Inedible Tucson Tidbits ...

Tucson economic misery stressing relief agencies by Patty Machelor

• When [Susan Jean] can, the retired Tucsonan hangs a small bag of food on a fencepost near her home at East Grant and North Country Club roads. Within an hour or two, she said, the bag is gone.
• "I've been involved in food banking for 16 years and I've never seen anything like this, outside of a natural disaster like (hurricanes) Katrina or Rita." --William Carnegie, CEO, Tucson Community Food Bank
• Lines have been so long at the Tucson Community Food Bank that CEO William Carnegie said that if he squints and imagines a black-and-white image, it could be a Great Depression photo.
• Some elderly residents are living in cold houses as they struggle to stretch limited funds, while their younger neighbors search for jobs.
• "Even though I was a little girl, I still got the feeling that people really wanted to help each other, but I don't get that feeling now, that feeling of togetherness, of people really coming together to help people," she said.
• "People have very, very tough decisions to make," she said. "Do I buy food, or do I pay my property taxes?"
• Montaño, 33, said that though her husband has a good job in construction, it doesn't pay enough now to cover food, gasoline and the mortgage on their Southwest Side home for two adults and five children.
• ... this year One Stop is seeing a lot more professionals who can't find work.
• "People are scared. [...] "I know people who have not taken any kind of hit, so to speak, and they're looking out their windows and saying, 'There, but for the grace of God, go I.' "
• "On any given day, there are 50 to 100 people waiting outside for our doors to open," [...] I've been involved in food banking for 16 years and I've never seen anything like this outside of a natural disaster like (hurricanes) Katrina or Rita."
• Beginning in 2009, it will distribute one instead of two emergency food boxes each month. About 5,000 families rely on the second box, he said, but the Food Bank is operating at capacity and expects another increase in demand in January, February and March. -- It also will not distribute holiday food boxes this year, which should save it close to $300,000. Last year, it gave out 20,000 holiday boxes in November and December.
• He said some of the people who come by for coffee between 6:30 and 8 a.m. have been awake since 3 a.m., when they again tried and failed to get a day-labor job.
• "Last year at this time, we were feeding about 500 people a week, and this year we're feeding more than 1,000," she said. "If regular people are feeling this, you can imagine how it is for people who have been poor all along." -- The hardest thing, she said, is turning away people who are hungry. -- "You should see them," said Wright, who has been running this program for 20 years. "I can't even look at their faces."

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Today's QUOTES:

... In other words, there ought to be even more criticism of the probable Brennan selection, but much less gasping in surprise and asking, “How could Obama do that?” --Paying A Price by Daniel Larison, The American Conservative

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