Sal's Story - Page 3

When I returned to this area the next day, I sought out a Pastor George Washington, Sr.—a very big man, BIG. His hands were twice the size of mine. This man was in his 70’s, but his frame was sturdy. I approached him and introduced myself to him. I said, "There’s a lot of poverty around here." He shook his head and said, "Yes." I said, "How many of these people need help?" He looked at me, and said, "Every one of them." I said, "How many people live in this area?" He said, "About 2,000." I said, "2,000!" He said, "Yes, they are scattered all over this area." I said, "How did they get so poor, what happened?" He informed me that they used to be laborers on all these farms many decades ago. As the farmers got the big combines and big equipment, they all were laid off. Being uneducated and not having anywhere to go, they stayed. I was shocked again that from their meager checks of $160-$360 per month, there were actually slumlords in this area that would take a majority of their money to let them live in these shacks. I’m telling you, I stepped back into time. These people were living as if they were in the Great Depression, or maybe before. As I drove and saw the people, a lot of them had no shoes, especially the children. No proper clothes, just rags, no food. Most of the people were tough, fending for themselves, living on mostly potatoes that they grew and had stored in bushels.
I ventured into some of these shacks. My guide, Pastor George Washington, Sr. was like a shepherd.  What a great man with a  big heart. He has passed away since then. I would go into these shacks, and there were children that would sleep cuddled up on rags in the corner. Some had never slept on a bed in their life, and they were 9-12 years old. I asked “Why is no one helping these people?" I found out that Pastor Washington had a food pantry with no food. I called Springfield and asked, "Where is their food?" They said, "We don’t buy food, we just give licenses for pantries." In 1989, I started going to a place called Bethlehem Center, now called Northern Illinois Food Bank. I used to buy food at 11 cents per lb, now it is 16 cents per lb. This fee covers the handling. It is a great organization. They make deals with food stores to take all the damaged packaged goods that people won’t buy. They won’t take a broken box, they’ll reach into the back and take a nice package. It is still good food. Instead of all that food being thrown out that nobody wants to buy, Northern Illinois Food Bank takes the food graciously donated by these food chains and puts it in a warehouse to distribute to charitable organizations like The Time is Now to Help the Children and Elderly. We purchased 20,000 lbs of food a month for 14 years.  Did you know there are 30 million people that go to bed hungry every night?

I began to stock the food pantry. I started bringing hundreds of mattresses. That’s a story in itself. We began with bringing 1 truck, then 2 trucks, then 4 trucks. We would go door-to-door, shack-to-shack. Even toys, every child needs some fun in their life. I would go to Toys R Us to try to negotiate a deal to get a discount. Often, it was very hard to negotiate. They would say, "We can’t, we can’t…." Sometimes they would give us a 5% discount; sometimes they would give nothing. I would go into Toys R Us with my group of people and we would fill a truck with hundreds of toys. Carts would be lined up from the front of the store to the back. We would purchase cases of educational toys, fun toys, books etc… When we would go to distribute these toys we would also provide brand new pillows, blankets, and coats. I would go to Burlington Coat Factory, where they would already have good prices, and they would still offer us a discount. We would buy 1,600 coats, down coats, etc. Never inferior quality, only good quality items that I would have worn myself and purchased for my own children.  We would buy hundreds and hundreds of pairs of shoes. In our truck caravan, sometimes we would have shoes, blankets, and pillows. Sometimes we would have mattresses, toys and toiletries. Yes, even toiletries. How sad, to not even have toilet paper. If our fellow Americans are suffering and do not have the necessities of life, we provide them.

Go to Page [pg. 1] [pg. 2] [pg. 4] [pg. 5] [pg. 6] of Sal's story.

The Time Is Now To Help The Children And Elderly
P.O. Box 70
Pell Lake, WI 53157-0070