Meet Jennifer
In their words...
I'm Jennifer Talbury, I'm 40 years old. I am currently using the Food Forward program to help to iterate food back into the house. I've been homeless for the last 10 years, so having the extra help during the month to month really does help. I'm able to put food in my freezer for a month and still get to and from work.
The hardships that it helped me overcome was I was having to pay $100 a week on a taxi just to get to and from work. I ended up going to the homeless shelter because I had done got my job at Michigan Sugar. Then I was offered the Food Forward program through my job. They told me about it and I was able to obtain it. So this helped me to put money back towards my table instead of worrying about the taxi to and from work.
My shift supervisor, she's always on the lookout for little things to help me. Like she was really interested in me wanting to get on my feet. She says I'm one of the best workers they have. And I came from the homeless shelter. So she's got a certain amount of pride in me. She gave me the information about food forward, actually got me in touch with them. And we contacted each other through email. It was very easy. I gave them the they asked for very little, really, information, because I don't have much information to give. I don't have no kind of stuff in files or records. I don't have that. Didn't take hardly no time. It literally took, I think, three or four email swappings of information before I was approved and was going to come to pick my card up. It was that it was super easy for me to be able to get into just with what I have currently.
I moved out in January, I believe it was, and I've been living in my own apartment. I have obtained a vehicle. And all of this was with the help of this program because this program was specifically to my food. This was able to stock my freezer and keep me to be able to eat and go to work and maintain while I was putting the better things in place to be able to get to where I am today. It's helpful to people like me, who is trying to get their life on a better path. And it helps me. I'm not good with my finances. So again, having just the money to my food is very, very beneficial for me.
The leaps that I've taken in the last six months, stability is a completely new thing for me. So having to learn to not live in fight or flight is where I'm at. I'm working on the stability and the aspect of getting my own place and my own upgrades to what I've already accomplished. And this has helped me get that sense of accomplishment. And I do greatly appreciate everything about it and everybody that has helped. Thank you very much from the bottom of my heart.