Bread and Soup night, a series of evening events that happen each year in November at USU Eastern, is an important aspect of taking care of people in the local community. Here’s just one story that illustrates the importance of the contributions made at the events.

Lorianne Jones (not her real name) is a single woman that is 69 years old. She worked most of her life in low paying service jobs, raised three kids and was able to save literally nothing in her lifetime. In the last year, she took on raising three of her grandchildren because her son went to prison and their mother disappeared into the drug world. Lorianne struggles to make ends meet; her social security is only $890 per month and she gets a total of $547 from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The rent on her small house is $400 per month. Her utilities amount to $200 per month. Those include electricity, gas and water.

Lorianne is a regular at her local food bank. She tries to get there each week in her old car and pick up food to help out. It used to be that she could get so much of what she needed, but things have changed. Now when she picks up once a week there is often only enough food for three or four days. With the food stamps, she is able to make it stretch, but the nutrition her grandkids get is not adequate. They never get to eat much fresh fruit or vegetables. Meat costs so much at the store that she makes one pound of hamburger last three days.

Last month her car broke down and the local mechanic fixed it for her, but the cost was $500. He towed it in for free, but the parts amounted to over $400. He basically gave her the tow and his labor. He is also letting her make payments. He says he knows she will never be able to pay off the debt, but he feels sorry for her.

The above is not a far-fetched story. It is a normal story for many elderly people. Even when they are not raising grandchildren, a single elderly person hardly has enough to eat if they are living on a fixed income. The disabled often have it worse. They have expenses that an abled person does not have, yet their income is no more.

In most cases, to those reading this, these people are strangers. They live in a different world than the reader does. But everyone should know that the percentage of people who struggle is high in Carbon County, and is increasing all the time.

As the population grows older the number of elderly people in the community is going up and many do not have 401Ks, savings or means other than social security for support. A trip to the doctor, or worse, the hospital, can wipe out anything they have been able to save. And as people get older, those kinds of things happen more often. For these people, there is no eating out, no vacations or trips, not even cable television or the internet.

It’s easy to dismiss those less fortunate than ourselves. They are invisible unless one really looks for them. But at least one probably lives on your street. It’s also easy to look at them if they are noticed and say “They made their own bed.”

Well maybe they did, and they also may have made your bed at one time when you stayed in that nice hotel across town. Or when they cooked your steak at that great birthday party you had for your son. Or when they filled the shelves and cashiered for you many times at the local convenience store.

But the past is the past…today is what counts and watching people, even complete strangers struggle, should not be easy even if your belly is full, you have a nice house to live in and drive a nice car.

This is why strangers matter.

While people donate a lot to causes in this country, the poor and disadvantaged are often left behind because people think that “someone, probably the government, will take care of them.”

In many cases, your dog eats better than people on fixed incomes.

People in need can get help in various ways. For instance, there is information about the SNAP food program from the Department of Workforce Services at https://jobs.utah.gov/customereducation/services/foodstamps/index.html.

But little things can also change the scenario that plagues Lorianne. She could get enough for her family to eat from week to week if the food bank had more resources. People really do donate to the food bank, particularly during the holidays. But those donations go out fast and in January when all the Christmas lights have come down the shelves get pretty thin. The summer is also a lean time despite food drives by the Boy Scouts, the United States Postal Service and many schools that help out. Donations are always needed.

By attending Bread and Soup night on the campus of USU Eastern in the Jennifer Leavitt Student Center each fall community members can help even more. They will eat and pay for bread and soup and the money they spend will go to the Carbon County Food Bank. It is a way to get dinner and have the money a person pays go to help these strangers. The food bank donation each year from the university that is generated by this event is key to putting food on the shelves of the pantry.

“When the scouts would knock on my door during a food drive, I had always been one of those people who simply ran to my pantry to pull out last year’s can of artichoke hearts from a failed recipe, or threw in my can of tomato soup just to participate,” said Carrie Icard who is an English professor at USU Eastern and also runs the Bread and Soup Night there.  “I understand now, after 20 years of doing Bread ‘N Soup Night, that what’s going on in our community requires much more consideration than that. Because of what we’ve been doing at the university, I can feel that I made a greater effort to serve, but more importantly, also gave others a chance to do the same.”

This year those Bread and Soup nights will be on November 5, 12 and 19. The evening starts at 5:00 p.m. and ends at 7:30 p.m. or when the soup is gone.

Bread and Soup night is not a pity party. It is an event to honor those that are not as fortunate as others, people who are important because they are part of our community and peoples lives every day. They are the people, who in their time, did things for everyone else so that others could have a good and happy life.

That is why strangers matter.