Cold and angry

Allen Ball has no intention of ever going back to the USDA-supported quarterly food giveaway, even though he must care for his elderly mother 24 hours a day.

Ball, a La Grange resident, spent five hours fighting crowds and the cold during Wednesday's food drive at the National Guard Armory depot on Dobbs Farm Road. Ball said he was nearly knocked down by his fellow fed-up food recipients.

"That's where the problem was, there was no order in there, no lines," said Ball, who depends on his mother's monthly $638 disability payment and $125 food stamp allotment to support them both. "I tell you what, I'm not going there again; I don't care if they hand out cows on the hoof."

The Lenoir County Department of Social Services and local National Guard personnel coordinate the USDA food drive four times a year. Local residents or a designated representative can come to the depot from 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. that day and pick up food donated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Despite freezing temperatures, a flood of people descended on the depot Wednesday morning. They formed a line that snaked through its vehicle bay, where the food was given out, through the front entrance and out the door and across the parking lot.

Vehicles filled the lot and lined both sides of Dobbs Farm Road; cars were parked up to half a mile away from the building.

Ball said he arrived shortly after 7 a.m., and waited outside in the cold until the giveaway began at 8:30 a.m.

He eventually got inside the building, and was squeezed in "shoulder to shoulder" with people in the depot's front room. The doors opened regularly to let in a few people at a time.

Around 10 a.m., the people in the room had become so frustrated - especially when latecomers tried to cut to the front - that they made a mad dash toward the doors when they opened.

Ball said people were pushing each other, and a man behind him almost knocked him down. A staff member quickly restored order when he shouted that he would throw everyone out if they did not stop pushing.

"I think the mistake was people crowding into that room," Ball said. "Think about it now: Wherever you put a bunch of people in a small room and they get angry, tempers flare and all of a sudden you have a mob mentality."

Once he got into the larger room, Ball said things calmed down, and he was able to get his food. He finally left around noon.

National Guard Sgt. 1st Class Vicky Johnson said people normally line up at the large vehicle bay doors at the far end of the depot, but she planned to start the line at the front entrance to allow more people to get in out of the cold.

She said space is limited in the building because many areas are off-limits to the public.

"Our goal is to feed as many of the citizens around here in Lenoir County as we can," Johnson said.

The unexpectedly high number of people meant many - including the elderly and disabled - still had to stand outside.

Sharon Freeman of the DSS' Food and Nutrition Service said those who could show a food stamp card could get the donations immediately. Anyone who did not have a card had to fill out an application on site, which slowed the line down greatly.

Despite reported disturbances inside, the line outside remained orderly. Many people had been there for several hours as of 10:30-11 a.m., and they were growing frustrated at the slow process.

"They're letting in two and three people at a time, and they need to be letting in 10-15 people at a time," said Brenda Strong of Grifton, who was standing in line for her niece.

Strong said her niece worked part time, and could not come herself. She and her neighbor, Pamela Lewis, had arrived around 7:30 a.m.

Lewis said she works part time with a home health care service, and depends on food stamps to get by.

"By the time you pay your bills, you're not getting many food stamps as it is," she said. "Food is already high; by the time you buy one meal that's it."

Joyce Taylor of Kinston said she had been laid off from her job as a hotel desk clerk in September, and had spent this month's food stamp allotment on her Thanksgiving meal. The donated food had to fill her day-to-day needs.

"I'm out here so I can survive," she said.

Ricky Parks of Kinston arrived at 8:30 a.m. and did not leave until almost noon. He said he had been laid off from his job at Foss Auto Recycling six months ago - the business has been hurt by the plummeting price of scrap metal and a recent fire - and was depending on his parents and brother for assistance in supporting his wife and two children.

"I was tired of being a burden on them, so I decided to come out here to pick up some extra food," he said.

The next DSS-National Guard food drive is expected to take place in January, depending on the Guard unit's deployment schedule.

David Anderson can be reached at (252) 559-1077 or danderson@freedomenc.com.