When I was sixteen, my dad had a major heart attack while on a day trip out of state. I had the emergency cash he usually left me and some money I had earned babysitting, about $50 total. Dad was in the hospital for 3 weeks, and I still had that $50 when he got home.
My sister and I would find bags of non-perishable groceries and personal care supplies on the porch when we got home from school. I would walk, since I didn't have a permit yet, to the local grocery store for milk, only to have the manager get bags of perishables, milk & meat, from his walk in. The donors wanted to be anonymous, and we never found out who was doing it, but we didn't go without.