LA Times: Thousands line up for groceries, Thanksgiving meals

[marmar]

Thousands line up for groceries, Thanksgiving meals
12:31 PM, November 22, 2008


In a sign of how strained families are just to put food on the table, more than 1,000 people are lined up today for bags of groceries at Montebello Park. The single-file line is about a quarter-mile long, and some families have been waiting since 7 a.m.

At the end of the line, families are given a shopping cart and can select groceries for their Thanksgiving dinner.

As the holiday approaches, numerous food giveaways and food collections are taking place throughout the Los Angeles area today. The Los Angeles Regional Foodbank reports a 41% increase in food demand. The problem is, the organization has been able to boost food distribution by only 33%.

On downtown's Skid Row, the Union Rescue Mission has begun to serve 4,000 Thanksgiving dinners, an annual event that draws so many people that San Pedro Street is closed off between 5th and 7th streets.

In South Pasadena, Boy Scouts are going door to door to collect canned goods, and in Alhambra, high school students are seeking food donations from neighbors. In Pasadena, leaders from local organizations planning to help 400 needy families showed up at the Rose Bowl to collect frozen turkeys and grocery bags full of dinner trimmings.

-- Ruben Vives


http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2008/11/thousands-in-li.html

[ccharles000]

1. how sad

[Sinti]

2. Ouch

I remember one year getting Thanksgiving dinner from the Salvation Army, and being thankful to have ANY dinner that night. That was of course during the last Bush administration. It really hurts when you have kids. Hopefully we can get this thing turned around and inject some sanity into the system.

[CoffeeCat]

3. Tee Vee really sets up everyone...

...to have a depressing holiday.

Every other commercial, on tv right now, is happy, perfect, well coiffed and dressed families laughing and
getting along swimmingly--as they feast on food that looks like it was prepared by Wolfgang Puk. The table
looks like Martha Stewart spent a day decorating and coordinating the perfect place settings, centerpieces,
matching place-cards and linen napkins.

If you have this set up, that's great. Enjoy! However, most people do not have this. It makes the rest
of us who have imperfect lives, feel like failures--even when we do try out best.

Am I supposed to kill myself because I don't have a gravy boat shaped like a turkey?

I like "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" myself. Now that's a REAL depiction of a REAL Thanksgiving! Jellybeans,
popcorn, and someone's ear getting burnt in the toaster! :)

[mrbarber]

4. Thanksgiving is about family.

As much as I like a good feast, if I only had pizza and beer to eat, I'd be happy as long as I was with family and friends.

The mass consumption mindset can go to hell, far as I'm concerned.

[Double T]

5. Soon the lines for food will be miles long, if order can be maintained.

Buy chinese and other foreign nation's slave wage produced products; put yourself and your family out of business.