10/06/2026
Elara’s Story: “At Least We Have Dinner Tonight”
When “Elara” walks through the grocery store, she isn’t deciding what sounds good for dinner. She is calculating. What can she afford? What purchases will stretch her food budget? What should she put back?
Spokane Valley residents, Elara and her husband live on a very limited income. Although they receive SNAP food assistance, those benefits rarely stretch through the entire month. Transportation is another challenge; Elara relies on family and friends for rides.
So they have developed a strategy for surviving the month. They buy enough ingredients for one main dinner that they can make again and again. They change the spices and make small variations, but night after night, dinner is essentially the same. "At least we have dinner every night,” Elara says.
They purchase enough food for lunches to last about two weeks. Then it runs out. And they make do.
But one of the hardest moments comes at the grocery store. Elara watches other shoppers fill their carts without seeming to agonize over every purchase. She sees foods she would like to buy, but instead, she puts things back. She prioritizes what her family needs and leaves the store grateful that she has managed to stretch their money a little longer.
Sometimes, she leaves with tears in her eyes.
Elara and her husband have severe dietary restrictions, so food banks aren't an easy solution. Much of the food available doesn't work for them. After factoring in the cost of gas to get there, a trip to the food bank may not provide enough usable food.
Elara wants people to understand something about food insecurity that isn't always visible. The person walking slowly through the grocery store, looking at food but putting nothing in the cart, may not be indecisive. They may simply be trying to figure out what they can afford. “Everyone is hurting,” she told us. Some people, she said, have already “tightened their belts further than they can.” And she asks people not to judge, because those struggling notice the looks and hear the comments.
Elara has received food deliveries from Spokane Helpers Network. Her message to the volunteers who made those deliveries is simple: “You are doing God’s work. Thank you for helping us.”
Stories like Elara’s remind us that food insecurity doesn't always look like an empty refrigerator. Sometimes it looks like standing in a grocery aisle, quietly putting something back.
And sometimes, a bag of groceries delivered to someone's door means much more than food. It means that, for a little while, someone doesn't have to calculate quite so carefully.
