I've been coming to the river for about a year now. I've had mixed experiences but overall I'd say that this place is deplorable. Absolutely the place I dread coming to and come anyways only because I pretty much have to. Where do I start? Aside from the grossly expired pretty much everything, and I mean EVERYTHING is expired! Always! And the meat? Laughable. Hopefully I will be able to just cook the death out of it and pray that I don't die from ecoli or food poisoning. Veggies and fruit, always rotten. Seriously, it's a joke. The staff, while some are pretty nice, I find that the Huber guys, yeah, the guys who get out from jail, they're actually WAY nicer, like 100x nicer and more hospitable than any of the church folk. The staff are SO rude, honestly, why are you here? The hot meal that people are praising, sometimes it's actually edible and I don't hate my life, other times, jail food is actually better. The free clothing, great. If your baby is a newborn and you're skinny. Two things I hate the most though above all else, their rules when it comes to the weight and amount of the actual products you're allow to have, and their line rules. Let's be crystal clear about this: I am not here trying to swindle anyone or trick my way into a couple extra pounds of rice and expired canned goods. I am here because I am really, really poor. So your attitude, that since, I'm poor I should be extremely grateful for this expired food and moldy meat and bananas set before me, you can save it. Honestly. I'm a person. I'm a human. When I go to the river food pantry, I am instantly reminded that because of my socioeconomic status, I am less than human in the eyes of society. It's honestly a metaphor for how far on the bottom end of society's list of importance marginalised people in this country really are. So yeah, thanks. 4 bottles of water? Seriously? :) read more