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Where you live, a gas fireplace would be fine for warming up a room. Where I live, it is inadequate to keep the pipes from freezing, it is only a fireplace for the temporary comfort of humans and especially cats.Quote:
Originally Posted by bae
Attachment 6587
Well, generally winter temperatures here are moderate, often not even below freezing.Quote:
Originally Posted by iris lilies
But, we can get serious storms that take out power lines, sometimes for a week or more. And the temperature can remain in the single-digits for many days. You have to be clever in those times, taking care to preserve your plumbing, and living around your heat source. (I went into a neighbor's home to check on them in the last such storm, and found the two little old ladies there had isolated the room in the home containing their woodstove to keep a small survivable warm space.)
When my own wood stove perished a few years back, I put in a giant over-sized one capable of heating a large Montana hunting lodge. I have not regretted this decision. I have two wood stoves in the house, one on the "daylight basement" floor, and the huge one on the main floor. Sometimes I have had to have both of them running before I oversized the main unit, since then I only run the second stove now-and-then to make sure everything is functional.
In my Dad's place, I replaced the old wood stove with a propane "wood stove", which generates enough heat for these circumstances, and installed a wall-mount propane heater in the kitchen part of his home.
In my Mother's place, I put a propane fireplace insert into her existing lovely-but-not-especially-heat-produce existing fireplace, and it cranks out enough heat to keep the place warm even when the outside temperature is in the single-digits and the wind is howling in from the Arctic.
From this thread I’ve learned there’s at least four feeding programs sponsored by US taxpayers at the federal level, There may be more for all I know:
1. school feeding orogram
2. WIC. Women, Infants, and .children
3. SNAP supplemental Nutirtional Assistance Program
4. TEFAP. Temporary emergency food assistance program
Also the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP) for seniors, and the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) for childcare centers.Quote:
Originally Posted by iris lilies
And the Farm Bill :-)
Just had an email with a friend at church about the local food pantry. She is older and is pretty well off. $10K to food pantry! I was thrilled to see that.
Six “feed the people programs “are not enough. We need more.Quote:
Originally Posted by bae
/s
I’m playing around with looking into senior citizen housing supplemented by the government just for my own edification. I learned that a housing complex across the street from one of our former little houses is a subsidized senior citizen complex. I always looked at that and thought it was very cool and I figured I would like to live there. It’s called Saint Agnes Apartments and I just figured it was run by Catholic charities. Well, maybe it is but I didn’t know it was subsidized housing.
It is nice because it’s in the center of a neighborhood I like, an old Victorian neighborhood, and they have a nice yard and have a flower garden edging the yard that the residents take care of and there are plants in pots, too. It’s adjacent to a small city park and a dog park. The front part of the building is an old restored school house so it’s got that “old building “element that I like, but the apartments are in a recently constructed building attached.
it appears to be 100% subsidize housing and that surprises me. Again, it’s one of the few senior citizen places and I could envision myself.
according to ChatGPT the “senior only “ subsidized housing in the city of St. Louis does not have a long waiting list. I wonder if that’s accurate, but that’s encouraging if true.
I know the /s means sarcasm, and so you might want to check out this article about the status of hunger in America:Quote:
Originally Posted by iris lilies
America’s Hunger Crisis Is Growing
Wow, the article is powerful, but this is that part that makes me cry, maybe because I'm a market researcher:Quote:
Originally Posted by Tybee
Last month, the Trump Administration canceled the USDA’s annual Household Food Security Report—the only national data source that measures hunger by age, disability status, and household composition. For the first time in 30 years, America will no longer track hunger nationwide. Without that data, millions of older adults like Rubem will vanish from view as the social safety net continues to collapse around them.
What is Trump trying to accomplish by banning these statistics? He is so narcissistic he would prevent information that can help us identify problems and come up with solutions rather than burst his bubble that under his Administration we are happy subjects all living an American Utopia under his reign.
I don't know what he thinks will solve a hunger problem in this country--especially since he's about to make it bigger.
