The other evening, I was queuing at a check-out line in Kroger. There was an elderly man in front of me - - he was about $4 short of being able to pay for all of his groceries. You guys, I'm the biggest softie, I got a little teary-eyed. The cashier, she was like, "You don't have enough money. Here, let's take some things out of your bag." She thoughtlessly grabbed a bag of baby carrots and a pack of hot dogs. She was about to grab another item when I decided to just foot the bill. It was no big deal, o.k., I just couldn't take watching this cashier acting all inconvienienced by this man. I mean, that could've been a member of my family! Too, I hated that the clerk was just pulling items out of the bag, making him choose what to leave behind. The poor man, he was so confused. Her fast-talkin' and pulling out items at random left him standing there embarrassed and ashamed. Well, that's what I perceived, anyway.

I don't know what the gentleman's situation is, but I really hope I didn't witness the norm for him. You know, I hope I didn't witness a person struggling to pay for groceries. I know people are hurtin', but now I get it.  Seeing it first hand really got the message into my thick skull.

We are so lucky. And I want to help. As the late great Paul Newman said, "If you can help out, do."  Thanks to Rett, I've been directed to Potluck, an organization that rescues high-quality food from places like restaurants & hotels and distributes them to the hungry.  If we aren't already upon hard times, we will be.  Organizations like Food Not Bombs & Potluck make more sense every day.  They need our support!