FoodNet

Today I went on a new adventure. Since I'm moving out of the dorm in 10 days (woot!), I'm going to have to start grocery shopping. Only food is expensive, and I'm poor.

But Lincoln is a good city full of good people, and all over the city are FoodNet locations. FoodNet is like a food pantry; it's where anyone can go to get free food that is either expired or old or not quite in good condition. FoodNets are held each day of the week at various churches around town. Most days have several FoodNet sites. My church, Grace Chapel, has one on Fridays. Another church about a half-hour walk away has them on Thursday and Friday mornings at 9:15.

So this morning I got up earlyish and walked to my first FoodNet adventure. I got there around 9 a.m., and sat in the parking lot to wait for it to start. But apparently the FoodNet pickup location this morning had some troubles, because most of the food didn't show up until almost 10. Some people got impatient and went home, but I had no plans for the morning, so I waited it out. Turns out that usually they have a lot of produce and dairy, but they had troubles getting that stuff today; the dairy came way late, and produce was sketchy.

But I came away with two tomatoes, a bag of four wheat hamburger buns, a bag of eight hotdog buns, a half-gallon of orange juice, and a quite questionable head of cauliflower. If I ate meat or drank milk, I probably could have done better. And tomorrow they'll have produce at both locations, so I could go to either and get some better fruits and vegetables.

It was an interesting experience to go to FoodNet because I've never felt poor enough to need to sort through rotten vegetables to get something to eat before. It was something of a pride issue for me; I guess I thought that only people experiencing poverty would go to something like FoodNet (which totally isn't true in Lincoln; one guy was there getting the more unpleasant veggies to feed his pet tortuises). I think it was good for me to be okay with my financial status; to not only being the one giving help to others, but to receive help from my community in this area of my life. Also, I noticed that I was the most polite and least desperate person there; I don't think this means that the other people are less nice, I think it means that they know what it is to have to fight for the food that you are going to eat. I'm not used to people blatantly and openly cutting in line, but I think those people do so because if they are able to get in front of you, then they get the last gallon of milk or the last tray of smooshed doughnuts. If you have kids to feed at home, perhaps you care less about letting others go in front of you in line. You'll do whatever it takes to get food for your kids, all kindness aside. (Although I hope that even if someday I have kids at home that I'm struggling to feed, that I trust Jesus to take care of me and let people go in front of me kindly. I like how it makes me feel, and maybe those people being aggressive to get their food is how Jesus takes care of them.)

I walked from FoodNet to Ben and Emily's house to put my bread in the freezer, and then to Kristina's to give her the tomatoes, since I don't have anything to eat them with right now. I'm going to try to salvage some of the cauliflower for lunch or supper today. And since my throat has been sore lately, the orange juice was very good to have.

Tomorrow's intended adventure is to learn to ride the bus downtown. If I don't get to it tomorrow (I'd like to hang out with Kristina if I have the chance), then I'll try it sometime next week.

I would just like to mention that I'm completely off my medicine, and the same girl who, mere months ago couldn't get out of bed to go to class had the above adventure today. Whoa.