Joanne walks to the sidewalk from beside the open passenger window of a Jeep, where she had been a moment before. She opens her chapped lips to speak; the Pick ‘n Save at 2355 N. 35th St. looms in the background.
“We are so hungry … we ain’t eaten in two days. Please help me,” she says.
The “we” refers to her 13-year-old daughter. She had been getting Supplemental Security Income but she says it stopped recently.
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Joanne says she’s been on SSI “for a long time” and was getting “about five-sumthin’” a month.
“I be asking people to [help] me, you know, with food,” she says, adding that she stays across the street; none of that money went toward rent.
Still, $500 isn’t very much. Joanne says, “Uh, uh — nope, it’s not.”
And, as quickly as she’d come, she was gone.⬩
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