Jacqueline's Story
The devastation of Hurricane Katrina caused Jacqueline Freeman to lose everything she owned. She witnessed and experienced horrifying incidents of human degradation and racial injustice during her weeklong stay at the Superdome. She was short changed by FEMA and her insurance company. Because of the multiple tragedies she experienced in the last few years, Freeman is living below the poverty line, despite having been a member of the workforce since 1964.
Freeman and her husband relocated to Austin directly from an army base in Muskogee, Oklahoma, which is one place where the government bused many evacuees. They arrived with practically nothing, but were given clothing and dishes from many kind Austinites. Freeman got a job at an Austin US Post Office as a mail carrier, which was her previous occupation in New Orleans. But she began to suffer from health problems, some of which were a result of an illness she developed while navigating through the filthy flood waters after the hurricane. She had to take many days off of work for doctor visits and a surgery. Eventually the USPS had to let Freeman go. Without a job, her already fragile financial state worsened because she could not keep up with all of her debts. Many of her property losses from the hurricane were not covered by her insurance company because she did not have flood insurance. (In general, homeowners insurance policies do not cover losses in the event of a flood, which was devastating to thousands of New Orleans policy holders.) Therefore, Freeman still is paying for a car that she no longer owns. Her medical bills were only partially covered by FEMA and Medicare; the rest she has to pay out of pocket. The social security checks that she and her husband receive each month only cover the cost of their rent and utility bills. Her husband is unable to work in his older age because of a disability, so Freeman must have an income to support both of them. Even though Freeman is sixty-five-years-old, retirement is not an option at this point, not with her long list of bills. “If I didn’t work, we wouldn’t make it. I really don’t understand how others live and survive on just their social security checks.”
After Freeman lost her job, there was a two week period in which she says her household had almost no food, and that she and her husband survived on bread and dehydrated pasta soups. Fortunately, Freeman’s son discovered the Catholic Charities of Central Texas website, where they read about the Employment Support program. She met with a human service worker who helped her get listings of jobs that were available. When the service worker learned more about Freeman’s personal history, she recommended that she return on Friday morning to get food from the Catholic Charities Food Pantry. That was in January 2008, and since then Freeman has returned every two weeks to graciously accept a food box from volunteers. Freeman is not used to asking for financial assistance, and has never received food from a pantry prior to the hurricane. “I don’t like having to go to different agencies and beg for this and for that and for help,” she said. However, in her life after Katrina, Freeman has come to rely on the pantry to help feed her household. “It’s a tremendous help. There are times when I don’t know what I would have done without being able to come to the pantry. I’m not one that’s looking for a handout. I’m looking for a handout just to help me to get on my feet and to where I have to go to be able to have a normal life again.” Freeman is currently employed as a care-taker for the elderly, but she doesn’t make as much money as she did back at the post office and had to drop her life insurance plan. “Right now if my husband or I should die, today, my son would have to figure out a way to bury us because I don’t have life insurance. I can’t afford it!”
Despite Freeman’s sorry financial situation, the government has only awarded her ten dollars a month in food stamps. “I am thankful because ten dollars is ten dollars, but I just don’t think that’s enough for two adults to make it on a month.” Freeman uses the ten dollars to purchase breakfast food such as grits, juice and eggs. She relies on the groceries she receives from the food pantry for the rest of her meals.
The delayed and inefficient federal response to the Katrina disaster was just the beginning of Freeman’s frustration with government efforts to care for the nation’s poor. Since she cannot rely on government programs such as food stamps, social security or Medicare to offer her enough financial assistance, she depends on non-profit food pantries to help her make ends meet.
“Do the politicians think about these things? Do they sit down and look at how people that are in a certain income bracket are not able to survive? I mean the system has made it so hard for you. They don’t take under consideration that things are constantly rising. I think they should raise the limits of how much you are able to get based on your income. You know, take into consideration that this has gone up, this has gone up, and this has gone up. You can only stretch a dollar so far.”
Many could argue that Freeman’s circumstance is exceptionally unfortunate, and that most Americans don’t have to face such adversity. But the reality is that tragedy can happen to anyone at anytime, and people who never thought they would need to use a food pantry can suddenly find themselves not knowing what they would do without the food the help of the Catholic Charities food pantry. “I lost everything after Katrina. And at my age, trying to start over, it’s not easy.”
The Catholic Charities food pantry is a partner agency of the Capital Area Food Bank.