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A Day at the Fare: One Woman's Welfare Passage
Don't think it's important to maintain an adequate safety net for America's struggling families? Only hear about welfare's failures? How much do you know from experience about what it's like to live in poverty?
"I subscribed to all the typical negative stereotypes about welfare recipients until I found myself with no choice other than to become one," says the author. "Then I learned I couldn't have been more wrong."
This memoir depicts the author's unexpected plunge into, and triumphant emergence from, deep poverty.
"A Day at the Fare" is a welfare success story. An example of what can happen when an adequate safety net is available to assist those attempting to help themselves by making the best of its resources.
It's also a demonstration of the pros and cons of the welfare system and the kinds of things about it that need to be changed.
SHOULD YOU READ THIS BOOK?
IF your head is full of preconceived notions about everyone who receives government aid, this book is for you. You'll see that each welfare case is as individual as each welfare applicant.
Have you ever wondered, "Why would anyone want to be on welfare? To depend on food stamps?"
Honestly. No one says, "When I grow up I'm going to be on welfare." Many times people end up on welfare through no fault of their own. The author recalls that when faced with adversity, "Applying for assistance was my last resort to having nothing at all."
IF you've been lucky enough in life to avoid any form of economic struggle, this book is for you. You'll gain an understanding of the complexities of poverty.
Are you a policy maker or other individual in position to determine how much assistance poor people should receive and for how long, yet have no experience yourself with the struggles of poverty?
IF so, this book is for you. Reading it will provide you insight into the everyday realities of a family struggling to meet basic needs.
Are you someone, maybe even a member of the working poor class, who requires government aid just to be able to barely get by, and are finding it hard to envision ever being able to move beyond your struggle with poverty?
THEN this book is especially for you. It may leave you somewhat inspired.
IMAGINE...
You’re living a good life in a grand old house with your family, spending your summer looking out from your veranda onto a picturesque park and enjoying the scent of flowers in the air—until fall arrives and you’re beholding a multi-colored canopy of foliage.
But... by winter you’re stealing toilet tissue from a restaurant restroom and wondering what you’re going to do with your first welfare check that won’t even pay the rent for the ghetto apartment you and your children are now calling home.
The reality is we’re all only living one or two misfortunes away from losing the people or things we’re depending upon, and if and when that happens, you could easily find yourself enduring A Day at the Fare.
What would you be willing to do to survive its grim circumstances?
"I subscribed to all the typical negative stereotypes about welfare recipients until I found myself with no choice other than to become one," says the author. "Then I learned I couldn't have been more wrong."
This memoir depicts the author's unexpected plunge into, and triumphant emergence from, deep poverty.
"A Day at the Fare" is a welfare success story. An example of what can happen when an adequate safety net is available to assist those attempting to help themselves by making the best of its resources.
It's also a demonstration of the pros and cons of the welfare system and the kinds of things about it that need to be changed.
SHOULD YOU READ THIS BOOK?
IF your head is full of preconceived notions about everyone who receives government aid, this book is for you. You'll see that each welfare case is as individual as each welfare applicant.
Have you ever wondered, "Why would anyone want to be on welfare? To depend on food stamps?"
Honestly. No one says, "When I grow up I'm going to be on welfare." Many times people end up on welfare through no fault of their own. The author recalls that when faced with adversity, "Applying for assistance was my last resort to having nothing at all."
IF you've been lucky enough in life to avoid any form of economic struggle, this book is for you. You'll gain an understanding of the complexities of poverty.
Are you a policy maker or other individual in position to determine how much assistance poor people should receive and for how long, yet have no experience yourself with the struggles of poverty?
IF so, this book is for you. Reading it will provide you insight into the everyday realities of a family struggling to meet basic needs.
Are you someone, maybe even a member of the working poor class, who requires government aid just to be able to barely get by, and are finding it hard to envision ever being able to move beyond your struggle with poverty?
THEN this book is especially for you. It may leave you somewhat inspired.
IMAGINE...
