As I push the enormous shopping cart across the concrete floor of the warehouse I am greeted with a chipper “Hello teacher!”

Even though it has been several years since I’ve taught this particular newcomer, he still smiles at me every time I come to get my monthly load of groceries. Toilet paper, bread, eggs, peppers, milk… and lots of snacks. Hungry teenagers are waiting at home. They text me “Remember to get the GOOD STUFF!” That means chocolate.

We started shopping here about 10 years ago when our three kids were still little but growing quickly. Many other newcomer families also walk through the aisles, often with five kids in tow! I don’t blame them; if you time it right on Thursday afternoon and pass all the stands, you can get a full supper in. Around that same time — a decade ago — the wholesale store had an outflow program. Once a week a truck would pull up to the backdoor of the language school I worked at, and offload crates of food that had reached the ‘best by’ date, but was still good. Overripe produce or stale bread, whatever they had too much of, would be handed out to the students at the school. Often my family also benefitted, and it helped us to make ends meet. But it did mean that on occasion I was making strawberry jam until 10 pm, or crammed four loaves of banana bread into the oven to bake.

I get another text, from my oldest, our college kid. “Hey Mom, when I come home for break next week, can we go to the wholesale store?”

Sure. I know my freezer will be filled to the brim, and he will return to his apartment with a shopping bag or two. But he’s studying to become a teacher and might follow in my footsteps. How can I say no to that?

_{This post was originally published on March 4, 2024 on Medium.com}