The Gills used to take their kids to Dunkin’ as a reward after a good week at school. The kids would get a doughnut or a drink and they’d all enjoy it as they sat around and ate. That doesn’t happen now.

The Gills sometimes aren’t sure of how they’re going to afford groceries for the coming week.

“Dunkin’ was their reward,” said Janine, the mother of the family. “We don't have no rewards for them now. We can't because we don’t have the money to give them rewards. I mean, it's hard.”

When things are really hard, Janine’s husband Robert said he will sometimes go without a meal. If he doesn’t go completely without food, he’ll at least eat much less than the rest of the family just to make sure they get their fill first.

“What I'll do is I'll make enough for her and the four kids,” Robert said. “I'll wait until they're done eating and ask if they're done and then I'll finish what they eat. That way, it's not going to waste and we're all eating.”

After paying for the roof over their head, the family often has to weigh what in their life is second most important — the phone bill, car insurance, payments on their storage locker or food.

“Do I take this $20 and put it in the car for gas or do I go buy food for my kids?” Robert said. “I'm going to buy food for my kids. I can walk to work. I've done it before.”

The family fell on hard times in Northampton, Pennsylvania, after Janine and Robert were both out of work. Janine had quit her job at a personal care facility because of the stress — she had recently given birth to a stillborn baby but was pregnant again and being cautious — and Robert, who worked as a maintenance man at the same facility, was fired for reasons both he and Janine said were unfounded.

Janine was able to find a new job at a grocery store while Robert had a tough time finding one. He went on to work for Amazon for a few months then Walmart after that.

They weren’t making nearly enough money to support their family of seven — luckily they had $764 a month in food stamps to put meals on the table — and Janine said her family in Pennsylvania didn’t offer any help. So they moved the family to Dawsonville in 2017 to live with Robert’s sister. The oldest son, Shawn Gross, 23, stayed in Pennsylvania.

“I figured I wanted a change,” Janine said. “I wanted to start our lives new. I wanted the kids to start their lives new.”

But the move didn’t make things much easier. Janine said she, Robert, their daughter Cheyenne Gross, 17, daughter Savannah, 8, son RJ, 6, and daughter Fayth, 3, were all sleeping in the living room, basically on top of each other.

“There was no privacy,” Janine said. “It was just hard going from our own space to now being crammed.”

But they tried to make it work. Janine got a job at Bojangles’ and Robert got a job at Kroger. But Janine’s foot started giving her problems, so she was out of a job for six months.

They were also out of food stamps because of the move, so they had to rely on their own paychecks and Robert’s sister, who was getting food from a food pantry, for meals. 

When Robert’s brother died shortly after the move to Dawsonville, though, the relationship between everyone in the home grew tense as the brother’s belongings and estate were divided among the family.

When it became too much in May 2018, the Gills moved out and used the money they got after Robert’s brother’s death to keep the family in a hotel for a week.

At that point, they were essentially homeless.

They reached out to the St. Vincent de Paul Society in Dawsonville, which helped pay for five more nights at the hotel. At the end of the five days, the family didn’t have enough money to extend the time or find a new place to live.

So they lived out of their van, sleeping in the Kroger parking lot where Robert was working nights and spending the days at War Hill Park.

“What I always like to say is that we were homeless, but we weren't poor,” Janine said. “We had each other’s love. We had each other’s support. And the food stamps happened to come just in time.”

They were homeless for 2 ½ weeks, but found out about Family Promise, an organization that helps fight homelesness, and got connected with them in August of 2018. When they knew they were going to be around Gainesville, jumping from church to church with Family Promise, Robert asked his manager at the Dawsonville Kroger if he could be transferred to Gainesville. His manager obliged and also offered to put in a good word for Janine.

They both got jobs at Kroger on Jesse Jewell Parkway and have been working there ever since.

Robert was recently promoted to full time while Janine is still part time.

They were also able to move into Family Promise’s transitional housing just down the road from the Kroger.

“We have shown our kids that nothing is impossible,” Janine said. “You keep going with your life and you can make do with what you have. You don't need everything to survive. You just need each other and love and a little bit of help from friends.”

And that’s exactly what they needed when Janine had a heart attack shortly after they moved into that transitional housing. The illness affected where the money they were making went.

Not to mention, when they moved into the Family Promise housing, their food stamps were cut to just $308.

“We have car insurance, we have to get the kids stuff for school … I have to get all my medications from this heart attack and everything,” Janine said. “It's hard.”

And living in the transitional housing Family Promise offers isn’t free. The Gills still have to pay rent. And just the other day, their food stamps dropped again, this time to $151.

“We do go to food banks,” Janine said. “Family Promise helps out twice a month if we need it, but I don't like to rely on people too much because I know there's people out there who are less fortunate than we are. I guess it's just the pride. I try to do everything on my own to show my kids it can be done.”

For the Gills, it often seems like they can’t catch a break. When things are going well, something else happens. And when the family has myriad expenses, and it’s not getting much government assistance to support four children in the home, life gets hard.

“When we went four months without the food stamps, we relied on the blessing boxes that Family Promise gives,” Janine said. “And we had a couple co-workers that would take us to and from work because we didn't have the money to put gas into the car.”

That’s because the money was going to more important things like food.

“We didn't have money to get the kids school clothes,” Janine said.

And when there are harder weeks for whatever reason, Janine said she’d rather see her kids eat than herself and Robert. And so the cycle of food insecurity continues.

Janine said she’s not all that confident that they’ll be able to break out of their transitional housing and food insecurity. They don’t make enough to pay for an apartment big enough for the family while putting food on the table and keeping up with their other expenses at the same time. But she said the family is doing the best it can and leaning on each other more and more.

She’s hopeful they’ll one day not have any of these worries.

“I'm trying to keep the faith,” Janine said. “I try to stay positive, but I have more negative thoughts of not being able to get out and on our own. But one thing that keeps me going is showing the kids that we're going to make it, we're going to get out of here. It's going to be OK.”