The Stotler family received a lovely windfall after a CNN report about how inflation has affected their monthly grocery budget went viral due to their significant monthly milk intake. The family of 11 has received a one-year supply of milk, which given their 12 gallons per week habit, is no small gift.
Writing for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Jessika Harkay reports:
The Stotlers, who live in Kennedale, are a family full of diversity who are overcoming adversity. In a CNN interview, Krista and Larry Stotler described their trouble keeping up with inflation on grocery prices, especially with a key household item — milk — describing how what used to be $1.99 per carton has increased by nearly $2 and is adding up quickly as they try to feed their nine children, seven of whom are adopted or fostered. “Many of our teenagers are 6-foot-2 big, big boys,” Krista Stotler told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.“We don’t provide sodas for them. It’s bowls of cereal, it’s cooking, it’s filling up a 32-ounce glass and drinking and chugging the whole thing, then filling it up again. It’s been something for kids who come from hard places, and come from foster care. A lot of times they have abuse and neglect where they don’t have food available, so to have that food, healthy and available [for them] is important.”
The broader context of this story is a bizarre one and starts with
CNN’s Evan McMorris-Santos interviewed the Stottler family in Kennedale, Texas (a suburb of Fort Worth) for what was a rather anodyne profile of a lovely family who is facing some inflation-induced financial stress, particularly when it comes to their grocery budget.
But something strange happened when CNN New Day anchor Briana Keilar tweeted a video of the segment, which included the quote, “A gallon of milk was $1.99. Now it’s $2.79. When you buy 12 gallons a week times four weeks, that’s a lot of money,” followed by her own description of the segment of “how badly inflation is hitting the middle class.”
As is often the case on Twitter, jumped on the tweet without clicking through to watch the video. Purchasing nearly 50 gallons of milk per month was quickly deemed an absurd amount. And if this were a family of four, that would be correct.
But anyone who watched the report would see that the Stottler family is currently caring for nine children, six of whom are adopted, and one who is in foster care. By any measure, the Stottlers seem like caring and beautiful people. But because Twitter
“I was thinking about this, this morning, and how people have been so mean on social media and making fun of us,” Krista Stotler told the Star-Telegram. “But people are going to be mean. It doesn’t matter what the situation is, if it’s political, if it is what you drive, what you look like, if you’re fat, if you’re skinny, people are just going to be mean sometimes, and we just try to teach our kids that, this is life.”
So the Stotler family was treated pretty poorly by many on Twitter, but received a lovely benefit from a local milk company, and was gracious and forgiving for all the mean people on social media in the end. It’s a lovely story that only reaffirms the total douchebaggery from so many blue-checked assholes on Twitter more interested in building clout with mean-spirited jokes than the plight of the everyday American.
Watch above via CNN.