You’re living a good life in a grand old house with your family, spending your summer looking out from your veranda onto a picturesque park and enjoying the scent of flowers in the air—until fall arrives and you’re beholding a multi-colored canopy of foliage.
But... by winter you’re stealing toilet tissue from a restaurant restroom and wondering what you’re going to do with your first welfare check that won’t even pay the rent for the ghetto apartment you and your children are now calling home.
The reality is we’re all only living one or two misfortunes away from losing the people or things we’re depending upon, and if and when that happens, you could easily find yourself enduring A Day at the Fare.
What would you be willing to do to survive its grim circumstances?
332 pages, Paperback
First published November 13, 2016
About the author
Pamela M. Covington
1 book22 followersPamela M. Covington is a native of Pittsburgh, and a former freelance writer, newspaper reporter and classroom training instructor. Today she happily serves as a speaker, storyteller, and anti-poverty advocate.
As a speaker Covington shares her poverty story along with lessons learned and practical personal strategies to encourage others to achieve a greater potential, rather than to adopt a sense of futility, even in the most troubled of times. When writing she draws upon her lived experiences as a way to inspire others. As an advocate she speaks as a voice of experience to address the interests of low-to-moderate income families and individuals.
Covington's "A Day at the Fare: One Woman's Welfare Passage," is a memoir about her experience in unimaginable, ugly deep poverty. It's available on Amazon at amzn.to/2gvgyk8.
She has earned two MS degrees from Troy University: in Management and Human Resources Management, a BA in Communications from the University of North Florida and two associate’s degrees from Florida State College at Jacksonville.
In an effort to ensure she makes time for leisure, Covington takes road trips, spins copious amounts of music, enjoys learning about various cultures, attends theater performances and collects books. Lots of books. She eats books.
Pamela resides in Georgia.
As a speaker Covington shares her poverty story along with lessons learned and practical personal strategies to encourage others to achieve a greater potential, rather than to adopt a sense of futility, even in the most troubled of times. When writing she draws upon her lived experiences as a way to inspire others. As an advocate she speaks as a voice of experience to address the interests of low-to-moderate income families and individuals.
Covington's "A Day at the Fare: One Woman's Welfare Passage," is a memoir about her experience in unimaginable, ugly deep poverty. It's available on Amazon at amzn.to/2gvgyk8.
She has earned two MS degrees from Troy University: in Management and Human Resources Management, a BA in Communications from the University of North Florida and two associate’s degrees from Florida State College at Jacksonville.
In an effort to ensure she makes time for leisure, Covington takes road trips, spins copious amounts of music, enjoys learning about various cultures, attends theater performances and collects books. Lots of books. She eats books.
Pamela resides in Georgia.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
December 30, 2018
An excellent view of life on Welfare
As Americans consider changes to social safety net programs like food stamps, welfare (now TANF), Medicaid, and Section 8 housing support, it's important to think about what these programs support and buy. In this well-written account, Ms. Covington details exactly what she could afford with her welfare checks (nearly nothing), how she got there, and her fight for a more stable life for herself and her children. While inflation has increased the costs of basic living, it's hard to see what else has changed - certainly not the long waits or the invasive bureaucracy. I found myself cheering her on and nearly crying at the horrible setbacks.
I'm sure this was difficult to write but I'm glad to have it. I wish it was required reading for legislators.
As Americans consider changes to social safety net programs like food stamps, welfare (now TANF), Medicaid, and Section 8 housing support, it's important to think about what these programs support and buy. In this well-written account, Ms. Covington details exactly what she could afford with her welfare checks (nearly nothing), how she got there, and her fight for a more stable life for herself and her children. While inflation has increased the costs of basic living, it's hard to see what else has changed - certainly not the long waits or the invasive bureaucracy. I found myself cheering her on and nearly crying at the horrible setbacks.
I'm sure this was difficult to write but I'm glad to have it. I wish it was required reading for legislators.
October 7, 2017
Blown away by how powerful this book and the author are. Took me a while to get through it -- was so disheartening to read how the system was harming Pamela and her children, and there were times I needed to take a break because I was too upset. But so glad I kept coming back to it, and the Postscript alone is some of the most important words I have ever read. Must read.
