Tammy Bruffett

My name is Tammy. I come here for the food because I’m on SSI. When you’re on SSI, your money goes towards your bills. And since we don’t get food stamps, I need to get food. We don’t have enough there at the house, so we rely on this place. People don’t realize low income is really low income, you know? I mean, SSI, everybody thinks it’s all that. No, it’s not. I get, I don’t know, eight-something, but I’ve got a payee so I don’t really get that, okay? They pay my rent which is $550 and they send me $200 on the 1st and then $87 I believe on the 15th. That’s for bills and food every month. And my husband don’t work, so it’s hard.

 

People ask me all the time, “How can you go to a food bank – food locker – and stand there?” Well, go to my house. Stay there for a week and see how hungry you are. I like it when I come here because sometimes we get a big bag of chicken, right? And for me and my husband, I can make that last at least for four meals. The only thing I buy in stores is like hamburger meat, and now they’ve raised it to almost $3. That’s ridiculous, you know? So if it wasn’t for a place like this, I don’t know what a lot of us would do, okay? And that’s really sad that we rely on this place.