What It’s Like Pushing a Cart Full of Top Ramen Around a Grocery Store
March 4, 2011 at 8:52 PM 6 comments
I spent my volunteer time at the food bank today as I do every week. One of my chores was to go to the grocery store and buy 50 “cases” (12-pack boxes) of Top Ramen.
So I get there and grab the biggest cart I can find and I head to the soup aisle.
The cases are on the bottom shelf so I get down on the floor and pull out one after the other and carefully back them into my cart (the last thing I want is to drag two carts around).
I pack and stuff and cram and in the end I take all the chicken and beef ramen cases on the shelf — something like 35. Other shoppers pass me but they didn’t look me in the eye because, well, they obviously think I’m either crazy or really, really poor. After all, we’re talking about the potential for 12 meals per box here at a total cost of $1.97 each.
In the end, I push my cart to the check-out line while looking over the top of all those boxes, hoping none of them fall on the floor. I notice, as I pass by a stocker, that he waits until I pass before he turns and looks at me.
I pull into the check-out line behind an elderly couple who don’t look back. I glance at the lady who slides in behind me and she looks away. Settling in to wait my turn, I grab a copy of US magazine and I see a manager-type standing to the side who averts her eyes when I try to nod a hello.
It dawns on me: I’m being treated like a weirdo because my cart is full of Top Ramen.
I’m living a micro-episode of a version of Black Like Me, but mine is crazy like me or poor like me or weird like me.
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Entry filed under: At the Food Bank, Food, Musings. Tags: .
1.
Janet | March 5, 2011 at 2:50 PM
I work for the University of IL. The State of IL is so far behind on its bills that their share of my dental bill is 6 months behind. They paid just days before my next 6mo checkup. I was joking with the office manager saying, “Well, I guess the State FINALLY paid you. Do I owe anything more?” (We were both amused and smiling at each other. ) When I left and walked through the waiting room, I felt like people were scowling and glaring at me. I was half way home before I realized they must have thought I was on “welfare.”
How horrible it must be to be unemployed and/or uninsured and face that hatefulness everyday.
2.
Say It Ain't So Already | March 5, 2011 at 4:47 PM
Oh Janet. That is such a sad story. So sorry the people in the waiting room made you feel that way.
Too bad we aren’t a more compassionate society. I know there are people who come through the food bank who never thought they would step foot in one much less go there to do their weekly food “shopping.”
3.
Janet | March 5, 2011 at 6:19 PM
They didn’t make me feel bad, just confused. As you described, I experienced “poor like me.”
4.
M. Douglas Wray | March 5, 2011 at 7:37 PM
No one just asked? How stupid.
5.
Say It Ain't So Already | March 5, 2011 at 8:15 PM
Yeah.
I wished they’d asked me what I was doing. It would have been an educational experience all around.
6.
Say It Ain't So Already | March 5, 2011 at 8:17 PM
Nope, and I totally agree. Too bad that none of the people who reacted said something — even something silly like, hey, you must love ramen, huh? and then we could have talked.
I could have told them where I was from. I could have told them that the food bank manager told me not to spend more than $1.97 on the cases — because that’s how tight money is, etc., and we could have talked about how pitiful it is that ramen is a staple at the food bank yet it’s full of salt and empty carbs.
Sad.