Shocking scenes in Orlando where half-mile line of cars wait for food bank after theme parks' shutdown

[dish rag]

I happen to live in Florida too, and have not noticed people scamming in an attempt to get something for free. I feel bad that one lady has so colored your opinion of other humans. To see people who are so desperate that they are willing to sit and wait for hours to get food to feed their families and have your first thought be "what leeches" that is a sad commentary.

I have seen entire families standing in line on Colonial Dr in downtown Orlando accepting free Turkeys from the lawyer that gives them away for free at thanksgiving. One per household would be enough.

 

[LSUmiss]

Oh are you aware that this is happening? Or are you just assuming the worst in people instead of having compassion for people who have lost their livelihoods and are going through a really hard time? I prefer to think that people are honest and trustworthy and do the best they can and are just trying to get by. But if you have actual proof of something different than I'd like to hear it.

I’m not that poster & don’t have any evidence of that this time. But I can assure you this is happening. I lived through Katrina here & ppl took advantage of all kind of stuff & bragged about it. And yes I knew these ppl. But there are a lot of ppl that do need it so I’m glad it exists even if there will ppl to take advantage of it.

 

[3 MEN AND A BOAT]

Oh are you aware that this is happening? Or are you just assuming the worst in people instead of having compassion for people who have lost their livelihoods and are going through a really hard time? I prefer to think that people are honest and trustworthy and do the best they can and are just trying to get by. But if you have actual proof of something different than I'd like to hear it.

It happens quite often, and I witnessed so much after Katrina and the BP spill. The NG was set up handing out water, ice, and MREs. I have an aunt and uncle (brother and sister) that went through multiple times per day everyday, a year later I watched him dig a hole behind his house and bury the water and MREs. I would guess a pallet load of each, he just pushed it in with his tractor.
Church groups were giving away clothing, so people stopped washing clothes and just threw them away, they would often just burn them. One church split over this revelation when half the members wanted to limit the freebies while some wanted to keep donating, collecting, and handing it away. They sold the building and the members all went their separate ways.
Volunteer groups offering assistance for those with damage to their homes, I watched one group repair damages that where done by the dope head children claiming that a limb broke the window. They didn’t like the job the first group did so they busted it back out and re applied with a different group.
I guess I see a different group than some but their are a lot of do nothings in the world.

 

[SmallWorld71]

I've been catching up on some news this morning. Projections for unemployment in the US as a direct result of Covid range between 15% & 30% and the numbers are similar world-wide. I find it curious that there are so many discussions about when the Disney parks will re-open, without any consideration for who will still be able to afford them? Not to mention the drastically reduced mobility of people, not just internationally but even within national borders.

I know for us, so far, we are 3 weeks into a disruption to our household income, with no certainty of a resolution on any sort of time-line. The absolute first thing to go has to be our discretionary spending; I'm not sitting here in quarantine planning next year's vacation. I know some are, and I don't begrudge them, but I think many people have yet to realize just what this long, drawn-out ordeal will actually mean for their finances.

We are in a weird situation for us. DH lost his job on March 14 and I can't imagine he will be back at work any time for months. Fortunately, I am still able to work. Due to a number of circumstances, we haven't taken a family vacation in 5 years. We had been saving diligently for a long time for 3 things, all of which fell near each other: 1) We were supposed to visit DS21 at the University of Hawaii this month (he is now home). 2) We were supposed to fly to St. Augustine for DS24's college graduation at the beginning of May. That's now cancelled. 3) We were supposed to fly to Bradenton, FL for my dad's wedding at the end of May. That's postponed.
So, even though my income has been slashed, I have thousands of dollars of airline credits and hundreds of dollars in AirBnb credits at my disposal. I would rather use them, then lose them, assuming it becomes safe to travel again. So, we dream of our future vacations while at the same time our current spending budget has been slashed. It helps bring us hope.
And, I know how lucky we are to be in this situation and to still have my income. As a special education teacher, I have spent most of this past week reaching out to families to support their child's education, but also in providing a willing ear and guidance as some of them are struggling just to get by.