As I’ve already posted earlier, many MAGA supporters lack empathy. They think if you need this sort of assistance, it’s your fault. Probably from the influence of the fake prosperity gospel stuff. They don’t care if it’s a senior or not. You should have saved enough for retirement. If you didn’t, it’s your fault. Just about 40% of SNAP recipients are kids, I just heard on the radio. The MAGA supporters are “too bad, so bad” the kids have parents who can’t feed them properly. Or don’t make enough. Something like 38% of SNAP recipients work. But we all know that a lot of working class folks are in a bad way. MAGA simply doesn’t care.
This MAGA stance is what I’m seeing online. It’s very pervasive. One of the big MAGA people said empathy is a weakness. Was that Vance? Can’t remember.
I did Meals on Wheels for a couple of years up here, and a typical recipient was like one of my cients--an older man, Joe, who had a condition that made it difficult for him to get out of bed, and he would ask me to simply leave his meal on the washer that was just inside his trailer. On his good days, he would ask me to sit outside with him and talk, and he would tell me about his days as an interior designer in New York. He's the one who advised me to choose a couple of shades darker on the paint color I was considering for my house, because the sun always washes it out.
He would talk about his wife and how they bought that small trailer as a summer place but eventually moved up there permanently. She died a few years ago and Joe still grieved her, saying that he was supposed to go first. I'm sure he wish he had. I saw he died last year, and he is buried in our local cemetery. I think about him every time I pass it.
Some people need to realize that "there but for the grace of God go I."
I have a MAGA FB friend (actually an acquaintance) who has been receiving SNAP benefits, along with her 2 adult daughters and their 5 small children (the whole clan is 10 people altogether, friend has 5 kids plus 5 grandkids). They were all living together in the family shelter system, although recently some of them have gotten out and found their own housing due to necessity (given deadlines that they could no longer stay in the shelter system after more than a year). Her outrage seems to focus on the idea that everything is being given to "illegals," so there are less resources available to deserving "American born and bred" folks like them. I actually have more sympathy for migrants who are often fleeing horrendous circumstances than "American born and bred" people who are in bad circumstances due to their own poor life choices. I do have sympathy for them too, since none of us make great decisions all of the time. Let's face it, luck can have a lot to do with it as well - mental illness, physical disabilities, the families we are born into, etc. She constantly knocks the state of MA, and doesn't seem to appreciate the generous benefits she and her family has received in MA, or realize that if the safety net is robust for her and hers, that it's going to be for others as well, even those she may perceive as less deserving. She and her husband and 2 youngest kids have just moved to SC, so I hope that suits them better.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tradd
I always assume there’s a certain level of mental illness, whether diagnosed or undiagnosed, in the chaotic lives of people who make consistently poor decisions that result in needing welfare programs for years. Of course, obvious health problems are major factors in poverty. Much of our good health is luck and genes.Quote:
Originally Posted by rosarugosa
But I also don’t think it’s entirely unreasonable to think the well that feeds illegal immigrants as well as the welfare programs that serve US citizens is NOT an endless flow of money. There will be consequences to decades of deficit spending. I’m just hoping those consequences don’t show up in my lifetime. I am old and maybe I can outlive it.
I also think it’s NOT unreasonable to prefer United States citizens for welfare handouts over others.
another is Meals on Wheels which gets federal funding and is carried out by by the Department of Health and Human Services.Quote:
Originally Posted by bae
And it looks like Trump will be taking that one away, too:Quote:
Originally Posted by iris lilies
HHS Layoffs: Meals on Wheels and Other Services Face Cuts - Newsweek
I just realized that I didn't math very well in my saga above: friend + DH + 5 kids + 5 grandkids = 12 people (not counting the dog, 2 cats and 2 ferrets).
Meals on wheels is a program that helped my parents live at home in times of physical decline. They usually made a donation to help with costs. I've just about wrapped up charitable contributions for the year, but will send them a donation. It's a great program that I can't understand being cut back or frozen due to the shutdown.
Aside from federal funding they do get money from local sources and donations so it seems to be a shared program. My usual lookup fact sheet.
https://www.mealsonwheelsamerica.org...ing-explained/
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rogar
Thank you, that's a great idea, to donate to them. It's a wonderful program.
Note on food pantry donations: both pantries in my town have been totally overwhelmed by food donations so they’ve requested no more food donations for 10 days to allow them to sort things out. Cash or gift cards only until them. So please check with your local pantry before dropping food donations off.