June's Story

Economic woes struck June’s family of eight at an inconvenient time.

June had given up her job to focus on parenting a teenage son with severe ADHD and to help her mother, who suffers from a debilitating illness. With her husband working 50 to 60 hours a week, and earning hefty chunks of overtime pay, the couple thought they could forgo the second income until the family tackled these life challenges.

But skyrocketing gas prices sidelined many of the semi-trailers that are typically serviced by her husband’s employer. The semi-trailer company was forced to cut staff and reduce hours for those who were fortunate enough to keep their jobs. While her spouse hung on to his position, his work schedule was reduced to 32 hours a week.

“Nobody can afford to drive their semi-trucks because they can’t afford the diesel. It’s one of those trickle down things,” said June, who lives in Hillyard and has six children, ages 8 to 14. “If we would have been talking a year and a half ago, I would have a different story for you, but things have changed. We have no control over what’s going on right now.”

June stretches every dollar by shopping at discount stores and by cherry-picking weekly specials at grocery stores. But even the best budgeting skills can’t make the math work with the income the family is currently earning, so there are periodic food shortages in the house.

As someone who is more accustomed to contributing than needing help, June said getting assistance wasn’t the easiest decision. “I’ve tried really hard to stay out of the system and off the system.”

June recently started attending the Food Sense nutrition classes offered at the Northeast Community Center. The classes, which rotate among emergency food banks in Spokane, are a collaboration between Washington State University Extension of Spokane County and Second Harvest.

Food Sense instructors teach participants how to stretch their food dollars to create simple recipes that are tasty and healthy. Recipes use about six ingredients and include items often given in emergency food supplies. Second Harvest provides food that is given to clients at Food Sense classes, including the peanut butter, salad, peaches and bread that June received to help her family.

“It always helps,” June said of the Second Harvest food. “There’s always something that we can make out of everything we receive here.”

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