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Food pantries worth a donation
By adamg on Tue, 10/01/2013 - 11:45am
Ellen Stuart asks:
What are some good food pantries in Boston to help out? Considering WIC just got shut off...
Neighborhoods:
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Some answers via Twitter
Dancing Avocado suggests:
Brendan Halpin advises:
Rachel Anne Miller suggests:
Boston Medical Center
Boston Medical Center
These are all great! There's
These are all great! There's also Rosie's Place and the American Red Cross Food Pantry.
GBFB vs BFP
I've always donated to the Greater Boston Food Bank. What's the difference between it and the Boston Food Pantry? Which one is more deserving of my $?
i donate bi-weekly
via my taxes, and have been in entire adult life.
What part of WIC being shut
What part of WIC being shut off did you not get?
I think you don't understand
I think you don't understand the definition of donate. Do I donate to your kids school every week then? Because I could really put that money elsewhere.
pretty good correlation at UH
pretty good correlation at UH between comments that are anonymous and ones that are idiotic. go figure.
i wish there was a way to
i wish there was a way to just hide all anonymous comments. if people dont have the guts to attach a person to a comment (usually due to the aforementioned idiot level), i don't care to read it.
that would be cool
that would be cool
Whats the difference between
Whats the difference between cleokid and anons? Is Cleokid your name? If not, then why don't you just post under your name?
Am I missing something?
Yup
Hang around long enough and you'll figure it out. Hint - it has less to do with anon v. Cleokid and a lot more to do with Cleokid in blue and Patricia in black.
I've been reading nasty
I've been reading nasty remarks from people in blue on this site for years now. There is no difference. There are some longtime blue regulars who regularly leave nasty sexist and bigoted comments. Maybe we can get a mute button for them!
Uhub should adopt Huffington
Uhub should adopt Huffington Post, youtube, Media Nation and many more sites towards real names for comments to elevate debate above the 3rd grade. Cleokid (or other psuedonyms) and anon are the same, someone wont put their real ID behind their comments.
What you're missing
Is that you just replied to yourself...because if you don't register for an account, anyone can appear to be you. There is no reputation to your name if you don't register. A registered account, even if the name is completely anonymous, gives others an audit history because they can trust the same person posts using that name since it's password protected.
GBFB
I'll second the Greater Boston Food Bank, and I'll also put in a plug for the innovative Preventive Food Pantry at Boston Medical Center.
Sudbury Food Pantry
They have no income requirements, as well as an "open shelf" policy.
Is Ellen asking because she's
Is Ellen asking because she's having an *OMG* moment? I wonder if she is a participant of WIC, if so she should be aware of the many food pantries run by interfaith religious organizations. They've always been there and always will.
I think the thing that bothers me about her post is if it is due to a *OMG* moment and not because of her needs, it further illustrates to me that so many people thing government is the answer to everything. Private charitable food pantries can be found, and they're not government run.
Or. . .
. . .she realizes - and wants to draw attention to - the fact that food pantries are going to be hit doubly hard if WIC is shut down. But any chance to slam someone for thinking government has a responsibility to help its citizens who are in distress, right?
Look, I give to food banks and to my church's food pantry and meals for the homeless ministry. But those private efforts are not a sure bet - they have no obligation to run indefinitely and many of them do, in fact, struggle to survive when food prices shoot up like they're going to do this year. Look at Angel Food Ministries, which was touted by some as the "solution" to food insecurity. Gone, with little to no notice. Plus, when was the last time you tried shopping at a food pantry and getting everything you need to feed a family? The ones I've helped out at tend to have lots of prepared food, a few staples and little to no produce and protein. It's like trying to grocery shop at CVS. Private food pantries help, yes, but they're hardly plentiful enough or well-stocked enough to fully meet the needs of the communities they serve.
The food pantry I work at has
The food pantry I work at has been around for quite some time, I've been involved for 20+ years. Whose slamming who? Please, enough with the hysterics. This person obviously is unaware that there are other alternatives for families in need. Glad she got schooled and WIC is just one of many options.
Something is seriously wrong if 51% of infants born today are in need of WIC - I'd be curious if theres a link for that.
Then why all the snark?
