Our Commitment Goes Beyond Our Services
Reading Time: 2 MinutesLast Updated: August 19, 2021
Social Security is here to help secure today and tomorrow with financial benefits, information, and tools that provide a level of economic security throughout life’s journey. This commitment goes beyond the services we render.
Through our work in serving the public, we know first-hand the challenges that many members of the community face. Every year, Social Security employees participate in the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC). The CFC promotes and supports charities and non-profit organizations by making it easy for federal employees to contribute personally and thus improve the quality of life for many.
Social Security also proudly participates in Feds Feed Families, an initiative launched in 2009 as part of President Obama’s United We Serve campaign. The Feds Feed Families effort helps food banks and pantries stay stocked.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which sponsors Feds Feed Families, more than 23 million Americans, including 6.5 million children, live in low-income urban and rural neighborhoods without access to affordable, quality, and nutritious foods. This summer, Social Security provided food donations totaling 661,280 pounds, which included non-perishable food, toiletries, and fresh food gathered from local farms or backyard gardens. We surpassed expectations and beat our totals from 2015 by 22%.
Our contributions came from employee donations and gleaning events in conjunction with local fruit and vegetable farms. Gleaning is the practice of collecting excess fresh produce from farms, gardens, farmers markets, grocers, restaurants, state and county fairs, or any other sources to provide it to those in need. Social Security employees, their children, extended family, and friends harvested nearly 30,000 pounds of sweet corn, which helped support food banks in Pennsylvania and Maryland.
Acting Commissioner Carolyn Colvin said it best, “I encourage you to participate in this year’s CFC activities. We must continue our long-standing tradition of donating to causes and organizations that are meaningful to each of us.” Together we can make a difference in the lives of families in need.
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About the Author
Jim Borland, Assistant Deputy Commissioner, Communications
Jim Borland, Assistant Deputy Commissioner, Communications
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Lauran J.
No one reads or believes these email
But those who write them. Politicians eat well, can afford homes and do not care about anyone else.
Just as in Mexico, the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting less help, less education no helping hand or housing. Portland is now just as selfishly destroyed as Sanfrancisco and Seattle.
For years and years our population was warned the largest retirement population was close to no work. No one person or government group, least of all, politicians ever gave a second thought of what might happen if no help or support was planned for this huge retiring population. And all I hear is questions about this most selfish and self centered generation currently rising without anyone of leadership or. Responsibility. It is disgusting to see for someone who has worked all their life and now has no where to go for help. I paid my way all my 70 years I have a good college education, I find no help or peace in the end. All I see is a population without values, a very sad day.
ata
And your point?
Dawn
Who are you? If you are a public servant, you should be fired. No one deserves the curt, rude, insensitive remarks you are making.
R.F.
Thank you for your comment Dawn. We ask all participants to please be considerate and polite to others when posting comments. While we want to provide an opportunity for everybody to express their opinion freely, we also ask that participants in this blog respect the privacy of others as well as to conform to our comment policy.
AJ
you are mean
Sally L.
II was impressed by the personal participation of your staff and families getting out and getting dirty picking corn. However…
Where can I participate in the gleaning of food products? With my whole three tenths of one penny increase of my Social Security, which amounts to $3.39 a MONTH; which will probably be eaten up by the increase in Medicare Premium plus a few dollars more; I will probably need to get out and do a little picking myself.
We seniors have paid into this system all our working lives plus our employers matching the same and we get an increase of a whole 3 tenths on one penny increase. Do they realize that isn’t even a whole penny?!?
And you expect us to give you a pat on the back for Fed Feed Families Program? Our tax dollars pay the salaries of federal employees so they can have money to pay into this program which means we are contributing to the program ourselves anyway. The Government doesn’t do anything that doesn’t cost “We the People” more in taxes.
Actually this is what your staff all has to look forward to when they retire. No wait, I forgot they will get a government pension, which I hope they have had to at least pay something into monthly for all their employed lives.
Buy hopefully they are valued more than “We The People” who pay taxes, paid into our own social security all our working lives and pay Medicare Premiums monthly and for some even before they are allowed to draw Social Security with today’s regulations changes
Plus most of us and our working children do at least one of the following: give to our local food banks, volunteer for meals on wheels, serve in food kitchens, etc. Yes, every time the scouts and many other organizations have their food drives we go to our pantries, no matter how meager, and pull a few to several cans of food to contribute.
