Tina

* All names have been changed. *

Late in 2007, Wachovia Securities announced it was moving most of it's Richmond, VA jobs to St. Louis. Hundreds of people were laid off.

Tina was one of the people.

I talked to Tina probably a year or more ago. She had been out of work from the lay off so long that she was no longer able to draw unemployemnt. (This means that she was no longer counted in unemployment figures that are reported in the news, like so many other people. )
Because there were so many people out of work with the same skill sets, it was hard for many of them to find jobs.

Tina's husband was on disability, which wasn't a problem when she had a good job with benefits. At the time I talke to her, her two twin teenage daughters were seniors in high school. One wanted to go to college to get a nursing degree. The other wanted to be a teacher.
One of them had even offered to stay home and go to community college to help save the family money.

Tina found a job working for Chick-fil-a, part time with no benefits. I haven't talked to her since the one time she needed food, likely because she was looking forward to an increase in hours that was going to help their finances some.
She liked working at Chick-fil-a because for each shift she got a free meal. With salads abd soups as options, she felt she was getting a pretty healthy selection and saving on the family grocery budget.
Both daughters worked at Chick-fil-a also, which provided them with some meals as well.

Even though she had found a system that worked pretty well for them, they still hit a rough patch where they just didn't have enough food in the house for the 4 of them to get by, which is why she called me.

Because of her work schedule, she wasn't able to come in, so I talked to her about what she wanted packed in her bags. She gave me a short list of things they especially liked, and concluded with the hesitant statement that the teens really like sugary cerals and cake - which I was happy to be able to provide for them.
After she picked up the food, she made a point to call and thank us, especially for the cake mix and cereal thrown in amongst the vegetables and such. It made the girls very happy, and I imagine something special like that provided a little bit of "normal" to a difficult situation.

I haven't heard from Tina since then, but I am hoping that the girls are both doing great in college.