What do you contribute to society ?

@4meAndyou It is always moving to read about your passion for helping people, when you put this on my post I'm sure many were encouraged!

@4meAndyou You are truly a good person 😊❤️❤️❤️❤️

@BritishFailedAesthetic @Musicman Thank you both for your very kind words!

@4meAndyou that is really wonderful. I would love to do that but here there are so many charities that will help out, even free-standing mini pantries that anyone can stop and get the food. I’d scour those and deliver them if I knew of someone who couldn’t get out or didn’t have a car. Easy to call them up and ask before taking something too. They just opened a small free “grocery” for low-income people who can’t afford all that they need in groceries. It’s two afternoon a week and stocked weekly. Built it next to a food & shelter place.

@cherokeepatti I have the ideal situation for helping people because I live in a large apartment building. There must be one hundred apartments here. Makes it easier when it's centralized.

@4meAndyou It’s good that there is someone living there that will help them the way you are doing. Your help to them when they need it the most is valuable. Makes such a difference to have food to eat.

@cherokeepatti It really does. I heard some lady say, "Is there any MEAT?", and my heart just broke.
I pointed out the one package left of ground turkey, and she was SO happy, and told me all about how she is going to use it to make American Chop Suey. I mean...when I hear things like that, I want to give them everything I own.

@4meAndyou I would too and would share if I had something and wasn’t in the same position with a tight grocery budget. I have shared with neighbors but one was a moocher, as I found out too late. My neighbor lady warned me about her and everything she would do. She would buy junk food with her food stamps,( She was on disability for being “mentally disabled” and got housing and welfare too) and then go to the food banks to get food, and then complain to her church friends and they would give small donations, and then knock on all the doors of the apartments begging for food, it was a 100-unit complex. At first she knocked when I wasn’t there and asked for coffee and my daughter gave her some in a filter and some sugary to sweeten it. The next time she wanted food so I gave her something. Then wanted meat and pointed to my freezer (should have put it in the large bedroom, I figured out too late.) I gave her a pound roll of HB meat. Then she came back and wanted tortilla chips and meat. I gave her two packs of ramen noodle and refused any more. Got warned and got fed up. The next day she came buy she had a bag full of used underwear that she was trying to sell door-to-door. Her church ladies gave it to her to wear. Because she smelled bad. It was an all-bills-paid apartment with hot water and she wouldn’t shower daily. (I had even given her a ride one time when she wanted to cash a check someone gave her and wanted to go to the store to do it). I took her there and back and then my car was stunk up. I finally started looking through the peep hole and not answering the door when she knocked. And would run over and pull the patio blinds closed so she wouldn’t walk back and knock on that after seeing us home. Anyway this woman who acted like she was half-disabled is now working as a greeter at Sam’s Club and she does not talk in that goofy voice any more….Lord! It’s a miracle.

@cherokeepatti People are amazing. Amazingly awful at times.

@4meAndyou this is why I use a great deal of discernment when someone approaches me in parking lots with a hard luck story. The people that need help most won’t do that. And those are exactly the ones that I would love to help in whatever small way that I am able to. I can relate to them, I wouldn’t ask for anything either when we were scraping the bottom of everything for food. If I had enough beans to cook for a meal I was grateful. I would give away veggies from my garden to relatives and neighbors and never wanted anything in return. Sometimes would get something from my aunt who just handed to me, no hints or anything.

@cherokeepatti Scammers and tricksters approach others and ask for things...but the people who live here are (mostly) not like that. Although last week we left 2 bags of meat down in the community room and 2 bags of fresh fruit and veggies, and 2 bags of bread, and they were unpacked as I usually do, so that people can just take what they need...and two bags of meat disappeared. Someone just grabbed them.

@4meAndyou There are free-standing small pantries around all over this city. Anyone can stop and choose what they want and take it. I would do that for people I knew down on food and didn’t have a car. Might even take them with me so they could choose if they were able to ride around town. That might be kind of fun, they could bring a cloth bag and get what they need to tide them over.