April 7, 2023
Pamela Covington’s memoir of the three years she and her kids received welfare benefits in Florida is a gripping story, with important lessons for today’s social safety net, though she participated in the early 1980s.
Ms. Covington has a gift for narrative. Her story reads like a novel, with characters who develop and change, sometimes heartbreakingly, and a plot with many twists and turns. It is a universal tale of struggle against impossible odds, circumstances compelling the heroine to embark on an adventure fraught with danger. It even has villains — the more memorable ones including an unseen house burglar, a sleazy car rental manager, and welfare agencies that at times treated her like a criminal suspect instead of a mom trying to feed and house her kids.
On another level, A Day at the Fare is a portrait of a dysfunctional and inadequate welfare system that punishes the poor for being poor. The story takes place a decade before President Bill Clinton “ended welfare as we know it”, severely slashing the Food Stamp Program (now called SNAP) and ending the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program, replacing it with a block grant to states called Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF). (TANF is rife with corruption and fiscal mismanagement by state officials and politicians, as well as a certain retired NFL quarterback.)
Yet many of the problems with food stamps, cash welfare assistance, and federal housing assistance that Ms. Covington endured in the 1980s remain true of the cur- rent system in 2023. The rule against using food stamps to purchase hot food remains on the books. This absurd rule pushed her ingenuity to the limit in her first Jack- sonville, Florida apartment, which had no stove or refrigerator (or heat or air condi- tioning). How was she expected to cook food at home without a stove? She found a makeshift solution to this and the lack of heat in the winter by getting a space heater and using it to heat up food for dinner before moving it upstairs to keep her children warm through the night. A clever solution, but it is depressingly dystopian that this was necessary.
Social safety net programs like SNAP have an asset test with a low limit on the assets participants can have, a limit that has not changed in decades. The asset test severely limits the financial resources applicants can have or build, trapping them in poverty. In Ms. Covington’s case, she struggled to find a way to verify the value of her old car to ensure it did not put her above the AFDC asset test, and despaired at having to pay for an inspection to demonstrate that her car was worthless so she could prove she was in abject poverty and “worthy” of government assistance.
SNAP still requires participants to report any changes in income as soon as they occur, a rule that tripped up Ms. Covington when she found a job that gave her a small financial cushion on top of her food stamps, cash welfare, and housing as- sistance. She chose not to report this job to her caseworker, because doing so would have cut her food stamps allotment and made it that much more difficult to feed her children. She rightly believed that feeding her kids took priority over following the food stamp rules to the letter. (She later paid back the difference.)
Receiving government assistance today continues to mandate period “recertification” interviews, though these were waived until recently during the pandemic. These interviews are often conducted in person, during the typical work day, forcing participants to take time away from work to do the interview, jeopardizing their jobs. (In Alaska, the backlog of recertification interviews that resulted from declaring the end of the COVID-19 pandemic in July 2022 has caused many families to go without SNAP as- sistance for months. Families are close to starvation, and senior citizens are going to the hospital because of malnutrition. Bureaucracy can exact a cruel toll.) Ms. Covington found the recertification interviews personally invasive and humiliating; the details of her personal life belonged to her caseworker and the state, and the questions were often repetitive or seemed pointless, like how much she spent on her children’s toys or clothes.
The most difficult parts of the book to read concerned her older child, Cedric. His behavior was extremely disruptive to Ms. Covington’s efforts to keep the family afloat financially and to improve her own situation by pursuing an associate’s degree. The state child welfare system’s solution of removing Cedric from the family proved no more successful at managing Cedric’s behavior, and came with the sting of disparaging Ms. Covington’s parenting competence. It was heartbreaking to read about Cedric’s extreme alienation from society because it seemed likely that he was suffering from a mental illness, learning disability, or a combination. In the 1980s, the mental health profession lacked the tools it has today to diagnose and treat conditions like Cedric’s. I badly wanted him to get a diagnosis, medication, and therapy that would help him turn his life around. He was clearly hurting.
