Officially, Denise is our Social Services Outreach Liaison for the South Plains Food Bank. What that means is she helps people navigate the “system” to get other kinds of food assistance for people beyond what we can provide through the Food Bank. Each month, Denise logs a bunch of miles as she reaches out to people in all the counties we serve. And as you know, in some parts of the South Plains we have miles and miles of miles and miles before the next town.
Toward the end of last month, Denise was contacted by a case worker for Lubbock MHMR asking if she would meet with one of their clients, a young man named Roy who recently moved to Lubbock to be close to his family. Denise set up an appointment to meet with Roy. Here is her story about meeting “This Guy”:
When I arrived for our appointment I met “this guy.” He is the sweetest young man with nicest manner you could ask for. He had just moved here from New York. His mother had remarried a man from Lubbock. His MHMR worker was helping him with transition. Even with help from MHMR, it has been a difficult adjustment.
On one of his visits, Roy case worker from MHMR could tell that Roy wasn’t eating right. Most of the fixed income he receives was going to help pay rent and purchase medicines with precious little left over for food.
I helped him fill out an application for food-stamps. He kept repeating over and over, “Mam, are you sure? Are you sure this is ok? If someone else needs it, I don’t have to get it.” I reassured him it was ok and that he deserved it too.
To make a long story short, Roy qualified for food stamps. After his first trip to the grocery store, he called me and said, “Thank you! I got to eat today!”
And… well, even though the days are sometimes long and the miles go on and on, I totally forget about all of that. I am thankful for the Lord placing me here to help people like “This Guy!”
According to the Feeding America Hunger Study released earlier this year, the South Plains Food Bank and our network of partner agencies will touch 84,000 people in some form or fashion this year. Knowing “This Guy” is one of them keeps our work real.
