Chip Chick
At the time, she was ineligible to receive SNAP benefits because her income was too high, but she and her boyfriend also dealt with food insecurity.
Luckily, Alice was part of a program offered at her school that gave snacks and food to students so that their families had enough to eat over the weekends.
Even though Alice’s school didn’t provide a huge amount of food, it did help them get by. They were able to have a good supply of Ramen on hand, as well as snacks for Alice.
Plus, Alice was able to eat free meals at school the majority of the time, so this meant that she was able to eat free breakfast and lunch at school and then a snack or an inexpensive dinner at her house.
On Alice’s school bus rides, she met a new friend named Sarah, 9.
Sarah invited Alice to her birthday party, so she drove her to the party.
When she dropped Alice off at Sarah’s house, she was introduced to Sarah’s family, and all of them were very sweet and personable. They gushed about how wonderful Alice was.
“It was very nice, and I was comfortable with Alice spending more time with Sarah outside of school whenever they wanted play dates. Sarah would invite Alice to everything, and if I said yes (which I almost always did), Sarah’s mom would pick them both up from the bus stop and return Alice at the end of the day,” she said.
She was thrilled that Alice was able to hang out with Sarah because this meant that she was able to have a break from being stuck in the apartment.
Usually, she and her boyfriend were way too tired to go out and do things with Alice.
Also, they often didn’t have the money to spend on fun activities, so most of the time, they just all watched TV together.
