Grocery Store Grace

Blueberry muffins

November 2025

The Common Household Husband and I were at the grocery store the other day.  (It’s like date night for us.)  CHH asked about the blueberry muffin mix I was holding – it’s not an item we ever buy.  I explained, “It’s for the food bank.”  

The Girl Scouts were doing a collection of Thanksgiving items, and for once in my life I was organized and had the list, which included “baked goods mixes”.  Given the cruel halt on SNAP benefits and the ongoing federal government shutdown, making a donation seemed imperative.

Suddenly there was a woman next to me, saying to me, “I overheard that you are getting things for the food bank.  If I give you $20 cash could you please buy extra to give to the food bank?”  

! ! !

I balked.  I actually prefer to give a financial donation to the food bank, but I was buying physical groceries that day so that the Girls Scouts collection would be filled with items. An encouragement to the Girl Scouts to applaud their efforts.  Also, I was reluctant to accept cash from a stranger.  

I said to her pleasantly, “This is for a collection for Local Food Bank.  I encourage you to give a dollar donation to them directly. You can donate online.  That’s very helpful to them.”  The woman enthusiastically accepted my answer, and said, “Yes, I think I can do that.  Or at Other Local Food Bank, which my church supports!  I was just so grateful to hear someone is getting things to help food banks.”  I in turn thanked her for her willingness to help out in this time of grave need.

There it is: a weird but heartwarming slice of life in 2025.  And now it turns out Local Food Bank is running out of storage space because of all the items people have donated.  A monetary donation is definitely the way to go in this moment!  Now if only the nation could be heartwarming enough to fully fund SNAP for those in need, and to pay people living wages so maybe there will be fewer people in need.  Oh, and make health care affordable for everyone and not connected to employment.  And just not be nasty and cruel.  Is it too much to ask?

2016 collection for Food Bank

September 2025

I entered the grocery store on the Thursday after Labor Day, and procured what the homegrown folks here call “a buggy,” i.e. a shopping cart.  In the cart the previous shopper had left behind a handwritten list that said:

What else could anyone need?

15 - 20s

15 - 10s

16 - 5s

2 - 1s

_____________

6 Tequila

2 Grenadine

5 Vodka

2 Rum

3 Jim Beam

1 Old Grandad

All I could think was - someone is going to have a much more exciting weekend than I am.  Both cash AND booze!  So much liquid courage!

Gin - not on the list. 
But surely, especially in 2025,
it's Five O'Clock somewhere.

A little bit of what was going on then:  

• Personally: eye doctor and ear doctor appointments to deal with non-life-threatening but annoying health stuff.  (The ear stuff is ongoing.)

• We (the nation) didn’t know if we would be able to get a covid vaccine.  (Our state legislators and governor came through for us.)

• The US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F Kennedy Jr was revealed to be a nutjob (well, most of us knew that already, but he testified in Congress - without being sworn in - and exhibited his nutjobbiness).  He had decimated the CDC and cut vaccine research.  

• We were in the midst of a soul-crushing election campaign of misinformation funded by the richest man in PA to unseat three PA Supreme Court justices so that he could better control the courts and the 2026 elections.  Severely anxiety producing.  (On Nov 4th we won decisively, and the rich guy lost. But I’m sure it won’t be the last we hear from him.)

• There was still no PA state budget (it was supposed to be in place by July 1, 2025) and I was calling my electeds about that.  Our State Rep said that dealing with the Republicans was like negotiating with jello.  (That state budget was just signed today Nov 12, 2025.)

No wonder our mystery shopper needed those items on that list.

2017.  Image of pile of
cash in our Congressman's hand.

Pin the spine on the Congressman.
Spines still needed today.

These days, whenever something weird happens at the grocery store, I think back to this, two years ago:

July 2023  

I was at the grocery store, with the pasta & sauce aisle completely to myself.  I sneezed.  A disembodied voice from the next aisle over said, “Bless you!”  After a split-second pause, I shouted back, “Thank you!”  

Chivalry is not dead.

A great mosaic