Ms. Covington concludes that welfare assistance was necessary to her survival and future success. “Although it was never enough,” she writes, “public assistance had served a vital role in helping feed my children and me and keeping us off the streets.” Nevertheless, “the benefits of the system came at a high personal cost—my pride. I was disconcerted by how little privacy I had while on the rolls, how little control I had over my personal affairs when it came to dealing with my son’s issues, and what it felt like to be viewed as ‘one of them’.”
It does not need to be this way. We could instead build a social safety net that ensures everyone can live in safe, stable housing with heat, air conditioning, and basic necessities like a stove and a fridge. That guarantees everyone has enough food to eat a healthy diet. That gives everyone affordable access to health care and day care. In the latter half of 2021, the extended Child Tax Credit (CTC) sent monthly payments to families with children, no strings attached, instead of the typical annual lump sum payment; the value of the CTC was higher as well. Child poverty fell by 46%, largely driven by the CTC expansion. Families reported using the 2021 payments for food, diapers, and feminine products. They were able to pay their rent on time. For a brief time, they could breathe a sigh of relief. Those payments ended in December 2021, and child poverty once again soared in 2022.
Pamela Covington’s A Day at the Fare is an honest and brave memoir that delivers a page-turner of a story and makes a compelling case for building a social safety net that treats everyone with dignity. A must read.
Ms. Covington has a gift for narrative. Her story reads like a novel, with characters who develop and change, sometimes heartbreakingly, and a plot with many twists and turns. It is a universal tale of struggle against impossible odds, circumstances compelling the heroine to embark on an adventure fraught with danger. It even has villains — the more memorable ones including an unseen house burglar, a sleazy car rental manager, and welfare agencies that at times treated her like a criminal suspect instead of a mom trying to feed and house her kids.
On another level, A Day at the Fare is a portrait of a dysfunctional and inadequate welfare system that punishes the poor for being poor. The story takes place a decade before President Bill Clinton “ended welfare as we know it”, severely slashing the Food Stamp Program (now called SNAP) and ending the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program, replacing it with a block grant to states called Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF). (TANF is rife with corruption and fiscal mismanagement by state officials and politicians, as well as a certain retired NFL quarterback.)
Yet many of the problems with food stamps, cash welfare assistance, and federal housing assistance that Ms. Covington endured in the 1980s remain true of the cur- rent system in 2023. The rule against using food stamps to purchase hot food remains on the books. This absurd rule pushed her ingenuity to the limit in her first Jack- sonville, Florida apartment, which had no stove or refrigerator (or heat or air condi- tioning). How was she expected to cook food at home without a stove? She found a makeshift solution to this and the lack of heat in the winter by getting a space heater and using it to heat up food for dinner before moving it upstairs to keep her children warm through the night. A clever solution, but it is depressingly dystopian that this was necessary.
Social safety net programs like SNAP have an asset test with a low limit on the assets participants can have, a limit that has not changed in decades. The asset test severely limits the financial resources applicants can have or build, trapping them in poverty. In Ms. Covington’s case, she struggled to find a way to verify the value of her old car to ensure it did not put her above the AFDC asset test, and despaired at having to pay for an inspection to demonstrate that her car was worthless so she could prove she was in abject poverty and “worthy” of government assistance.
SNAP still requires participants to report any changes in income as soon as they occur, a rule that tripped up Ms. Covington when she found a job that gave her a small financial cushion on top of her food stamps, cash welfare, and housing as- sistance. She chose not to report this job to her caseworker, because doing so would have cut her food stamps allotment and made it that much more difficult to feed her children. She rightly believed that feeding her kids took priority over following the food stamp rules to the letter. (She later paid back the difference.)
