefinitely), they still say they need you to redo the paperwork in two years. I applied for Disability because welfare likes to move you if they can...but so far I've been turned down twice due to lack of proof of my disability so I guess I either appeal and beg for a specialist referral, or just give up and live with welfare regular "re-papering".
Another fun part of this club i'm in is the regular 6 month visits to prove you are still eligible. You must drop everything and attend the appointment (even if you are at work or in school). At this meeting, you sign a new participation agreement, you get assigned another program if you have finished the last and can't seem to find work despite papering the entire city. You also get to bring that SAME pile of paperwork to prove your finances have not changed. One of the last ones I attended they had a problem with our paperwork, we were terrified of facing some sort of punitive measure because supposedly my husband's paystubs from a temp job didn't match his tax return. It turns out an error was made which "always happens" when they deal with temp agency revenues or something to that effect. It was the accusatory tone in the voice of the worker that made us feel the worst. We were completely honest with regards to my husband's working and it felt like we were being accused of a crime. While he was working, we got to keep a small amount of the money and then the rest came off dollar for dollar. He earned money but not enough to break us free of the system. That brings me to the next bit of information....the Temporary Agency.
It seems like a very large portion of the jobs to be found in my city lately are TEMP agency jobs. There is nothing wrong with a day's work, and I'm proud to say my husband took whatever jobs came his way without complaint. There was one in particular who hired him FULL TIME HOURS for 3 months, my husband thought for a while it might become permanent, that they would hire him on seeing how good and hard a worker he was....it was not to be. I guess getting an employee for a cheaper price (perhaps not the hourly wage) but definitely the savings on not having to pay for a health plan and take on another employee was a good thing. He was saddened when he was told that it was his last week...again. I don't think we realize what a temp agency does to the workers who keep getting nothing but temporary work, nor do the employers see how devastating it is to feel like you are finally earning money again only to have the rug pulled out from under you. The bottom line and profit margins are infinitely more important than a few disposable people. It makes me want to cry when I think about how people say we are lazy bums, knowing that my husband has never ever turned down a job he could reach, even if he had to leave 2 hrs before a 7am shift to make sure he got a bus to the other end of a city to reach that job. (not that he would be allowed to turn down a job he can do that is within his ability to do, we'd get cut off if he did that without a reasonable excuse).
It was great when my husband finally got accepted for Second Career. I thought it was a second chance for him to break free of the "Temp Job" dead end. That in itself was a nightmare. The hoops you need to jump through to qualify are huge. You have to prove that there are jobs that exist in the field you wish to enter. You have to submit job offers that are current to the time you apply. You have to prove there will be money for you to live on since my husband only gets 229 a week before taxes to live on. Yes folks, WHEN he gets 2nd career money, he pays TAXES. Bet you didn't see that coming did you? He also had to get welfare to pay to apply to the College while waiting to see if he would be accepted, because you have to apply BEFORE you can be looked at. (It seems illogical to me considering that if they say no, workfare will be out the approx 95 bucks you paid to apply in the first place). While participating in the program he must also submit his records to prove he is attending school regularly and getting decent marks. If he fails to do well we could end up having to pay back all the money they paid for tuition and books. The lab fees...we paid for, don't ask us how, it was a combination of getting one last bit of funding from welfare and then my husband juggling the finances to make sure the second set got paid. You aren't allowed to save money on workfare, if you have money in the bank...you will be forced to live off of it, then go back on when it is gone (not that there is anything to save anyway). Anyways, he tried to get bursaries that his school said he could apply for when he made Dean's list, but was turned down because he receives second career funding. He has demonstrable financial need but it isn't good enough he just isn't "broke enough" to qualify. The irony is sickening.
But enough talking your ear off for tonight. Tomorrow I'll tell you how it is us "poorest of the poor" seem to have things we "shouldn't".
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