I don’t earn enough money to support both me and my son and I had to do something, so I accessed Southend Council for a grant for food. They deal with Epping Forest people and I live in Sheering. Now I have a new job, I should be able to make ends meet.
I was helping with the Ukraine appeal recently and made sure that anything that was donated and not used was given to the foodbank that had helped me a couple of times.
I have another single parent friend who lives in New Hall who gives me advice and told me where to get help. Being a single parent has its down sides but I’m in the fortunate position of owning my house. I have to run it, maintain it etc, but I’m slowly getting there. I’ve always lived on hardly anything. I don’t buy new clothes, I have secondhand furniture and badly paid jobs. I still, to this day, use all the Jack Monroe books.
I’m sure I’m not the only one to be in financial difficulty with rising costs and not knowing what to do! Foodbanks are a lifeline for lots o people, with all walks of life walking through those doors. You never know the truth about people’s backgrounds until you are faced with the problem of getting food for your family or not able to eat or pay bills. Thank goodness these services are in existence, helping all sorts of people. Shame doesn’t come into it, it’s all about surviving.
I would really love to be in a job to give something back as I’ve been on lots of benefits years ago. You understand what people are going through. Today I gave away a white bookcase and chest of drawers, having advertised on a free selling site. It transpires, through conversation, I gave it to a mother who wanted to help her daughter with her first home. This is a drop in the vast gulf of what the government should be doing! If I had anything more I could give her, I would, as I know what it’s like not to have the things you want that you can’t afford.