Two Loaves a Week

I can't read the Internet or watch television anymore without a lot of anxiety. We don't have a standard name yet for what's happening, like we had for September Eleventh, but it reminds me a lot of the Depression I only knew from my grandparents. The Depression was why Grandma S. always had to live in a house with a pantry. I did experience the economic turmoil of Seventies inflation and even the recession of Eighty-two, but statistically we're beginning to pass those periods. I think we're heading for the kind of hunger and homelessness last seen in the Thirties and Forties. I'm very worried.

But when I look at my own situation I realize how very fortunate my family is. My job is with a university that so far is doing better than most institutions its size. And while we are selling fewer books than we did last year, we have a reserve fund and we're keeping expenses in line with revenue. Our budget seems sustainable for the near future. But I'm taking nothing for granted.

So after reading this story about Fort Myers, Florida, which was where my family lived for a short time when I was a kid, and this story about Braddock, Pennsylvania, in The New York Times yesterday, I just felt sick. But this morning while thinking about it further, I thought maybe the wrong response is anxiety, maybe I can help.

I can make bread. I do it every week anyway, I'll just make two more loaves. I know it isn't much, but it's something. Rather than the two loaves of sourdough I make, I thought maybe I'd find a recipe that isn't quite so exotic. Something that might be a little more readily accepted at a Food Bank. So I poked around on the Internet and found a couple of recipes for simple white bread. I'm trying this "Amish" version first. It has a bit of sugar in it so it seemed a bit fortified. Their rising on the oven now. My next challenge is probably going to be finding someone to take them. We'll see and I'll let you know what happens.