How to get free food in America - ForumDaily
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How in America to get free food

Popular humor ascribes to America the status of a “labor camp with increased nutrition.” Only a very lazy person can go hungry here.

Having settled in the country legally and having lost income, you can qualify for food stamps. But even if there is no official status, you will not be left without food. Specially created “food banks” - Foodbank - provide absolutely free not only food, but also clothes, diapers and even gifts for Christmas. ForumDaily has prepared detailed information about how such establishments work, where to find them and how to get help.

Listen to the sermon - get food

Russian Natalia Stepanenko arrived in California a few months ago. The woman says that she goes to the food bank 2-3 times a month. Until she and her husband found permanent work, the couple was forced to seek help. “I don’t see anything shameful in this,” says Natalia. – These organizations help our family a lot. My husband and I are both studying, but we can’t get a job yet because we don’t know the language. So we survive at the expense of the “feeding troughs”.

The food bank that Natalia comes to is located on the premises of the church. Neither she nor anyone else is asked for any documents. “In order to be given food, you just need to write down your first name, last name and the address where you live,” the woman explains the system. — After that, they give you a number and you go to the pastor’s sermon. It lasts about half an hour, and after that everyone gets a big bag of groceries.”

As a rule, the food ration contains several loaves of bread, oatmeal or “quick breakfasts,” dried fruits and various kinds of canned food. Vegetables are added in season.

Irina Nikolaenko uses the services of such a bank in Chicago. Here they also don’t ask what your financial situation is: if you came, it means you’re in need. “If you do well, you can take food for a whole month,” the woman shares. — For example, the other day they gave me potatoes. Boxes. And with it - onions, cabbage and even grapes and bananas. Take as much as you want! Now you don’t have to go to the store for groceries.”

How it works

To see with my own eyes how it works, I set off food bank in Sacramento, in the capital of California. Immediately the first advice to those who also decide to go for a grocery set: the queue must be taken in the morning. If you came with a child, you can skip the queue without a queue

This food bank, like many similar organizations, is located in a church. They not only let me and my baby skip the line, but also suggested that we immediately take the groceries and go home, without even listening to the pastor’s speech. They don’t ask for documents, they just ask you to name your postal code. In the set that everyone in need receives - rice, canned fish and vegetables, raisins, sweet syrup, frozen fish and a whole box of good pasta - these cost $2 per pack in the store.

food

Such a set is given to everyone in need, and from official information they are asked to name only their postal code. Photo author

And this is not the only bank in Sacramento. I go to a different address, not in the church, but in the office building. Here I am offered to take vegetables and fruits: tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet peppers, watermelons, melons. The child is handed chocolate milk and a packed lunch: crackers, cheese, sausage and sweet carrots. They ask you to show any proof of identity and remind you: “Everything that was given to your child at the food bank, you can safely eat, because it is healthy food. The milk contains a minimal amount of fat and no additives.” I check - it is so. All food banks in America actually claim to provide only healthy food.

Received help - became a volunteer

As they told me at the food banks I visited, most of the volunteers are people who themselves were once forced to seek help. Now they donate money or things, or come to the food bank itself to help. You can learn how to become a volunteer at a special Onlinethat is looking for workers for food banks. Extra hands are always needed here: deliver food, fill out people’s questionnaires, enter new names in the database, pack up and distribute food. By the way, this is a good way to practice English.

Tatyana Lebedeva is one of the food bank volunteers. “All our office employees were told that anyone could volunteer,” said Tatyana. — Those who wish indicate the time and date, a bus comes for us and takes us to one of the food banks. The task is to pack food into bags. At first I liked this job, but when I saw people coming for food, I felt somehow uneasy. There are healthy men standing in line for food, whom I always look at and think, what’s stopping them from going to work?”

tanya-lebedeva

Tatyana Lebedeva is one of the food bank volunteers. Photo from personal archive

Research Center Pew has been sounding the alarm for several years now and stating that help is often used by those who are not entitled to it at all. That is why food banks ask to show proof of income if a person wants to receive a Christmas gift or clothes and household appliances - food banks also help with this.

Warm clothes and gifts for Christmas

If you closely follow the news on food bank sites, you can receive not only food and clothing, but also gifts for the holidays. By Thanksgiving, food banks were given turkeys, and in December you can get Christmas presents and winter clothes. On their sites, food banks post information about where to get warm clothes for children or для взрослыхwhere and when give out Christmas gifts for children and holiday food packages.

Where the food is and who pays

In America, working more 200 Food Banksthat feed each year over 25 to millions of Americans. Of these, 9 million are children, and 3 million are elderly. According to statistics in the "fed", as is commonly believed, America 1 of 7 Americans it is full because it eats with the help of food banks.

The food bank usually works directly with food producers and suppliers. This includes products that are about to expire. Volunteers in footbanks create food packages that are distributed to people for free. But if you come to a food bank and see that products are being sold, do not rush to shout about a violation. Food banks are allowed to sell their excess stock. For example, a food bank warehouse in Idaho was overflowing with potatoes. It was put up for sale, and the proceeds were used to buy other goods for those in need.

Food banks were created to help those whose income is below the subsistence level. But, as practice shows, anyone who asks can get food. Volunteers do not turn away those who come. But every time they remind you: if you know someone who lives worse and harder than you, tell them about the food bank.

You can find out where the food bank closest to your home is located at This site.

In addition to food, food banks provide people with clothes, household chemicals, equipment, and even pet food and clothing. True, most of these things are not new and in order to get them, you already need to show an income statement and a rental contract.

 

Food banks in different cities of America

Each food bank has its own schedule. Some people work 2 once a week, starting to distribute products from the 10-00 in the morning to the 1-00 of the day. Others are open only at the end of the work week. So, if you are going to go to the food bank, do not be lazy to go to the official website and carefully study the information.

Food bank in Chicago

Food bank in New York

Food bank in San Francisco

Food bank in Los angeles

Food bank in San diego

Food bank in Miami

 

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