Receiving government assistance today continues to mandate period “recertification” interviews, though these were waived until recently during the pandemic. These interviews are often conducted in person, during the typical work day, forcing participants to take time away from work to do the interview, jeopardizing their jobs. (In Alaska, the backlog of recertification interviews that resulted from declaring the end of the COVID-19 pandemic in July 2022 has caused many families to go without SNAP as- sistance for months. Families are close to starvation, and senior citizens are going to the hospital because of malnutrition. Bureaucracy can exact a cruel toll.) Ms. Covington found the recertification interviews personally invasive and humiliating; the details of her personal life belonged to her caseworker and the state, and the questions were often repetitive or seemed pointless, like how much she spent on her children’s toys or clothes.
The most difficult parts of the book to read concerned her older child, Cedric. His behavior was extremely disruptive to Ms. Covington’s efforts to keep the family afloat financially and to improve her own situation by pursuing an associate’s degree. The state child welfare system’s solution of removing Cedric from the family proved no more successful at managing Cedric’s behavior, and came with the sting of disparaging Ms. Covington’s parenting competence. It was heartbreaking to read about Cedric’s extreme alienation from society because it seemed likely that he was suffering from a mental illness, learning disability, or a combination. In the 1980s, the mental health profession lacked the tools it has today to diagnose and treat conditions like Cedric’s. I badly wanted him to get a diagnosis, medication, and therapy that would help him turn his life around. He was clearly hurting.
Ms. Covington concludes that welfare assistance was necessary to her survival and future success. “Although it was never enough,” she writes, “public assistance had served a vital role in helping feed my children and me and keeping us off the streets.” Nevertheless, “the benefits of the system came at a high personal cost—my pride. I was disconcerted by how little privacy I had while on the rolls, how little control I had over my personal affairs when it came to dealing with my son’s issues, and what it felt like to be viewed as ‘one of them’.”
It does not need to be this way. We could instead build a social safety net that ensures everyone can live in safe, stable housing with heat, air conditioning, and basic necessities like a stove and a fridge. That guarantees everyone has enough food to eat a healthy diet. That gives everyone affordable access to health care and day care. In the latter half of 2021, the extended Child Tax Credit (CTC) sent monthly payments to families with children, no strings attached, instead of the typical annual lump sum payment; the value of the CTC was higher as well. Child poverty fell by 46%, largely driven by the CTC expansion. Families reported using the 2021 payments for food, diapers, and feminine products. They were able to pay their rent on time. For a brief time, they could breathe a sigh of relief. Those payments ended in December 2021, and child poverty once again soared in 2022.
Pamela Covington’s A Day at the Fare is an honest and brave memoir that delivers a page-turner of a story and makes a compelling case for building a social safety net that treats everyone with dignity. A must read.
December 30, 2016
From the first paragraph, I was enchanted with the writing of this book. Not only is it an excellent story of one woman's struggle through welfare, it is also a personal story of strength, grace, and grit.
Pamela weaves her personal story through a difficult time in a way that brings me, the reader, into the story. I identify with her journey even though it is different from my own. This is the mark of a true writer -- one who can tell their story in a way that it can be my story too. In addition, we see a woman who is strong and determined -- a woman who works keeps her focus on what needs to be done rather than on where she is at the moment. These are admiral qualities. It is these qualities that keep her going and help her move out of the situation and on to a better life.
I was captivated by Pam's spirit -- the helping hands that touched hers and her hands that touched others around her. She is indeed a vision of how we should all live our lives -- with resolve and caring.
I highly recommend this book, not only for anyone who experiences the frustration of a welfare system that hasn't changed that much from the 1980s, but also for those who want to read about courage and determination through difficult times. It is a truly inspiring story that needed to be told.
Pamela weaves her personal story through a difficult time in a way that brings me, the reader, into the story. I identify with her journey even though it is different from my own. This is the mark of a true writer -- one who can tell their story in a way that it can be my story too. In addition, we see a woman who is strong and determined -- a woman who works keeps her focus on what needs to be done rather than on where she is at the moment. These are admiral qualities. It is these qualities that keep her going and help her move out of the situation and on to a better life.
I was captivated by Pam's spirit -- the helping hands that touched hers and her hands that touched others around her. She is indeed a vision of how we should all live our lives -- with resolve and caring.
