Monday, March 10, 2014

My Response to Poverty

Today was our first real day of serving in Chicago! We spent almost eight hours volunteering at the St. James Food Pantry. After our arrival, Kathy (one of the staff members), shared with us what the pantry does for the community. They serve over 1,500 people in two zip codes, have food delivery for the elderly, provide lunch service for those in need, and so much more. They do all of this with a very small staff and the support of many dedicated donors and volunteers. What is so great about this organization is their focus on empowerment. Not only do they meet the immediate needs of the population, but they also equip their clients for the future. Their ultimate goal is for the clients to not just get a bag of food and walk away, but for them to one day be self-sufficient.

I was so impressed by the amount of love and respect shown by the folks at St. James to the population they serve which is a group others so easily write off. I am by no means saying this from my high horse. When I reflect on my former perceptions of poverty and the homelessness, I don't like what I see.

I grew up in Wildwood, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis about 40 minutes west of the city. My area is often considered the rich, snooty part of the county. From my experience, this is true. I mean, look at this meme I came across on Facebook last week. This is the area I call home:


I laughed because honestly, it's true for the most part. The amount of entitled teenagers in my area is wayyy more than slightly above the national average, if there was a study for that type of thing. I just now looked up some actual statistics for Wildwood, or "Wildhood" as some ironically refer to it. There's literally nothing "hood" about it, just in case you're curious.

Median Household Income:
Wildwood: $120,507
Missouri: $47,333

Residents with income below the poverty level in 2009:
Wildwood: 4.1%
Missouri: 19.2% 

To say that I didn't grow up witnessing poverty would be an understatement. It was this abstract thing that affected people not like me. Unless I went to downtown St. Louis, I never saw a homeless person. Those times I would see someone homeless, I was legitimately afraid. I had assumed they must be crazy and want to hurt me. There were times I would catch myself thinking that they don't deserve the extra dollar in my pocket because they weren't doing anything to change their situation. 

As I got older, I began to realize poverty was much more complex than that. These homeless people that I so quickly determined weren't good enough for my dollar, weren't the problem, I was. A large part of why I wanted to go on this specific trip was because I know I still have some judgments of this population deep down. Believe me, I don't even like admitting this to myself, let alone this blog. But I do need to remind myself of this so that I can ensure I don't focus on what "they" might possibly not be doing. Instead, I need to see what I could do.

I could love like the people of St. James.

--Sara Williams

P.S. Patrick, I'll try to stop appearing in so many of your pictures.





No comments:

Post a Comment