Editor’s Note: MOFC has used a stock image and pseudonym for this story for privacy reasons. At our customer’s request, we have also avoided disclosing our neighbor’s specific city of residence and pantry location.
For George’s family, one of the hardest parts of getting food assistance was accepting that they needed help. Before visiting a food pantry for the first time this summer, the central Ohio dad and his fiancée tried everything they could to get by on their own.
The young parents grew up middle class, and both have worked full time since graduating from college to support themselves and their two pre-school-age kids. But when a bad year for George’s small business, a job loss, and inflation all hit the household at once, the family needed a hand up.
“Going to the pantry feels like you’re being real with yourself. You think, ‘I’m not above help.’ It’s a good kind of humbling,” George said about visiting his local pantry, which is an MOFC partner agency in a Columbus suburb on the outskirts of I-270.
“It takes away the illusion that you’ve done something wrong, that you’re just unlucky and bads things are only happening to you,” he added. “Bad things are happening to everybody.”
George and his fiancée met at Ohio State, and they had their first child in 2021. She had a steady job in finance. Unable to find a position in his field, he got creative to help the family get by.
“With the kids, productivity got a lot more important,” he said, smiling. “I’ve done lots of odd jobs, worked in restaurant kitchens, done Doordash. I even hung Christmas lights for a bit. If I have free time, it’s centered around some way to save or make money.”
During his fiancée’s second pregnancy, George searched for ways to earn a living while spending more time with the growing family. He took out a small business loan, invested in equipment, and started pressure washing houses in 2024.
Work was steady at first but harder to find after the first summer. Loan and interest payments added up, and the family quickly got into debt. His fiancée was let go from her job, and things reached a crisis point last summer.
“You hit a point where you feel broken, where you’ve failed your kids, can’t pay the bills, and don’t know how you’re going to keep the roof over your heads,” George said. “A debt collector called, and I broke down sobbing. I said, ‘You don’t understand. It won’t be next month. It won’t be next year. I don’t know how I’m ever going to pay you back.”
Over the past few months, George and his fiancée have started the long process of repairing their finances. A free course at their church has helped them make a plan to get out of debt, and neighbors connected them to their local food pantry. Even under the circumstances, shopping there for the first time was tough.
“Up until that point, [my fiancée] wouldn’t be caught near anything looking or feeling like charity,” he said. “But I’ve learned since that you don’t need to be living on the street to go to the food pantry. If you can’t afford to live, you should go.”
Going to the pantry has done more than help George’s family through a tough time. It’s shown him that his isn’t the only middle-class family who’s struggling. Many of his suburban neighbors are scraping by, he said.
“You see people with new clothes, nice car, nice house, and you get it into your head that everyone is doing well except you,” he said. “But I hear from people who can’t pay their mortgage, who are upside down on their car loans, and who are selling their furniture to survive. It makes me feel like I’m not alone.”
George has gone to the pantry several times with his young son since June 2026. While he’s wrestled with feelings of shame and judgement, he said accepting help with food has given him hope that things will get better.
“I had to accept that I’m not going to be able to keep my head above water. You have to hold your breath and go under,” he said. “Going to the pantry felt like I went underwater and hit the ground, and I’m coming back up for air.”
