FINDING AMERICAN MADE ITEMS IN DOLLAR AND DISCOUNT STORES - and FOOD INSECURITY IN THE UNITED STATES

We recently went to some local Dollar - Discount type stores looking for products that have been MADE IN THE USA and we did find a few, among all the imports from China and other countries.

This included a brand of contact-type paper that we hadn't heard about before.

Locally many of the Dollar-Discount stores have added FOOD purchasable using EBT-Food Stamps  and so we now have to look at labels to be sure that we are buying Pineapple from Hawaii and so on.

When it comes to food, having enough to eat, we have read that Americans throw out 40 % of the food they purchase.  We sure don't.  We make extra meals to freeze and we eat leftovers.  We hate to throw food out.

Once a year I go through the cabinets and look for expiration dates, anything we haven't gotten around to eating for whatever reason, put the stuff in bags and donate it to a local charity that feeds people once or twice a week.  Volunteer chefs there use what they have to create interesting meals.

We've heard about one local charity which picks fruit off peoples backyard trees and distributes it to food banks.

We encourage you to KEEP CHECKING LABELS!


We are especially concerned about cheap imports from China.  We have nothing against Chinese people.  In fact, we are concerned about the pollution and the working conditions of some Chinese who are worked like machines there.  We've heard that some Chinese workers have commit suicide rather than continue the work.  IF WE ARE SO AMERICAN... IF WE THINK SLAVERY IS WRONG... then why would it be OK to support inhumane treatment in the workplace of people in other countries by purchasing the product that is put out in these factories.

We will continue to seek out American Made Products when buying new, and seek used items in thrift stores and garage sales.

WE'RE BACK! 2014 AND FRIENDS ARE UNEMPLOYED AND UNDEREMPLOYED

No - We haven't forgotten about YOU! 

We haven't forgotten about STIMULATING THE ECONOMY OF THE UNITED STATES BY PRESERVING JOBS AND BUYING MADE IN THE USA!

We're back but we found the holidays challenging.

First the news that a friend of ours who was let go from a job where he had increased sales X5 was reaching the end of his unemployment. 

Then the news that another friend of ours who had lost his business in 2007 and moved to Texas was back and looking for work, while living in an RV.

Both of these men are college educated and have worked for many years and are probably hitting into age discrimination.  They have both taken jobs well beneath their education and experience in the past. And now?  Will they join the homeless?

Our worries about the economy include concerns about the cost of living, in particular the cost of food, because of a long drought that may mean that some Californians will depend on water trucked in for drinking!

How can we SPEND when we too must BUDGET? 

We're saying that if you have a dollar to spend, try to find that item, even if it's the DOLLAR STORE, that is MADE IN THE USA!

OTHERWISE, start learning CHINESE!