There is still a shortage of food pantries and because the need has significantly increased, have a difficult time keeping up with the need. I support Project Bread, on a regular basis, and even a large organization such as they, can't keep up with the need. And I think it is telling that for 20 years, according to your post, the food pantry you support is still a need. What I don't understand is why are are getting all snarky on the person who inquired and why you state an assumption "This person obviously is unaware...." You don't know what the person's motivations are and neither do I, so why make the comment? And then you throw in "glad she got schooled...." Cripes.
Me thinks this is what is really driving you (making an assumption on my part) but based on your own words: "it further illustrates to me that so many people thing government is the answer to everything."
WIC serves 51% of Infants in the US
Yes, private food pantries can be found. They offer excellent supplements to the basic nutritional support provided by the government for the good of the people.
If it makes you feel better you can image my tax dollars as going to WIC to feed kids and your tax dollars going to train TSA full body scanners.
There's something very wrong
There's something very wrong if 51% of infants are eligible government subsidized food.
So over 50% of Americans come into the world on government aid?
If that's true then there are just so many things wrong with that I can't even comment further.
A couple places to start
In most civilized "first world" nations, there is subsidized child care and health care.
Then there is the concept of a minimum wage that is actually meaningful.
Maybe, you could reframe it as "middle class tax dollars pay for what corporations won't pay in wages", considering that families used to be able to not need supports like WIC so long as at least one person was working full time.
Most civilized first world nations...
...don't have a Florida.
Even Florida has military bases
And the families of soldiers are ... get this ... in need of WIC and other nutritional program supports! Go to a BX sometime and watch the purchases get split up and the cards come out.
If you have volunteered at a food pantry in the past decade, you would also have seen that a solid percentage of the customers were the families of deployed service members.
In a land where the elevator repairman makes $185.76 an hour
plumbers make $125, electricians $100, finish carpenters $50 (if you're lucky) and cleaning people and painters (the one who comes to my house after cleaning commercial buildings starting at 5 am) make $25 an hour - you are preaching to the wall.
I knew those damn cleaners
I knew those damn cleaners were getting it too good.
Haven't you gone Galt, yet?
$25 an hour less the expenses of owning a business isn't much money at all.
But thanks for playing.
Umm - that's $50k per year
Assuming you only work full time in a job that has little overhead - these are cash jobs - if you contract out a bigger job you probably do get $50 an hour. Hey, if you want to make more, learn carpentry, or how to wire a house, or install a hot water heater or become a doctor (who also makes only $50k while in residency).
That's the way it works. You have a better idea other than everyone should just sit around and watch TV and make $100k
No thanks for playing.
I think you've mistaken
A fee for a wage.
You might pay your cleaning company 25 bucks an hour. But they don't pay their moppers 25 bucks an hour.
No mistake
My cleaning "company" IS the mopper.
You have no clue
Please tell us how your "mopper" gets around paying for SS security, business taxes and self-employment taxes, expenses for equipment and vehicles, etc.
But we all know that you'll stick to these lame talking points, because you can't. Because you don't know what it is like to provide services as an independent contractor. Because you have no clue and don't care to learn. OR ... because you are paying an undocumented worker under the table.
You'll have to ask the mopper
As for the rest if you want to audit me - good luck. You're not going to and I can assure you if you did you'd find Zilch - I even tell my accountant how much we pay the cleaner each year IN FULL to make sure we don't need to file anything or pay taxes
What would you consider a fair fee to pay someone for cleaning your house - if $25/hr (even less expenses)- is not enough - what is?
And just to put you in your sorry little place as just one example - you should know a few years ago we had a big painting job - got two quotes around $10k for the place from legal US residents and $5k from a group of illegal immigrants - guess who got hired to the tune of an extra $5k? I don't need those headaches.
You're barking up the wrong tree with those allegations.
I think that was her point...
You pay the cleaner $25 an hour, but the cleaner doesn't take home $25 an hour, because s/he has taxes, equipment, travel expenses, health insurance, etc., which come out of one's own pocket when one is self-employed. It's quite a bit less take-home pay than working at a company that pays $25 an hour gross.
OK
Assume we get crazy here and that I made that post without any knowledge that my rates were quoted "gross" contractor pay - not net to the employee (yeah - right - your average elevator repairman is making $350k large. Seriously?)
