You Helped Pam Get the Right Kind of Food When She Needed it Most

Sixty six-year-old Pam Z. of Lafayette, like most Louisianans, never thought she would need to go to a local food pantry.  But when she did, your generous contributions made it possible for her to get immediate help.

“Before my disability, I was working full-time and going to school at night,” she said.  “Then, 12 years ago, I started getting sick, and was diagnosed with congestive heart failure.”

Today, Pam also suffers from Parkinson’s and Type II diabetes.  Her conditions require her to take 18 prescriptions a day, a situation that sometimes forces her to make very hard choices.    

“Between food and medicine, my check disappears in a big hurry. I thought everything was just fine.  I was giving to other places and doing things.  Now, at the end of the month, it’s ‘am I going to buy groceries or do I buy medicine?’  That gets bad.”

Once a month, Pam travels with a friend to the mobile food pantry at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Lafayette.   

“It’s phenomenal. And there are other pantries in the Lafayette area, and they are good, but this one is heart-healthy.  It has all the marvelous foods that people on a low income and have health problems can go to and find real food they can eat.”

Pam says her apprehension about going to a food pantry for the first time was quickly relieved.  

“I was to the point of almost being desperate in trying to get food.  These people don’t discriminate about your age or disability, or anything.  It’s well-managed, the volunteers really work hard.  They smile through the whole thing, and stay until everyone has their food and everyone is taken care of.  It’s a great place to go.”

Thanks to you, Pam has somewhere to go to get help.  

Your generosity helps to reduce the burden of Pam’s disability by making it possible for her to receive the right kind of food when she needs it most.