It’s okay for middle-class families to go to food pantries.

Before this February, we went to the grocery store like everyone else. We had a budget that we would follow. When the envelope was empty, we were done for the week. Times became harder and we started to coupon. God blessed us with a copious amount of coupons; a family member delivers newspapers and was able to give us multiple copies a week. Couponing was like a roller coaster, there were always highs and lows. Some weeks, we would get five boxes of Cheerios for $0.41 and other weeks we were out of money by Wednesday. We were at complete mercy of the coupons and sales. They dictated our diets. Couponing worked for a while. But as our pantry began to thin and the coupons were more for cleaning supplies than food; we needed to look elsewhere.

Saddled with student debt, a mortgage, a car payment and other small bills, our middle-class income wasn’t cutting it. We had a plan, we had a budget. Our goal was and still is to be out of debt before our son knows what debt is. Our son is 11 months old and after his birth, we realized we weren’t living a biblical life. We didn’t have a budget, we didn’t discern between wants and needs, didn’t pray about any purchases, and we used the credit card liberally. If we wanted something on impulse, we bought it. This is how we ended up with 8 laptops, 11 tablets and innumerable subscription services. We barely tithed, we only gave 1% of our total income each week.

One fateful day, we were eating at a local diner. At the neighboring table was a woman with a baby boy not much older than our than 6-month-old. We started a discussion with her. At her table was the Pastor at the local church. We went to church, but not to his. He came over and introduced himself and invited us to come to his church for Bible study the following Monday night. After they left, we found out that the Pastor had paid for our meal. We felt obligated to go to the Bible study afterwards. It’s not that we hadn’t wanted to go, but rather if he hadn’t bought our meal, I’m sure we would have come up with any number of excuses as to why we were too busy to go.

The following Monday we went to our separate bible studies. One for men, the other for women. Grandma was kind enough to watch the little guy for the 2-hour excursion. That first Men’s night taught on how to spend your money biblically. The verse about not getting into debt, as it would become your master (Proverbs 6: 1-5) was mentioned. It was at this point we had a family discussion and realized we had been living for this world, not God’s. That week, our budget was born. We also swore to one another that we would free ourselves of debt before our son knew what debt was. 40-50% of Marriages end in divorce nowadays. 36% of which were due to financial arguments. We wanted to make sure that wouldn’t happen to us.

“My child, if you have put up security for a friend’s debt or agreed to guarantee the debt of a stranger— if you have trapped yourself by your agreement and are caught by what you said— follow my advice and save yourself, for you have placed yourself at your friend’s mercy. Now swallow your pride; go and beg to have your name erased. Don’t put it off; do it now! Don’t rest until you do. Save yourself like a gazelle escaping from a hunter, like a bird fleeing from a net.”

Proverbs 6:1-5 NIV

Couponing worked for a few months, but then fate-or rather God had another plan for us. One of us lost our job. Our income was cut in half. We still were considered middle class, but now on the lower middle end. If we hadn’t started the budget, couponing, and associated lifestyle changes prior to this, we could have been one of those statistics. However, God had foreseen this and given us the tools to weather the storm as a united family.

“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in”

Matthew 25:35 NIV

Grandma lived solely off of Social Security, and was given some food from a local food pantry from a generous friend. She had too much pride to go herself. This was an issue we both battled. Upon learning of all the food she received from this generous friend, we decided we would go to the food pantry “for her”. The idea was that we would go to the food pantry and give her the food. However, we had no idea where to begin. We did a search online that didn’t yield too much help. It wasn’t until we found 211 that we found a complete list of local food pantries. We have attached those helpful links down below. At first, we only had the address of one food pantry.

Our first food pantry trip was nerve racking. Questions buzzed around in our minds. What would we have to show? Would they ask our income? Would we be disqualified for making too much? We knew we needed the help, but would others just see our income and judge us. We arrived at the location. It was a small church building. We had gotten out of the car and walked a block to the location. Upon arriving, we were told that it was a drive-thru. We offered to carry the food back to our car, but they insisted that we drive around. We drove back and got in the short line. The women in the car in front of us came back and introduced herself. She had seen us walk up and asked if it was our first time at the pantry. We felt the heat of shame burn our faces. We were driving a new vehicle and were well-dressed. However, she was not there to judge us, but to help. She had taken an envelope from her car and wrote down the location of 2 other pantries she knew of. One that was occurring the following day and a special drive for the holidays. We thanked her. When it was our turn in the line, there were no questions. There was just trust. They knew if we were there, then we had a need.

They filled our car with 3 bags of groceries including pork chops, ground beef, cereal, granola bars, bread, yogurt, cheese, canned fruits, canned vegetables, canned tuna and more. We had always assumed that food pantries were non-perishable food only, but we were blessed with fresh food and pantry items alike.

If you are looking for a food pantry near you:

• Step 1 – visit: https://www.211.org/about-us/your-local-211
• Step 2 – enter your zip code and press Enter
• Step 3 – select the option to Search for Resources Online
• Step 4 – there will be a Food option for your area
• Step 5 – select Food Pantries

Disclosure