After enjoying a ‘delicious’ lunch with visitors from Bellevue Pharmacy who had  steamed broccoli, glazed ham with pineapple, AND bread pudding—one of my favs,  I decided to have another can of tuna for dinner.   Never said I wasn’t a creature of habit.  I pulled out the can opener and picked up the nearest can of tuna—not paying attention to the ‘slight’ bulge.  I jammed the opener into the can, and a geyser of tuna juice spurted out.  Being a tuna buyer in a previous life, I ‘learnt’ rule number 1:  when a can squirts… chances are there is something growing in there that you don’t want to eat.   And since I wanted to live to continue to write my blog, I violated my goal of NOT throwing away any of the food I bought.   But, I understood the food dangers possibly lurking in that can.   The questions is:  what if I had no other choice? What would it be like if the contents of that questionable can of tuna were my only food option?  I would have to go to bed hungry, like so many people in our society—and I would imagine some clients before enrolling into Food Outreach.  A society that has $10 billion to spend on a war—that’s billion with a ‘B’, and has not waged a war on hunger.  I am reminded of a client who had to depend on other residents in the hotel where she was living to give her leftovers.  I can’t imagine.

Luckily, I had one remaining can (sans geyser of juice) which I snarfed down with a cut up semi-hard boiled egg (I am getting better at boiling water) and a sleeve of crackers.  Having nothing to mix it with, I decided not to drain the tuna.  I ending up having a small, watery mix of tuna and egg, washed down with salty crackers.

As I always say there is learning in everything.  What I ‘learnt’ today is sometimes things aren’t always what they appear to be…  and to be a better grocery shopper.  Maybe I am '33 and a third' iving in a 78-speed world and not a 45-speed (record reference)…dating myself again.  But I did walk 15 miles in the snow to get to school every morning. 

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