I belong to a church that has volunteers that help in mass to clean up after natural disasters, maintain our own welfare program to help members and non-member alike. We take in meals to the sick and new moms and clean the homes for people moving in and out and those that may be disabled or recovering from an illness. Our youth help in all these projects and continue looking for more service projects.
By the way I don’t really need to know where to glean. I can locate that on my own as I grew up financing my school clothes, fun money, even Christmas presents for our family with summer jobs by picking strawberries cherries and beans; and I picked up boxes of prunes and gunny sacks full of filberts (hazel nuts). I hoed rows and rows of strawberries. And I was thankful to have the work. But why don’t you check why they can’t do this anymore. Because the government thinks they have to run our lives and think we are stupid and uneducated out here so they have to meddle in everything.
Plus I milked our cow, feed the chickens, slop the hogs and I cleaned the barn, chicken coop and the pig pen.
And am sure you do all that you do with a good heart and I’m sure that you may also do or have done much of what I listed above. But bragging about it doesn’t help me feel you are doing something great. It just sounds like “ha, ha I’m better than you because look what I do”. Sorry.
At 74 years old I’m trying to save money to buy a little place of my own by living with various family members and looking forward to getting a job when I am settled in my own permanent place. When traveling from family member to family member I sleep in my truck at rest stops. Oh, and Walmart work pretty good too.
May I suggest that the Department of Agriculture do something creative and sponsor a program that teaches those in rural areas to grow gardens, raise a goat for milk, and teach them to hunt and fish for protein. Teach those without garden space about planter gardening. They can go to the local library and get all sorts of help. If the poor don’t have a car or are unable to drive a lot of libraries have books by mail programs. There are also a lot of churches that will help others learn and show the poor how to do all these things and many other skills.
Oh, I know about poor too. I remember when our electricity and water was turned off when my folks were unable to pay the bills on time. We wore plenty of hand me downs from cousins. I remember days when my older sister and I went to school without any lunch because there was only enough food for the little kids’ lunches.
I know the neighbors thought we were “poor white trash”. However, every rental we lived in was left in better condition when we moved out than when we moved into the place. We cleaned everything from top to bottom and every nook and cranny. Mom lived by “Cleanliness is next to Godliness.” No slackers in our home. All us kids kept our yard immaculate. It had to be weeded, hand mowed and edged just right to suit mom.
I can count on one hand the times I saw a dentist between birth and 18 years old. We had no health insurance. And when mom came home from hospital, which stay saved her life, as a result of a tubal pregnancy my older sister and brother took turns staying home from school care for her. Even our preschool siblings would take water and meals to her when she had to stay in bed. We all knew we were very lucky because she could just as easily of died. No health insurance means no health checkups ever. The only time we saw a doctor was for uncontrolled bleeding, broken bones or you couldn’t breathe. Luckily most of that never ever happened.
Later that year Dad got the mumps and had to hire another logger to drive his truck unfortunately the guy wrecked the truck the first load out and only half the truck was insured. So Dad had to look for a driving job with another company after he got well. I remember being very afraid for him because they said it was dangerous for a man his age to get the mumps.
Mom baked 6 loaves of bread every Sunday. Yes, I can bake bread and it is so good and no, not using a silly bread machine. After we lived with our grandparents (dad’s parents) to get back on our feet we saved like mad and had a down payment for the farm. How did we do that? Dad still drove truck, mom worked in a soda fountain and then as a short order cook in a small local café. Yes, we kids worked in the fields and babysat. Even our brother babysat when he wasn’t doing yard work for the neighbors. I remember giving dad $300 of my berry picking money and proud I was able to do it.
My bother put himself through college working like a dog to pay as he went. But back in the day you could work two fulltime summer jobs and work one during school year to end up without a lot of school loans. Now since college has become so expensive, good luck on that.
My older sister went in the Marine Corps. Me I applied for college and was accepted then just canceled everything and went out and got a job. None of the rest of the kids when to college and that is why most of them are still working now well into retirement years. Yes, even when 5 of us sisters are breast cancer survivors.