What should you pay for unskilled labor - including an allowance for overhead you mention?
wage workers
I used to work what I believe is probably the worst cleaning business ever - Merry Maids. They would charge an average of about $100 per house cleaning (depending on how regularly it was cleaned, how big, how cluttered, etc). they had this ridiculous formula for paying their employees. they took 25% off the top for insurance costs (not health insurance - company insurance, which is huge for a business with that much liability). of what was left, they gave each employee working the job somewhere between 15% and 20% for the job (there were usually 2). each job took somewhere between 1 to 2 hours. so that's somewhere between $11-$15 for 1-2 hours of work. but it doesn't take into account time driving between the jobs, or time spent in company meetings. they used to have to add money to my paycheck every week because my total from the jobs divided by the total hours worked came in under minimum wage. If you think your domestic workers are making good money just because you're paying good money, then you have no idea how business work - whether the business is a giant awful greedy corporation or a small family business. When I was in that situation, I could barely make ends meet - barely keep up the car I needed to get to work. If I had kids, my family would have been pretty hungry without a program like WIC.
whether you think government assistance is great or horrible, truth is this: a capitalist society simply can not function without a lower class. If you want capitalism, then no matter how hard every single person in the society works, no matter how many people try to "pull up their bootstraps," you're going to have people in the bottom - people who can't find jobs, can't feed or house themselves. If you didn't have that, the system wouldn't work. In order for the middle class to make their wages, or for the billionaires to make their wages, then we need those people on the bottom. so why not at least make sure the people on the bottom have their basic needs met - food, clothing, housing, and healthcare - so that the rest of society can continue to prosper and no matter how poor and downtrodden the lowest class is, they aren't suffering. I think we can definitely have a discussion about how we currently handling government assistant really poorly and it doesn't make much sense, but the fact that we need it is there.
It isn't just based on income
Children are eligible for WIC regardless of income if they're in DCF custody or have certain special healthcare needs. For infants/toddlers/preschoolers with certain disabilities, WIC will also provide three months of specialized infant formula or pediatric specialized medical food until Medicaid/Medicare puts through the approval to get it through there. Most middle-class families don't have an extra $500-$2000 per month lying around when their child suddenly needs specialized nutrition and is newly diagnosed so is waiting to get on Medicare and then waiting for them to approve it.
How Ironic
Tried to look up your stat and came up with a page from the USDA that said this - seriously - they couldn't keep the site up because funding got cut off 14 hours ago - this is what government does when funds get cut - keep the waste and cut the stuff you really need/want from them to prove how valuable they are):
Due to the lapse in federal government funding, this website is not available.
After funding has been restored, please allow some time for this website to
become available again.
For information about available government services, visit usa.gov
To view U.S. Department of Agriculture Agency Contingency plans, visit: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/contingency-plans
Message from the President to U.S. Government Employees
I tried to do the same thing
I tried to do the same thing and all WIC sites are shut down. Isn't it crazy they wouldn't keep the sites up with a disclaimer? This is how goverment makes a bad situation worse.
I know, right?? Why can't the
I know, right?? Why can't the government just keep its hands off of WIC???
That is not what I said.
That is not what I said. What I was referring to was the lame excuse of shutting down the website for people to gather information. Sure, you may not sign up today but what if I want to check eligibility?
Ya, it's kind of like the WW2 vets today having to go through the barricades of the WW2 memorial. What, they are not supposed to look at the memorial? It's not like it needs a government employee to walk through the memorials... Government making bad things worse. Out of spite, so it seems.
Go
The Massachusetts WIC page is up
As of right now
So your plan would be ask
So your plan would be ask Stevil what he wants and keep that funded, just not the other stuff? So for you the USDA webmaster is top priority, that might not be everyones. Do you think the government should ask all 300 million people what part of government to continue, or just you?
No, my plan would be to have a plan and not be a moron
Government shutdowns are threatened regularly now and this one was telegraphed months in advance. I would have a plan to leave the informational (static) pieces of the site up.
I run a one man shop. If I go away for a week I don't have to take down my entire website.
Maybe the web hosting is paid
Maybe the web hosting is paid for monthly, and falls due on the first. Did that ever occur to you?
