"It can happen to anybody"

“I tell the people I work with, ‘I know what it’s like to struggle for food to feed my family, and to struggle for work.,” says Heidi Bennett, a program associate in UNH Cooperative Extension’s Nutrition Connections program. Bennett teaches nutrition and money management to limited-income families in Hillsborough County .

 

Several times Bennett and her family have had to tap emergency food supplies in their community, their need arising because of injury, disability or layoff. “It’s happened to me. It can happen to anybody,” she says.

 

“The last time it happened to our family, my husband and I were both working full time. We were on the verge of buying the house we were leasing, when I got pregnant with our third child and had to quit work because an old injury prevented me from lifting and staying on my feet, which the job required. The landlord wouldn’t extend the lease because he wanted to sell the house, and we couldn’t afford it, so we had to move to an apartment we could afford. Then my husband got laid off, leaving us with only his unemployment to live on.

 

“My husband had job offers, but they didn’t pay enough to support a family and had no benefits. Because he was able to work, we didn’t qualify for food stamps. We bartered—my husband traded some labor for venison, I babysat for a friend who paid us in bread from the place she worked. I traded my picnic table for 10 cases of diapers. I qualified for and received WIC—it’s a terrific program. After the baby was born, the landlord let me plant a garden in the backyard.

 

“But I had to get food from a local food pantry those few months until my husband found a good job and we could get back on our feet again. We had prepared for a setback, like most families do. If you have only one setback, you can manage. But sometimes you have another, and another, until it feels like you’re taking one step forward, three steps back.”

 

Bennett says, “If you’re facing some sort of food emergency, call Nutrition Connections. We don’t provide food, but we have resources that can help with decision-making in tough times. We can arm you with knowledge, and knowledge is power.”