I highly recommend this book, not only for anyone who experiences the frustration of a welfare system that hasn't changed that much from the 1980s, but also for those who want to read about courage and determination through difficult times. It is a truly inspiring story that needed to be told.
January 4, 2017
This book is a real eye opener to the reality of our welfare system and the need for revision thereof. It is a riveting inspirational story of strength and perseverance. I highly recommend it. The author really has a way with words, making you feel as though you are actually experiencing what you are reading.
March 29, 2017
A well written rendition of Government Assistance
So many people in the U. S. have at one time or another depending on life's challenges, have had the need to utilize a public agency. However, the author's experiences show a familiar biased opinion.My family faced something similar when the need to ask for "assistance" not a hand out just because of hard times.. Very good read!!
So many people in the U. S. have at one time or another depending on life's challenges, have had the need to utilize a public agency. However, the author's experiences show a familiar biased opinion.My family faced something similar when the need to ask for "assistance" not a hand out just because of hard times.. Very good read!!
December 21, 2020
Anyone seeking to understand how poverty can happen, and what it feels like on an intimate basis, can benefit from Pamela's work. The detail of it fleshes out how excruciating it can be, and the courage it takes to keep going.
Want to read
April 3, 2017mentioned by Linda Tirado
April 6, 2024
A Day at the Fare is a great read from start to finish. Pamela’s writing style and point of view allows the reader to step into her world, feel her emotions, hear her thoughts, and even smell the smells in the room she was in. She gives helpful insights into the welfare system and how it works, exposing it of its gaps. Many of us are just a paycheck away from being in a similar situation. It makes you be grateful for what you have and count your blessings. I also have the unique experience of being Pamela’s friend, but getting to read about her experiences here, it makes me even more admirable of her and her accomplishments. Pamela, thank you for sharing your story.
December 30, 2022
I kept letting other books push ahead of this one; but, I’m glad I finished it. Ms. Covington does an excellent job of explaining how the welfare system, though vital and life saving, is often hindering and crippling for the recipients. The biggest takeaway for me is how precarious an individual’s situation can be, even while attempting to make a better life. It’s also important that we as individuals look for ways to help others..to provide that ‘hand up’ via connections and resources if we are in the position to do so.
July 2, 2017
This is a very well written autobiography describing one woman's experiences during the most difficult time in her life. She does an amazing job of detailing the events and emotions she experienced using humor, raw emotion and unbelievable courage. Once you start reading, it is difficult to put down!
November 11, 2021
Pamela Covington has captured the essence of life in a culture where the lack of money can be crippling, and presents an inspiring story of finding a way to survive and thrive.
March 5, 2020
Covington wrote an easy-to-read, easy-to-relate-to biographic narrative. She perfectly sums up the reasons why it's so difficult for a woman with children to leave an abusive relationship and how grueling it is to navigate the American system of aid for mothers who need immediate help. It's a living nightmare for many right now and a lurking nightmare for mothers who don't earn their own salaries. This is an "it could happen to anyone" tale. I recommend it especially for men who will never be in her situation or women who feel they won't ever be. Read it for your own sense of empathy and vote accordingly.
February 6, 2017
This non-fiction book showcases the true epitome of a woman who had to make some tough, real-life decisions and fought her way from trials to triumphs. I appreciate the author boldly and honestly sharing her journey about ending up on welfare for a period of time in order to ensure the safety of her children as well as herself. Upon choosing to fight and push her way past the struggles of that decision, it allowed the aspirations and goals embedded within her to become a reality. Great story about not allowing your temporary circumstances to dictate your victorious future! Happy Reading!
March 31, 2022
Generic
I can appreciate the struggle to find housing and feed your family. I can appreciate Pam wanting to share her story with others. Sadly, Pam does not disprove “welfare” stereotypes in the recounting of her story.
I can appreciate the struggle to find housing and feed your family. I can appreciate Pam wanting to share her story with others. Sadly, Pam does not disprove “welfare” stereotypes in the recounting of her story.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews