Seems that no one is immune from food insecurity. In preparing for next month’s Food Stamp / SNAP challenge, I’ve been even more hyper aware than usual about food budget news, store sales and things like that. When I spoke at Eat Drink Read Write on Saturday, several audience members approached to ask questions about the challenge afterward, so I know it struck a chord even locally.
For example, a local discount supermarket has whole chickens on sale for $.88/lb this week, a price at which I would normally stock up. Because of the challenge, we can’t do that. SNAP recipients don’t get their benefits early, so they miss sales on occasion and so will we.
Then on last night’s news it felt as though the universe knew that I was a bit overconfident about this and it was trying to make the challenge even more challenging. It seems that one of the resources I had planned to cover – an amazing program that has been around for 17 years – is closing up shop.
In my capacity as a budget conscious frugal living writer I have written about the work of Angel Food Ministries several times and in several outlets over the years, and this news breaks my heart. You see, when I first heard about Angel Food Ministries, I wasn’t reporting on it, I was a client.
Angel Food Ministries provided a way for anyone to buy a box of food that would feed the average family of four for about a week at about half what it would cost in the store. The boxes included meat, veggies, eggs, even fresh produce and desserts. Sure, there was some convenience food crap mixed in, but life’s not about extremes, it is about striking a balance.
The October Food Challenge is not something I’m taking on just to say I did it. I’ve been there. I have lived on cheap ramen and Kool-Aid® because I couldn’t afford anything else. John spent some of his own childhood on food stamps. That history is a big part of what makes us so budget conscious today.
We are more committed to this challenge than ever. I believe that this 31 Day exercise is going to help change lives and make people more aware of what is happening in the world outside their own doors. What we are doing in October is just the beginning. It’s time to open a real and ongoing dialogue about food insecurity and what we can do to turn it around.
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It’s heartbreaking that such good organizations go under, for whatever reasons. The people who pay the price are alway the ones who can’t afford to.
As with energy, helping hands to fix and build, and other needs, smaller and local seems to be the way to get through this period in our history. Every time we can share with others, and they with us, whatever we can give or do, we make an impact. Although it’s hard not to get discouraged, we and our personal circle are the best hope right now.
Michael and John, you do amazing things, and each of us needs to do something, no matter how small, to help out.
There is so much food going to waste in this country; in the stores crates of food are thrown out daily. In yards and orchards, (both active and abandonded) food falls and rots.
My friends and I try to share our excess with each other. Call it food scavenging, but it’s amazing how much is available to share. Those who I really worry about are the ones who try to exist in the food desert.
What else can we do to help?
Although AFM helped a lot of families, it looks like they could have done more — why/how did the founder own a private jet??? From The Walton Tribune:
A lawsuit has been filed against the now-defunct Angel Food Ministries by one of its food suppliers for breach of contract.
According to christianpost.com, Omaha, Neb.-based Skylark Meats filed suit against AFM Sept. 30, shortly after the nonprofit low-cost food distributor announced it would close its doors after rounds of layoffs and failing to distribute food as scheduled last month.
The suit accuses faith-based AFM of failing to pay for or returning food delivered to the Good Hope-based ministry. Skylark Meats is attempting to collect at least $77,202.96 in damages, according to chirstianpost.com.
Skylark is seeking court costs as well, saying AFM officials were “stubbornly litigious and otherwise caused [Skylark Meats] unnecessary trouble and expense,” according to the website.
AFM has had its share of troubles in recent years. Former board members sued the ministry and its founders, pastors Joe Wingo and Linda Wingo, and their sons, Andy Wingo and Wes Wingo, in February of 2009 claiming they had misappropriated funds from the $140 million-a-year ministry. The Wingos were forced to give up use of their ministry credit cards, transferred ownership of a jet owned by Joe Wingo to the ministry, and required a forensic audit of the ministry be conducted. In return, the former board members Tony Prather and Craig Atnip would agreed to allow the Wingos to continue in the their leadership positions with the ministry and agreed to resign from the ministry’s board of directors.
Agents with the FBI and representatives of the IRS searched the Broad Street offices of Angel Food and the Alcovy Street offices of Good Hope Foods, owned and operated by Andy Wingo, while executing search warrants Feb. 11, 2009.
A federal grand jury has met on numerous occasions regarding the case, but no indictments have been handed down yet.