| Sentinel-Tribune photographer Shane Hughes wanted to tell the stories of local people who rely on the Bowling Green Christian Food Pantry to fill their stomachs. Six families invited him into their homes and told him how they arrived at this place in their lives. These are the “faces of hunger” shared by Hughes. |
| Joe Jordan (above) lives in a trailer next to an abandoned home in Bradner. The home dates back to 1889 and Jordan dreams of one day buying the home and restoring it to its original condition. He spent his entire life working as a professional cook and retired four years ago. He and his family go down to the food pantry two or three times every month for breads and sweets. “If you think there isn’t need out there, trust me there is … and places like the food pantry are necessary. … There have been a few times where if it hadn’t been for them we wouldn’t have had any bread. SEE MORE PHOTOS |
| John Bixler lives in a small studio apartment in Bowling Green. He has worked at Wood Lane since 1982. Bixler said he currently receives $15 in food stamps each month, which is down from $200 a month previously. “Most of the time I run out of food and that is why I go to these food pantries.” Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and macaroni and cheese are main staples of his diet because of their affordability. Bixler said he has scavenged foods from dumpsters in the area when students from the university throw food away when they move out of their apartments. “I want to get stuff that’s not open, if it’s open, forget it, that can stay.” Bixler goes to church with his mom in North Baltimore and enjoys watching cooking shows such as Rachael Ray and Paula Deen. |
| Debi Love lives in a small home in Bowling Green. She and her husband, David, run Cori’s Taxi 24 hours a day and seven days a week. “The summer is pretty tough for us because a lot of our customer base goes away for the summer when the college kids leave and the food pantry is a huge help when you have to pick between pay the electric or get food. There are people who say that other people are just lazy or just using the system and why should we help them and nobody helped me, but not everybody has the same resources.” As a single mom, before Debi married David, there were times she felt she wouldn’t have made it without the help from the food pantry. She struggled through homelessness, but managed to pull herself and her family out through the help she received from friends and the community. Debi and David are always looking to give back to the community that helps them. Over the winter they loaned one of their taxis to a single mom whose car died and was unable to get a replacement right away. “It’s OK to need help sometimes. At one time or another pretty much everybody does need help. It’s no shame to need a hand and later when you are in a better situation, then you’ll be able to understand and to help someone else.” |
| Brie Williams lives with her mother and an older brother in a small apartment in Bowling Green. Her mother is a single mom who works at Toledo Hospital in sterile processing. The family does not receive any form of government assistance, but they rely on the food pantry for breads and sweets to supplement their groceries because so much of the monthly income goes toward rent, utilities, and gas for getting to and from work. Brie wants to become a singer when she grows up. Her favorite song right now is “Let It Go’ from the soundtrack to the movie “Frozen.” Brie’s mother says, “Put yourself in other people’s shoes for a second. Most people aren’t born with a silver spoon in their mouth. At any time anybody could be in the position where they need help and if your help gets taken away, you don’t know how difficult that can be. … If it wasn’t for the food pantry my children wouldn’t have had food that week.” |
| Mark Majors, who lives alone in an apartment in Bowling Green, is unemployed and collects Social Security Disability benefits because he suffers from depression and a social anxiety disorder. He has been on disability since 2001. Majors started using the Bowling Green Christian Food Pantry a year ago when his food stamp benefits were cut. He is 6-foot-10-inches and he started losing weight after his food stamps were cut and the food pantry helps him maintain a healthy weight. “That little bit of bread helps, and the Bowling Green Food Pantry is one of the few food pantries that actually supplies meat to people. About the only time that I eat meat is if I have it in some canned pasta.” When asked about people’s perception of welfare recipients, Majors said, “I don’t like what I see in the mirror. I absolutely hate it. I don’t see a person, I see a creature. … The fact is I hate this, I hate feeling this way … I hate not being able to approach people. I shouldn’t feel this way. I should be happier with who I am.” Majors tried to go back to school last year but was unable to continue because of his social anxiety disorder. |
| Linda Smith moved to Ohio a year ago seeking work. She has been out of work for three years and is now being evicted from her apartment in Bowling Green. Smith would be facing homelessness if not for her friend, Lynn, who is letting her stay with her temporarily. She said her difficulty in finding work comes from the fact the she does not have a college degree and she is not able to lift anything more than five pounds due to ruptured bursa in her shoulder. Smith started using the BG Christian Food Pantry in February. “They were really sweet and they didn’t make me feel useless. They said, ‘we’re here to help’ and there was no judgement at all. I was just amazed at how generous they were. I usually go twice a week for bread and sweets, but I can only go to the food pantry once every 90 days for groceries.” The pantry serves regular people down on their luck. “It’s not crack addicts on the street, it’s regular people, it’s your neighbors that are living paycheck to paycheck that are going there. It’s people you know who you don’t even think would be going there and using these services.” Smith, who was married with two sons, was divorced in 2006. She said her ex-husband did not pay alimony or child support and Linda was forced to dip into her savings to support herself and her sons until everything was depleted. One of her sons is now in the Navy and helps her financially by paying her phone bill and the other son just recently graduated high school on June 5. If Smith can’t find work she may be end up at one of the homeless shelters in Toledo, since there are currently no shelters for the homeless in Bowling Green. |
