Stealing Diapers & Baby Food – Tough times for single mothers

Yesterday my husband took our three children to the park for his one-on-one time with them (and my quiet time at home . I am blessed to have a husband with a good job, our nice home, food to eat and money enough to pay our bills with some left over. We are blessed. But it has not always been this way for me. At one time, I was homeless with three small children. A single mom with no money, a stack of bills and wondering what to do. Thankfully – I had family there to help me in my time of need. But times are tough right now in our society as a whole, and not everyone has family there to help.

Yesterday, my husband was reading his Bible at the park, while the children were playing. A young mother sat down next to him and started talking and made comment that she could not find a job here in Sullivan (the town where we live). My husband asks if she had applied at Walmart or any of the numerous fast food restaurants in town. The conversation continued and the woman commented that she had applied at Walmart and on the application they had asked three questions about if you were an employee at Walmart, and you saw your friend stealing from Walmart what would you do. Three choices were given:

1. Immediately notify a Supervisor
2. Ignore them and keep working
3. Tell them to stop and let them go

This woman said she chose #3. Needless to say, she did not get hired. I would imagine many others also have chosen options other than the correct ONE. This woman went on to say that times are so tough in this town that her friends have resorted to stealing diapers and baby food from Walmart to provide for their children! My husband was particularly shocked and disturbed by this – as was I, when he told me about it today.

Now we are praying and brainstorming as what we can do about this situation. I need to make some calls because we do have “The Mission” here in town which is part resale shop (where I buy quite a few of my clothes!) and part food pantry, but I’m not sure if they provide things such as diapers. So I need to see if they do and if so, then we will begin to contribute for that specific cause. There are food stamps and food pantries where food can be obtained, it’s the non-food items that seem to fall through the cracks. I know I can spend a good chunk of money each week on things we don’t even eat – toilet paper, laundry detergent, and diapers, when we had little ones. Cloth diapers would be an awesome solution, but only if one had a washer and dryer and the willingness and commitment to do the few extra diaper changes and washing it takes to manage cloth diapers. If so – then cloth diapers saves a ton of money.

It is sad times indeed when mothers are stealing diapers and baby food! Foreclosures, banks going under, businesses closing and jobs being lost. The economy just plain stinks! Before you go buy that next cuppa from Starbucks, why not use that money to instead buy a pack of diapers, or buy an extra can or two of baby formula and donate it to a local food pantry or crisis pregnancy center.

Whatever help you can provide would be greatly appreciated. People are in need right now! You may be someone in need. If so, click the links above and find a food pantry or crisis pregnancy center near you that can help you, or contact a local church to help you find resources in your community. Stealing is never the answer!

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