General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhen in high school, did you make getting free govt. cheese a goal in your life?
I'm 53, on full disability and am now eligible to get commodities once a quarter since my recent divorce. Was just talking to my ex a few minutes ago and she asked about when I do get the commodities and I told her it was the 6th of June. I had been given commodities by others in the past and I especially liked the canned pork and cheese and was looking forward to getting my own soon.
We started laughing about that and she joked about maybe it was a goal in my life to get free cheese and I have accomplished that. It was something to be proud of! Many in my high school class went on to college, have successful careers, live in nice homes and a few have already managed to retire. But that's nothing. I'm getting free cheese!
Sometimes on just has to laugh as to how things turned out.
notadmblnd
(23,720 posts)A friend of my parents gets that sort of help and when he has too much, he passes it on to them.
2pooped2pop
(5,420 posts)but we got it in the 70's and it was the best cheese. It is so funny because over all of the years since then free govt cheese comes up from time to time, and the response is always "that was great cheese."
randome
(34,845 posts)Egalitarian Thug
(12,448 posts)have sex with women, it's just easier.
So anyway, it was a beautiful spring day and after I'd crawled out from under the bush I was sleeping under and "was on my way down to the fountain for my weekly dip, and I thought, "Wouldn't it be nice if I could just get some free almost-food?" That way I wouldn't have to go out and beg.
K&R&
grasswire
(50,130 posts)I've volunteered at food banks off and on for a couple of decades, and I haven't seen any cheese. I do remember it, though. My mom volunteered with Meals on Wheels in the 70s (she was a career baker) and occasionally was given a brick of that cheese. They had canned roast beef, too, as a surplus commodity.
HopeHoops
(47,675 posts)My grandmother used to get government cheese. It was pretty good, as I recall. She got 1lb blocks of butter too.
NeverEnuff
(147 posts)I started working full time at 15 and averaged 65-70 hours a week. In 2001 I got a rare Nero-muscular disorder that is debilitating. When I applied for Disability Income the person reviewing the case acted like it was a scheme on my part to get the measly $18,500 even though I had not made under $75,000 for 25 years. Yes the cheese was tasty but really, it wasn't my goal.
Kaleva
(36,147 posts)I had all the work I could handle but as time went on, it became more and more of a struggle. I'd end up in the hospital or in just too much pain to work. Finally told my then wife I just couldn't do it anymore so I applied for benefits in October of 2010 and was approved the following January. The letter I got from SSA stated that my disability payments would be back dated to a year before I applied but only that far because that is the law but it also said my disability, upon review of my medical records, began in January of 2008.
RebelOne
(30,947 posts)But I did have a friend who was receiving some free food from welfare. She gave me some of that cheese and it wasn't half bad.
MineralMan
(146,192 posts)We ate so many grilled cheese sandwiches that I couldn't stand the sight of them for some time. But, we ate it. We were pretty poor back then, but never signed up for any assistance. We also ate sharks I caught in the bay near our home until we could no longer stand shark meat.
And then there was the chicken scratch soup, made with chicken backs and necks, onions, and chicken scratch from a 100 pound bag I bought at a garage sale. It was actually pretty darned good, but we got tired of that, too.
badtoworse
(5,957 posts)Quantess
(27,630 posts)I have never known anyone who has received government food staples, although once I found a box of government hominy sitting on a San Francisco sidewalk. (I didn't take it because I don't know how to prepare hominy.)
Who qualifies for government foods?