Financial support for Zain-Parshall family.
Donation protected
Hi. This is Lisa aka weedy, partner to Joe and mama of Saffron and Jasper.
I am writing to ask for financial support during what has been a very chaotic and at times incredibly traumatic past few months.
To break down our ask: 4 months ago Jasper was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes and while we are lucky to be insured there are still a lot of out of pocket costs, including phone plans for devices that help us track his glucose, general supplies that aren’t covered and new / bigger clothes that don’t irritate his on-body devices.
The bulk of this money will be going directly to Erie County where we live because we have been asked to pay back months and months of SNAP benefits that we were allotted over 2021-22. Even though I correctly claimed unemployment at the time it was found that we were overpaid (I have asked for a fair hearing/appeal and the court is backed up 2+ years while this debt is hanging over our head.) And more recently it was found I made $62 over the income limit one month - it’s hard to predict my exact wages as a server - so 6 more months of benefits were retracted. The county is asking for $3.8k
It’s really hard to come to terms with the fact that they want all of this back knowing we used it for food and my background in food insecurity makes it all the more frustrating. I didn’t “scam” them and the entire system is very hard do deal with. This debt is tied to my taxes and therefor my New York State subsidized healthcare and I need to take care of it as soon as possible so it doesn’t threaten Jasper’s continuity of care. T1D is a 24/7 factor in our lives and he can’t lapse even for a day or we are screwed.
The remainder of the ask is to help us catch up with bills. Joe is in school full time right now on a 90% scholarship, we’re both working as much as humanly possible, I need another round of dental work because one of my crowns is messed up and my dentist who has been so good to me is now out of network so I need to find a new one and we are quite simply hurting.
Thank you for reading and for caring about us. Asking for help is hard and there are many many worthy causes so if you’re not able to give please consider sharing. Love, Lisa & Joe
To break down our ask: 4 months ago Jasper was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes and while we are lucky to be insured there are still a lot of out of pocket costs, including phone plans for devices that help us track his glucose, general supplies that aren’t covered and new / bigger clothes that don’t irritate his on-body devices.
The bulk of this money will be going directly to Erie County where we live because we have been asked to pay back months and months of SNAP benefits that we were allotted over 2021-22. Even though I correctly claimed unemployment at the time it was found that we were overpaid (I have asked for a fair hearing/appeal and the court is backed up 2+ years while this debt is hanging over our head.) And more recently it was found I made $62 over the income limit one month - it’s hard to predict my exact wages as a server - so 6 more months of benefits were retracted. The county is asking for $3.8k
It’s really hard to come to terms with the fact that they want all of this back knowing we used it for food and my background in food insecurity makes it all the more frustrating. I didn’t “scam” them and the entire system is very hard do deal with. This debt is tied to my taxes and therefor my New York State subsidized healthcare and I need to take care of it as soon as possible so it doesn’t threaten Jasper’s continuity of care. T1D is a 24/7 factor in our lives and he can’t lapse even for a day or we are screwed.
The remainder of the ask is to help us catch up with bills. Joe is in school full time right now on a 90% scholarship, we’re both working as much as humanly possible, I need another round of dental work because one of my crowns is messed up and my dentist who has been so good to me is now out of network so I need to find a new one and we are quite simply hurting.
Thank you for reading and for caring about us. Asking for help is hard and there are many many worthy causes so if you’re not able to give please consider sharing. Love, Lisa & Joe
Organizer
Lisa Zain
Organizer
Buffalo, NY