When a single Langley mother of four, trying to build a better life for her family, was forced to choose between missing her appointment at the food bank or getting kicked out of school last month, she did what most of us would do — she asked to reschedule her meeting.
Unfortunately, the policy of the Langley Help Network, which operates the food bank, doesn’t allow clients to miss appointments — for any reason, from what we can gather — and those who do, are required to wait an additional three to six weeks before they can come in and re-establish their eligibility.
At least, that’s what happened to Heidi Dosch.
With four children between the ages of one and 16 at home, and a rapidly dwindling supply of groceries, she was in a tough position when she came into The Times office recently.
An appointment was available, she said, but she wasn’t allowed to have it.
To Dosch’s credit, she didn’t come to the paper to complain or to demand that an exception be made in her case.
She simply wanted was to draw attention to a policy that seems to make it even tougher than it already is to escape the cycle of poverty.
She also hopes to effect change, not just for her own benefit, but for others who, like her, are trying to juggle school and family as they take the first steps toward self-sufficiency.
Like Dosch, we understand that rules are put into place for a reason, and they can’t simply be ignored any time they don’t suit a person.
However, we weren’t able to find out any details about the policy, or even why it exists — we tried, but we didn’t get an answer.
It’s too bad, because it would be nice to think that a person who is doing all the right things to try to build a better life for themselves and their children would be given every opportunity to do so.