 

[ronandannette]

I have been talking about this for quite awhile. I know people are now working from home, but like I have said, it is one thing to set up shop at home and login. The Company you are working for though, may very well have their revenue impacted enough that it is hard for them to make payroll. And many people do not see how this can and will impact them for quite some time.

I am in a leadership role at my employer and we are running all sorts of scenarios.

I like to think many companies are doing their best and trying to continue to pay their employees and many will until mid-April or May1st. That is the time when cash flow has taken a big enough hit and even more moves will be made. That is the other reason when people say we will be stay at home for several more months? At that point unemployment will be way above even the current estimates

It took exactly 4 days (4 days) for my company, one of the largest privately-owned corporations in Canada, to go from work-at-home, split shift scenarios and assurances we would ride it out, to laying off 300 people nation-wide. I was given literally 10 minutes, over the phone, to name 1/2 my staff to be reduced. I am unfortunately confident that in our industry, unless we recall them, some may be unemployed for years. (Other economic factors at play here - too complex to explain.) This is a drop in the bucket; there have been an estimated 100,000 incomes disrupted in our province alone (pop. 4 million), at dizzying speed, over the past month. Sadly, it will take far, far more time to recover economically, if some ever do. The spill-over consequences to those employed in hospitality and entertainment will be harsh.

We are in a weird situation for us. DH lost his job on March 14 and I can't imagine he will be back at work any time for months. Fortunately, I am still able to work. Due to a number of circumstances, we haven't taken a family vacation in 5 years. We had been saving diligently for a long time for 3 things, all of which fell near each other: 1) We were supposed to visit DS21 at the University of Hawaii this month (he is now home). 2) We were supposed to fly to St. Augustine for DS24's college graduation at the beginning of May. That's now cancelled. 3) We were supposed to fly to Bradenton, FL for my dad's wedding at the end of May. That's postponed.
So, even though my income has been slashed, I have thousands of dollars of airline credits and hundreds of dollars in AirBnb credits at my disposal. I would rather use them, then lose them, assuming it becomes safe to travel again. So, we dream of our future vacations while at the same time our current spending budget has been slashed. It helps bring us hope.
And, I know how lucky we are to be in this situation and to still have my income. As a special education teacher, I have spent most of this past week reaching out to families to support their child's education, but also in providing a willing ear and guidance as some of them are struggling just to get by.

I hope it goes as planned. I wish you well.

 

[cabanafrau]

Either that or I'm the only DIS member in existence that is experiencing income disruption and if that's the case, yay for y'all.

So far we are relatively stable. My income is beginning to drop off slightly and will stagger for months., probably between feast and famine status. DH's job was on the verge of ending before this and was made temporarily status quo when everyone was sent to work from home. We are waiting to revert back to the original plan of being offshored at any time. He was approached by a headhunter in late February/early March and was on his way to an interview several weeks back when they called him to say that they were closing their facility to visitors because of the virus. That's sitting in limbo because now the company has sent their workforce to work from home. Very unexpectedly on Thursday he was approached by another headhunter who wanted him to apply for a position with a bank, which he has now done. We'll see what transpires with that situation. If nothing comes through we'll see if our original fallback plan works.

 

[JimMIA]

hundreds of dollars in AirBnb credits at my disposal.

FWIW, we had to cancel one of our Airbnb reservations because of the virus and received an immediate direct refund to our credit card. You might want to recheck with them and see if they'll do a straight-up refund. They've been great so far.

 

[Missy1961]

Either that or I'm the only DIS member in existence that is experiencing income disruption and if that's the case, yay for y'all.