Maybe the people responsible for maintaining the WIC websites had more important things to worry about in anticipation of the first government shutdown in 16 years. Did that ever occur to you?
Nah, you're obviously much smarter than the people who do this for a living. I don't know why they didn't think to ask you first.
No - I deal with government websites
For legal reasons. I do it myself and save some money and it gives me a migraine headache every time I do it (I only need to do it once or twice a year - but they make you change your password every 90 days - so I have to call to Maryland every time I need to use the site to get a new password from a live person -they won't email it to you like the rest of the world - just one example).
It's such a cluster$%^& that my attorney has a whole line of business navigating the site for many of her other clients. Her assistant told me the rule of thumb is never ask why, the answer is always simply that's the way it is.
Look at the sequester. A 2% cut across the board and what got cut? Instead of looking for efficiencies, they cut the things that people care about so they'd protest and restore the funding.
Taking down government
Taking down government websites is just a matter of utter contempt from the governing class to extort the people into paying them. Plenty of private companies go bankrupt and still have their un-updated websites available for a good amount of time.
You want the real reason
With nobody around to maintain them, they are vulnerable to hacking.
If they are vulnerable when nobody's around
They are just as vulnerable when everybody's around.
No, you miss the point completely.
The webmaster could disappear now and the website could continue to run for 100 years. Keeping a website up and running (albeit static without updates) does not require staff. There is no reason to take websites offline, or to padlock parks, etc.
Stuff costs money
You take away the money, you got no more stuff.
Furthermore, the stuff might end up costing more once you have the money again. Deferred maintenance can increase long-term costs.
In the long term, the shutdown will end up costing taxpayers more, between the cost of contingency plans, the expense of paying workers just to figure out what not to do, and the retroactive payment of all the furloughed workers - for doing nothing - once the shutdown is over.
This means that, effectively, the shutdown is a tax increase.
This doesn't even consider the economic effect (300 million per day) or the practical effect of the loss of services (as above, millions of children going hungry) of the shutdown.
It's a shame for you that the USDA does not put your needs first. They are responding by shutting down production of statistics.
Instead, they're keeping their meat inspectors on the line, maintaining SNAP, continuing to fight forest fires, to feed lab animals, etc. - you know, the stuff that keeps people alive. Do you seriously disagree about which of these services is essential?
I really could care less
If the USDA even HAS a website - I just happened to click on a link and the point was they could have just left the damned thing up. I highly doubt that they spent their last nickel of appropriations for the electricity for the website at midnight on Monday.
The point is that when these things come about, the government deliberately chooses to cut/close or whatever things that people will notice or be inconvenienced by rather than look for some fat in the system so that they can perpetuate funding.
You know what I would like my tax dollars to pay for?
An "XBox for Vasectomy" program.
Cool story, bro.
Cool story, bro.
I could get on with
a 2 child-law, after 2 children you stop receiving any/all gov aid. The day of girls with 8 kids and 7 "baby daddies" would end.
You forgot the part about the Cadillacs
And the color TVs.
Right
Because it isn't about NOT having a large generation of adult cretins with serious deficits and problems to deal with as a result of the consequences of extreme childhood poverty, but punishing people for stupidly "choosing" to be born to people who lack education and sex education.
Got it. A permanent and seriously disabled underclass will make our nation strong and save us lots of money!
You know, excuses are like
You know, excuses are like assholes, everyones got one.
Always nice when people self
Always nice when people self diagnose.
Please look up the history of the School Lunch program
... and try again.
Because Today is Oct 1st
Its when WIC checks are cut. No Gov't, no being checks being cut.
The answer is very clear.
No...
In MA you get WIC checks for three months at a time generally, and it's whatever day of the month you're assigned to -- each check is valid from, say, the 15th to the 14th. The offices are open all month.
please
there are hungry babies out there. Do only "good" babies get fed?
No
Only babies with "good" and "deserving poor" parents - which used to mean "working hard" but now that bar seems to have moved ...
So, only "elect" babies are fed. The rest are "damned" babies.
(/jswiftmode)
Food pantry suggestion
Jewish Family and Children's services runs a monthly food pantry called Family Table. They feed the elderly, families, and singles with perishable. Anyone can be a recipient, you do not have to be Jewish.
http://www.jfcsboston.org/OurServices/CommunitySer...