Joanne with her children, daughter-in-law and grandson.
November 11, 2015 – Approximately three out of every ten New York City veterans rely on food pantries and soup kitchens. This Veterans Day, as we honor the men and women who have served our country, Food Bank shines a spotlight on a situation that is all too common for veterans and active-duty military families alike: the need for assistance.
Joanne married young, right after her husband enlisted in the Army. Three children soon followed. “We struggled financially right from the start,” recalls Joanne, 48, now a staff member at one of Food Bank’s partners. People thought her family had more money than they did, simply because her husband was in the military and they lived on base. “We were so far from that,” she says.
Every day, Joanne did all that she could to make the money stretch. But a young soldier’s pay only goes so far when you have three small children to feed and clothe. “Learning to live on so little money when you have kids was really hard,” she says. “All I could think about was how we needed money for food, for formula, for this bill and that bill. We just didn’t have enough to cover everything.”
One day, some of the other military moms told her about the food pantry they used. “My husband was against it,” says Joanne. “I think it hurt his pride to feel like he couldn’t feed his family. But I told him, ‘We have to go. We don’t have enough money to get to your next check.’” They began getting a box of food from the pantry each month. “It’s what we had to do to feed our family.”
Since so many of the military families on base were also struggling, Joanne and the other wives organized pot luck dinners to share food. “It’s how we survived,” she says. “I had to budget every penny.”
The family also had to rely on food stamps. “It was the hardest thing I ever did. When I was growing up my mother also received food stamps. I wanted to do better when I became a mom, but I had to feed my children.”
Eventually, life began to improve for Joanne’s family. Their household income increased and they no longer had to use the pantry or food stamps. But Joanne is thankful that help was there when her family needed it. She’s most grateful that despite the hardships, she and her husband were able to find a way to provide for their children.
“Our story is no different from so many other military families—then and now,” says Joanne of her former life as a military wife. “In the service, struggling to make ends meet and needing help to do it isn’t out of the ordinary. Young soldiers don’t make much income until they start moving up the ranks. We’re all just trying to make a better life for ourselves. I never wanted my children to worry about whether there would be enough to eat. I wanted them to keep their innocence. I wanted them to be happy.”
Although she and her former husband are no longer married, both are incredibly proud of their three children. Joanne’s oldest son is carrying on the military tradition: he is currently serving in the Air Force.