Food banks & assistance programs

[Guest guest]

Hello all,

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone. ;-)

Jen, do you have 211 in your city? We have it here in Indiana and I

have found it to be very helpful. It's just like 911, except you don't

call for medical/criminal emergencies - you call for other types of

assistance. They can tell you what agencies can help with utilities,

food, counseling, etc... and they have lists of all the food banks. The

few times I needed to call, the folks on the other line were very kind

and helped me apply to the township trustee for help with the light

bill. They even called back a few weeks later to make sure we were okay

and that it all got taken care of.

Here is the website for them (http://www.211.org/) so check that out and

see if it's been set up in your city yet... great resource that is still

relatively unknown.

You can also contact them for referrals if you are interested in

volunteering in the community. Just let them know your interests and

fields of expertise and they will hook you up with folks who need what

you can share.

As far as food banks go, it's easier to search for them by state. Purdue

University keeps a site listing all of them throughout Indiana so it's

easy for me to find them when needed. Do a google search for your state

and see what you can find... then print out the info and keep it on hand

for the future. Check with local churches and senior centers too -

sometimes they have small food banks that aren't well known or

advertised. The one I go to is at a senior center - less food on hand

than the local Churches in Mission but no wait and no paperwork so I go

there instead. Besides, the ladies there are much nicer and are not

judgmental at all. Know what I mean?

When I have gone to the food banks, it's been a mix of regular foods,

organic foods and government issue foods. There is usually some stuff

in there that we won't eat so I either give them to my brother (who

doesn't care about health and will eat anything... lol!) or redonate

them back to the food bank. Last time I was at my CAP office (heat

assistance), they had their food stuff in two sections, one on each side

of the room. One section was FULL of good organic brands and the other

side was " regular " food. But when they started to fill up my box, all I

got was regular food. Turns out that they were divided by county - the

county south of me got the organic stuff and my county got the regular

stuff. Waaaaaaaa!! lol...

Peace,

Mouse