Elora’s Struggle: Why Your Support Matters

It’s just before midnight when Elora’s alarm goes off. She’s perpetually running behind on sleep. Still, she rises duly and starts to get ready for work. She picks her way through the small apartment, conscious of the fact that her three children are still asleep and will need to be well-rested for school. Saying a silent good-bye, she’s out the door and onto the still-dark streets of north Boston.

At one a.m., Elora arrives at the local restaurant where she works as a kitchen cleaner. Her day is spent scrubbing, sanitizing, and stocking to make sure everything stays clean and safe for the patrons. There’s a lot to do, often in very little time, but, Elora says, she enjoys her work. That’s a small blessing – a single mom and the sole provider for her family, Elora doesn’t have the luxury of quitting even long enough to hunt for another job.

When she comes home in the afternoon, the apartment is quiet. Her kids will be in class for another few hours, and then Elora will be needed to help with homework, cook dinner, and start getting the youngest two ready for bed before she, too, can rest. But instead of grabbing a power nap, she sits down at the small table and braces herself for the next task at hand: paying bills.

They won’t all get paid today. Elora just hopes she can pay them this month. She’s systematic in her approach: “The rent comes first. Then comes the light, then gas.”

Those three will eat up the paycheck she just got. When she gets the next one, it will go towards the insurance she needs for the car that takes her to work. Phone and internet service is next.

“Last month, it left me with nothing,” she says. “When I don’t have enough food for the kids, I feel very worried because sometimes we don’t have enough to eat. I’ve started to cry because there is not enough.”

Elora isn’t the sort of person who finds it easy to ask for help. Admitting that she needed support hurt her confidence. But when her children needed food, Elora put those feelings aside. She reached out – and you were there to offer a helping hand. Your donations to Feed the Children meant that Elora was able to receive the food she needed in order to make sure her kids were eating.

When you give to Feed the Children, you’re helping families like Elora’s make the most of a difficult situation and imagine a brighter future. Combined with your support, Elora’s determination is paying off. Her kids are fed and healthy, and her oldest daughter Emily has dreams of going to college and becoming a teacher.

“It’s thanks to the community,” Elora says – your community, that of caring, compassionate people whether or not you share a ZIP code. “It’s very good.”