We went through a really rough patch where we didn’t have food. Not like we were starving, but slowly over a month period we ran out of everything- milk, tea, coffee, bread, butter, cheese, pasta, rice… until we were literally down to nothing.
My mum had been jobless and then found a job but there was that period of time where she was waiting for that first paycheck. She was too proud for the food bank and had kind of tapped out friends and relatives.
This one night I was starving. I dug in the back of the freezer and found this hot dog bun with freezer burn. I took it out and found a few strands of sauerkraut in the otherwise empty jar. I drizzled them onto the bun, put it in the oven to warm it up and was sitting there actually eating it (it was nasty! Oh, and we also made ‘soup’ out of ketchup, hot water, and pepper that night).
The doorbell rang and it was a friend of my mums. She brought us a Massive pile of groceries! Everything that we needed, and even a Sara Lee frozen cake.
I just remember eating a piece of toast with butter and cheese and having a cup of tea and thinking that it was the tastiest thing in my life.
I was able to pay that forward many years later when I went to a friend’s place (single mom) and discovered from her 4-year old that they had no food (my friend was very proud and was hiding the fact). When she went to the bathroom I peeked into her fridge and cupboards and they’re empty.
I went home and called everyone in our complex (we lived in a Co-op)and all of us moms pooled together and filled that woman’s cupboards and fridge. It was so awesome.
She was embarrassed until I told her my story from when I was young.
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