Last week, John McDonnell, who directs the Guilderland Food Pantry, talked to a woman in her early seventies who had been retired for about five years.He recounts their conversation in this week’s Enterprise podcast.

“She said, ‘You know, I worked my entire life. And now I don’t have enough. And I don’t know what to do.’”

McDonnell said, “It breaks my heart.”

He knows what it feels like to need help.

When McDonnell started his career at Veterans Affairs, he was a full-time government worker, married with two kids. “And I qualified for WIC,” he said of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children. “I qualified for reduced lunches at school and I missed qualifying for food stamps by $25 a week.

“The first time I had to walk into WIC …,” he said, “‘Humbled’ is probably not even the word for it … It sucks, honestly.”

He wants Guilderland residents to know they will be welcomed at the food pantry. “If they’re hungry, they’re not going to leave that way …. One person at a time, we can change the world.”

Read more at https://altamontenterprise.com/10282022/guilderland-food-pantry-director-says-if-you-need-us-were-here

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.