As Christmas approached, Laura and her family needed help. With mounting bills, her husband’s work hours cut back, and her own job situation in limbo, Laura struggled to feed her family. Her husband told her that someone he encountered at his job told him about the Foodbank. Laura discounted it at first. “You are nervous about what it says about you,” Laura says. “I also thought it was only for people who were homeless and had no place to live.” Eventually, another agency strongly urged her to consider visiting the Foodbank, and Laura agreed to call. “I had no idea what to do,” Laura admits. “But when I called, I was welcomed. They told me they were here for everyone. They described the ways I could get assistance, and I thought, ‘That’s it? That’s all I have to do?’ They made me feel at ease, and once I knew they helped anyone who was falling on hard times, I felt totally comfortable going.”
Eventually, Laura started to flourish again, getting a steady job and even returned to her passion for writing and designing book covers. “It was scary,” Laura confesses, “But things pick up again, and it’s not as scary. It’s just nice to know that the Foodbank is there when you are in a predicament.” Laura’s job as an employee at a local grocery store gives her a unique perspective on the COVID-19 pandemic. Often, she says, shelves are “literally bare,” and she encourages people to be patient with store workers. “We can’t replenish what we don’t have, but we are doing the best we can,” she states. She even finds rays of hope within the stressful times. Seeing a gentleman frequently come through the checkout line with large quantities of food, Laura later discovers that he is a pastor who shops each day for the senior citizens in his neighborhood who must stay home to protect their health. “That made my morning,” she says with a smile. “People have good hearts.”
As for her own family, Laura is anxious, but optimistic. One of her children persevered especially hard in school and will miss having a formal high school graduation, and her husband’s work hours have been reduced again. Still, she knows, based on her own journey from last Christmas until now, that better days inevitably return after tough times. Laura says, with confidence, “Whenever there is darkness, there is always light at the end of the tunnel.”
Learn more about the Virginia Peninsula Foodbank here.