However, most of our children graduated from college and all the grandkids have graduated, are there now or there are plans in place that will be available to those who are still in grade and high school. But they were expected work hard to do most of it themselves by receiving scholarships, working full time while attending college and so they did or are doing so now.
You see we believe that each generation has a duty to take responsibility to improve their own lives and the lives of others. You teach them how to fish and they can be fishermen for life. Give them a hand up and not a hand out.
ata
Write a book and get paid instead of wasting your time on this site.
AJ
ATA why don’t you go away instead of writing rude & mean comments and wasting YOUR time on this site.
Evelyn S.
Yes, I have a comment to make, which
Just being one alone, will change nothing!
But I’m sure there are many more people
In my position: not enough in my SOCIAL
SECURITY check to live on, buy food, pay for meds, co-pays, cleaning essentials, gas,
rent, to just name a few!
SOCIAL SECURITY MUST BE RAISED!!
ata
Everyone has different expenses. What do you expect? Get in line with your bills and have the taxpayers pay them?
Ms.Adams
Maybe if you can get your head out your ass for a second you will get what these ppl are trying to say!!! Nobody’s looking for hand outs from the government, but to get what’s owed to them & @ a decent amount!!!
Ruthann H.
Our expenses go up but we do not get a cost of living raise to meet those expenses. Greed has become the norm for everything rent mortgages, taxes, food ,fuel, and above all medical expenses are outrageous. Is that what you call helping us? I sincerely hope you will get this kind of treatment when you get old, crippled, blind ,incontinence,. You deserve it as much as we do. Our generation created the things you have that have made you rich and greedy., but you won’t share with us. Shame on you.
James
This is just shameful that folks have expenses that increase and SSI has been virtually stagnant for several years. The politicians, the President included, who are so far out of touch with the average American as long as they can and do amass fortunes at the taxpayers expense! Just look at how much the Clintons have personally profited as a result of their “service to America”. What a joke!!!
ata
Criminals they may be but your COLA is based upon the cost of living, don’t like it write to your Congressman.
Clint
That’s true but could you be a bit more sociable and not so curt in your responses. SA !
Dawn
Amen!!
AJ
ATA go away…you’re rude
elimanning
i think there should be more help in paying premiums for medicare advantage plans HMOs
Jack M.
If you don’t like it go back to regular Medicare and pay 20% up front for any service.
Linda G.
Medicare A
Cost too Much each Month! And I never got the Social Security Amount I was supposed to Get after all the Years of saying what I was going to get!!!
R.F.
To learn more about the Medicare Advantage Plans, please visit http://www.Medicare.gov.
Stacie S.
An income would be nice but my case is stuck at ODAR due to an error by my case worker when I initially filed. My SSDI was all wrong, I found the error in May not my lawyer, fixed it now it’s hanging out in limbo at Phoenix ODAR. The error was found after second denial and I read the SSI and SSDI letters side by side both are the same verbatim but one little line. I can’t work, had 4 vertebrae fused in my neck my major depressive disorder is worse anxiety is worse I’m 47 with the spine of a person in their seventies. I have 2 back surgeries coming and my knees as well. They’re looking at me as a typical 47 year old woman. Last time I wore a dress was 30 years ago. I worked as a commercial plumber we installed cast iron only. That pretty heavy stuff, I raced motocross, skied moguls on my beautiful Colorado Rockies, I snow boarded and rode horses. I can’t do ANY of that with JUST my neck surgery alone. I’m glad people are getting fed, my stamps are gone, no car to go to the pantry, had to sell it. Good doesn’t pay the bills. I’m still trying to get full use of my right arm, lucky as I am, I’m right handed. All the info I’ve given Social Security has been for what should have been on my SSDI paperwork. They’ve got all the records so what’s the problem? I wrote this here because last time I went through I couldn’t access anything to share this and vent. Thank you for that.
ata
So you vented, that and a dollar will get you a drink at McDonalds. This forum is not here to listen to someone’s individual gripes. We can’t help you.
Dawn
How rude are you?!!!
AJ
ATA you are mean
R.F.
Thank you for your comment, and for reminding everybody that while we welcome general participation from all of our followers, we ask all participants to please be considerate and polite to others when posting comments. While we want to provide an opportunity for everybody to express their opinion freely, we also ask that participants in this blog respect the privacy of others as well as to conform to our comment policy.