Nope, you're not the only one. I work retail - so no working from home for me. I'm in NY, but our store was closed a few days before the statewide order went in. I got paid for all the hours I was due that week - I had worked 4 days out of the 5 I was scheduled for - and for the following week. (in a nice gesture, I had been scheduled for 26 hours but got paid for 36). We were told we would we reopen on April 2nd, but of course that didn't happen. And instead, we were furloughed. I'm going to be applying for unemployment next week, and who knows how that's going to go.

I just hope that when this is "over", the store I work for is able to recover. The only reason I'm not on a food line is I live with my 94 year old dad. Scary times for me.

 

[SmallWorld71]

FWIW, we had to cancel one of our Airbnb reservations because of the virus and received an immediate direct refund to our credit card. You might want to recheck with them and see if they'll do a straight-up refund. They've been great so far.

Thanks, we got immediate refunds for our FL trips. Our Hawaii trip had a much stricter cancellation policy. We could have gotten a percentage of it back and/ or asked the owner for a refund. Or, we could take a guaranteed credit for the amount we had already paid. (50%) In the end, we decided on a credit for that one because even if our much anticipated Hawaii trip never happens, we always use Airbnb to visit our son out at college in MA so we figure that credit should be easy to use.

 

[JimMIA]

Thanks, we got immediate refunds for our FL trips. Our Hawaii trip had a much stricter cancellation policy. We could have gotten a percentage of it back and/ or asked the owner for a refund. Or, we could take a guaranteed credit for the amount we had already paid. (50%) In the end, we decided on a credit for that one because even if our much anticipated Hawaii trip never happens, we always use Airbnb to visit our son out at college in MA so we figure that credit should be easy to use.

Yeah. I'm looking at a similar thing right now with our Alaska trip. Half of it is 100% refund until pretty close to our arrival dates and half is 50% - booking fee.

However they are making virus adjustments if you are going to a virus hotspot, or coming from a virus hotspot. SE Florida, and especially Miami (where we live) and Ft. Lauderdale, are Florida's epicenters, so we may still get full refunds.

I'm hoping we don't have to cancel, but it's looking more likely every day.

 

[ronandannette]

Nope, you're not the only one. I work retail - so no working from home for me. I'm in NY, but our store was closed a few days before the statewide order went in. I got paid for all the hours I was due that week - I had worked 4 days out of the 5 I was scheduled for - and for the following week. (in a nice gesture, I had been scheduled for 26 hours but got paid for 36). We were told we would we reopen on April 2nd, but of course that didn't happen. And instead, we were furloughed. I'm going to be applying for unemployment next week, and who knows how that's going to go.

I just hope that when this is "over", the store I work for is able to recover. The only reason I'm not on a food line is I live with my 94 year old dad. Scary times for me.

I wish you well. My DS would be in a similar situation. He worked part-time retail in a chain clothing store while attending university. They shut the doors on every location nation-wide on March 13. Our system here is a little different than yours; part-time employees rarely ever qualify for unemployment. I shudder to think of what his situation would be if he had been living in rez at college, where everyone was evicted around the same time as classes ceased and went to on-line. There is no way he would have had the resources to survive.

 

[MillauFr]

In fact we have seen nothing yet. I was in some Pittsburgh steel towns in the early 80’s. Almost entire small towns were closed down. Some had no street lights running at night. It was awful to witness. Lots of people I talk to have no idea how bad the economy is going to get if this thing isn’t over soon. And it doesn’t appear that it will. I hope I’m wrong. But if not just wait.

We have the exact opposite problem in Seattle and the current virus will only exacerbate the problem. Amazon will probably come out of this stronger than ever. The lower income residents are getting absolutely hammered here and priced out. At the rate it is going here you are going to have people with 6 figure incomes qualifying for food stamps. Would be nice if the level of economic development was more evenly distributed in this country.

 

[mackabee77]

We're fortunate enough to remain on the job for now. For the past two weeks I've donated $$ to our local food bank. Easy to do online. I'm going to continue to do so until this mess is over.

If you want to help in the Covid fight but don't know exactly what to do, then Google your community's food bank and donate what you can. For me grocery shopping day is a good reminder. I go online and donate when I get home from the store.