@cherokeepatti Now that is a great idea! We don't have bunches of free standing pantries here. AND the pantries we do have carefully track who is taking the food and how often they come for food.

@cherokeepatti There is also a Mission Church that they can sign up for food boxes. They conveniently give out these boxes of food with a good variety and do it on the third Thursday of the month…about the time people start running low on food. May have a higher chance of everything getting eaten that way too. They could sign up for that here and get someone to take them to get it.

@4meAndyou There is so much free food and other goods given away and help of all kinds here. You wouldn’t believe it and how many volunteers there are. I’d like to help those who are falling between the cracks or need a pickup or whatever.

@cherokeepatti I used to have a list of food pantries all around this area. There is one right across the street at the Episcopalian church, and another on airport road run by Catholic charities, and another one down at the VFW.

@cherokeepatti I think the people here who are REALLY falling between the cracks are people with special diets...Crohn's disease and iliac disease and so on. There is almost nothing from the food pantries that they can eat.

@4meAndyou Yes I understand that exactly. Out of curiosity I look on Meals On Wheels menus and can’t have 75% of what they are bringing most days. I would have to give most of it away or toss it out. And a nurse from my insurance company called me up before my surgery and wanted to sign me up for free meal delivery for about 3 weeks. I had to sit there and explain to her about being on a gluten-free diet and also having now to avoid certain otherwise healthy fruits and veggies that contain sugar alcohol…no pitted fruits at all or I will suffer for several days, certain oils trigger asthma within 30 minutes (canola etc),, I wasn’t eating sugar etc. I told her that I had help with cooked meals and from someone who knew what I couldn’t have so no cross-contamination either. And that I will never expect anyone to have to cater to my needs and make special meals for me. It’s too complicated for them. I can eat simple foods and still have good nutrition. Have no problem with eggs for dinner for example.

@cherokeepatti I have never known someone quite as knowledgeable as you about the effects of diet and nutrition and various supplements

@4meAndyou It’s replaced my other hobbies mostly to learn new things. I try to study things every day unless I am on vacation or very sick and need to rest. I have been doing this for over 25 years since I learned to use the internet. Also before that I bought a lot of nutrition and alternative health books to read daily and would make weekly visits to the bookstore (Hastings would let us sit and read books there) and the public library, and come home with an armload every time, some of them health type books or cookbooks.

@cherokeepatti Not to mention your own direct observations about the effects of certain foods on your own body, and figuring out, by yourself, how to counteract those effects.

@4meAndyou Also remember my daughter had 3 things going on at one time, two autoimmune, systemic lupus and Hashimotos a bit later developing. I noticed a pattern with her. When she would ask for something new (usually at the health food store) I’d always get it for her. Then when I saw that she was consuming it a lot and often I would take note. And started studying on the item and the health benefits. I had about 15 books at home and would quickly go through them for clues. If I didn’t find anything there I would go to the public library and look. Always found a link to her illnesses and the products she was consuming. First green tea, then meat substitutes, then salmon, garam masala (curry powders), and eggplant. Each one had some kind of health benefit for her problems and was helping with those symptoms. So I kept buying for her.

@cherokeepatti And she was just naturally craving those things! Amazing!

@4meAndyou I don’t think she ever studied any of them before asking. Mostly spontaneous. Tried a sample of curried mung beans that an Indian couple cooked in an electric skillet at the health food store. She liked them enough to buy a pack of mung beans and garam masala (they made a fortune off of that) for over $4.00. But it caused her to crave garam masala and curry spices. She took it home and made it for dinner and loved it. Every day I would come home after work and she’d be opening and draining a can of green beans, sauteeing sliced onions and then put the green beans in the pan and sprinkled garam masala on it and ate it all. I knew the curry spices had something in them to benefit her health So I looked up each ingredient and they are all anti-inflammatory and COX II pain inhibitors, good for arthritis (including lupus arthritis) and all kinds of inflammation….ginger, cayenne, turmeric cloves etc.