CeeCee
Whilst I agree with what has been done for these people what about the senior citizens like myself a 90 year old living in an independent living facility and my pension does not cover the cost rent going up by $70 this month and savings going down>
Person w.
Hello,
Currently, in the state where I live, there are long waiting lists for affordable housing and few transportation options to get to church, food pantries, or to obtain other free non medical services. When you live on SSDI it is not easy to have financial security because you are paid low amounts monthly. In many cases, you must pay your rent and monthly bills without assistance. This is disporportionate.
It is important for SSA to focus on payment options that support the wishes of the person who is disabled. One must have enough each month to cover the standard cost of living. In addition to food servicing, transportation and, housing assistance, please begin payment options in which a person can receive enough money to cover their expenses. Also, please note that many people who are disabled advocate for what is rightfully their own while having a disability. Effective benefit disbursement options can help create the type of change needed for individuals who are disabled.
An example of an option would be several months of SSDI paid four times over two years.
Thanks
Jack M.
Are you serious? You get what you earned and not what you request.
Debbie
You don’t actually get what you earned, especially if you were at home taking care of children. Just because you file tax’s together doesn’t mean a part goes toward your work record ,But it does go to your ex.So while your trying to by food you get nothing extra for being a housewife. And before you say something like we didn’t work,If you have a fire in your home in 1984 and your washing clothes they say domestic labor is worth 8.50 an hour and thats an insurance agency. So you try to eat pay your copay,rent water,electric, toilet paper put tires on your beat up 86 before you kill yourself and others on 700 a mth.I had a worker’s permit at 14 I loved to work and not beg .but being considerate and avoiding a elderly Man and Wife on my way to work I went to the left hit the Grove on the shoulder lost control and hit head-on too the overpass. I can bearly make it to the mail box
ata
So whatever your lifestyle the government should meet that expectation through Social Security. There are over 40 other programs out there to help those in need, why deplete the trust fund?
Cindy
I agree with your comment people have to jump through hoops just to get our benefits. I use to be able to give money through different charities. I can’t even get help for myself. I can’t even get my benefits for my disability.
FabledCreature
I know nobody will hear my voice. Nobody will care. Social security denied my claim. Now I have to wait two years to see a judge for a hearing. I just wonder if social security knows or even cares about the ones who are going to die waiting. Your letter says I can work. I can work 30 minutes sitting if I can lie down to recover for a couple hours. I’ll then go home in so much pain I can’t make dinner or help my kids with their life. I’m a single mom with an autistic son also who needs my energy. Find me that job, social security. I wonder when you send out that denial letter, and there is years of proof of disability and the person worked faithfully their whole life until they dropped from illness, I wonder if you even pause for a moment to realize the impact of receiving that letter. The mom who opens it, sees the denial, and all hope is gone. I wonder if you imagine the conversation with her children when she tells them they are going to be homeless. You may be proud of those you are helping. But until you do something to help those like me, we will still be a third world country to some. I’m just one person. I don’t matter. The sad part is I now know that. But I used to be filled with hope, a college graduate, a fun mom, hope. These are just empty words on a page that will never be heard or read. But I needed to say them. Why isn’t there a program to help those like me who are told they are disabled, by their doctor, are told by their attorney they’ll get it in two years, but two years homeless is bigger when it’s the loss of a child’s two years.. These are supposed to be years she’s supposed to feel safe, secure, unashamed, worth something. I hate myself for getting sick and I hate my country for abandoning us when we have so much to offer if we just had a place to turn for support. I wonder if you ever imagined what it would be like if it happened to you and that denial letter came in the mail to you. The children cried. I lied and told them everything will be OK. Yeah yeah, I know, I’m just a nobody feeling sorry for themselves. I know what you think of me. It doesn’t matter either way at this point tho. So go ahead and judge me. But you’ll have to get in line.
Katrina
Go to usajobs.gov and click on the link “I am an individual with a disability” (here you go)
https://www.usajobs.gov/Help/working-in-government/unique-hiring-paths/individuals-with-disabilities/
There are selective placement coordinators that can assist you with your job search. I wish you the best in your future endeavors.
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