Since Nerger can’t work, the family relies on her husband’s income, but he works only part-time so he can help her. Late Tuesday night at the Kroger off Watson Boulevard, Nerger went grocery shopping. When she got to the register there was a problem.
“He told me I owed him 10 dollars and some change. I am not exactly sure what it was, but I told him, I said I am sorry sir, but there is nothing in my cart that is not covered by food stamps,” said Nerger. She and the Kroger employees went back and forth about this for half an hour when a manager acknowledged was right about the purchase all along.
“I was upset, so, I was like, you know, I told you that it was covered under food stamps, you know, so, there was no need for all of this, you know, and he said, “Well excuse me that I work for a living and don’t rely on food stamps like you,” Nerger said.
The comment humiliated her, she said. “I honestly was angry. I was angry at first, but it turned into tears because when I turned around and I saw the people there I was like, oh my goodness, and I just started crying,” said Nerger.
Having worked from the time she was 15 until her kidneys failed, Nerger never thought that she and her family would be on food stamps.