Bonus: Our food bank (Gleaners) has a deal with local large donors who match dollar for dollar individual donations.

 

[JimMIA]

We have a similar situation in our neighborhood right now. A church nearby is giving away free food. The line winds through the neighborhood and down a main thoroughfare for more than a mile!

 

[mousefan73]

We will be fine. The economy will be fine. The nay sayers have been wrong so so many times. Life will be fine. Some will be out of work. They too in time will recover. We always do. The sun will come up tomorrow.
As for Disney. We are already planning a fall trip. We always go in May but obviously not this year. Things will get back to normal soon enough. The virus has made the economy stop. Not normal economics. It will come back. Just wait. Disney will be packed when it re opens. Mark my word.

I can only hope that you are are correct.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Our Care Center at church normally serves about 1,000 families a week with a walk-in experience, shopping like a regular grocery store. So far, they have been able to keep up with a drive through operation.

https://www.dailyherald.com/entlife...re-center-adapts-in-time-of-social-distancing

https://www.willowcreekcarecenter.org/en/get-help

 

[dish rag]

We will be fine. The economy will be fine. The nay sayers have been wrong so so many times. Life will be fine. Some will be out of work. They too in time will recover. We always do. The sun will come up tomorrow.
As for Disney. We are already planning a fall trip. We always go in May but obviously not this year. Things will get back to normal soon enough. The virus has made the economy stop. Not normal economics. It will come back. Just wait. Disney will be packed when it re opens. Mark my word.

Of course the economy will come back. But until it does it won’t be back. It’s going to take some time.

 

[Jrb1979]

The quicker people stay home and only go out if necessary this would be over quicker. There is still too many people acting as if this is nothing. I'm lucky I work for a retail company that won't be shutting down anytime soon but right now I am scared to death to go into work cause of the amount of people out to shop cause they are bored. Here in Canada there is a reason they keep telling us to stay home. I'm praying ever day the government starts fining people for non essential travel.

 

[mom2rtk]

We will be fine. The economy will be fine. The nay sayers have been wrong so so many times. Life will be fine. Some will be out of work. They too in time will recover. We always do. The sun will come up tomorrow.
As for Disney. We are already planning a fall trip. We always go in May but obviously not this year. Things will get back to normal soon enough. The virus has made the economy stop. Not normal economics. It will come back. Just wait. Disney will be packed when it re opens. Mark my word.

Again? You have NO IDEA if the people losing their jobs will recover.

 

[fla4fun]

This is only slightly more despicable than the hoarding of paper products, disinfectant supplied and food that's been happening for a month, resulting in shortages for everyone. Many people are convinced the supply of essentials will stop and are behaving in a classic "screw you, I'll get mine" kind of way. This motivation is quite different from anything that went on in the aftermath of previous calamities.

I don’t know. I have seen this kind of behavior here during hurricane season, and the motive is always selfishness. I have no idea if there are any scammers at the food banks, but I do hope those who really need it get their needs fulfilled.

My only concern about supply lines is keeping those folks who are manufacturing and transporting goods healthy enough to keep working. I have the same concern for medical personnel and first responders. People who have to keep working in these areas are in contact with a lot of people, and are overworked and tired, which affects the immune system. I keep hoping someone will hit on an adequate treatment soon.

I am angered by the posts that say the economic issues are no big deal. Many of the people who make our vacations so magical live in old motels and other temporary housing where they aren’t going to be protected by delayed mortgage or rent payments when they lose their jobs. The Orlando Sentinel has been full of articles over the years about how desperate some of these families are when they are working, and working multiple jobs. I don’t expect them to be less desperate when they aren’t. People can’t get through to unemployment to even file, and they can’t get money until they do. I wake up every day expecting an email that says we have no more customers and we are shutting down. It’s a really scary, and very real, situation for a lot of people. Many people don’t have the luxury of waiting months or years for the economy to recover.