Potluck Woes

We went to a potluck tonight. Or should I say, our son went to a potluck. He took crackers and cheese because we couldn't face cooking a dish and we didn't think that anyone would mind a six year old snatching a little free food. We brought some of our pasta tossed with a little canned, stewed tomatoes and our daily allotment of two wieners. No one ate our dish. Maybe they felt sorry for us and didn't want to decrease our portions or quite possibly it was the steaming lasagna on the one side and the delicious sweet and sour chicken on the other side. And the dessert...chocolate cheesecake with a pecan caramel crust. We made it through without trying any.

The reason that we went was to spend some fun time with friends. We talked a little about the challenge but were really preaching to the converted - I met these friends while volunteering at the Elgin Street Mission. The really sad thing is that if we were truly relying on the food bank for food we definitely wouldn't have even gone to the potluck. How humiliating it would be to bring our makeshift casserole and expect other people to eat it. No wonder depression and social isolation is high in low-income populations. Not only are you missing the extra money needed for a night out but you don't even have the means to enjoy a free Saturday night hanging out with friends.

I do have one small confession: we have two pieces of cheesecake in the freezer waiting for Friday night!