This week I have been working at the Central Illinois Food Bank. Originally I started off stocking the shelves with the various items that are donated to them. But the warehouse was so cold, and one of the ladies said that I could work in the office with her instead. Of course I agreed… anything to get out of the cold. So I have just been doing odd jobs for her. Mostly tedious tasks like filing, creating spreadsheets and logging it onto the computer, uploading the donation receipts onto the computer, stuffing envelopes… that sort of thing. I actually didn’t mind the work. It was very tedious and time consuming, but I realized that the work desperately needed to get done and they were very appreciative of my time there. Plus, the lady that I worked with was quite funny to be around, and she even gave me some really helpful information about different organizations in the area that I might be able to get a job at. I was so thankful for her help!
Today at the Food Bank I had the opportunity to go with to participate in the hunger study. I guess they go out to the different shelters, soup kitchens and food pantries and conduct surveys with some of the people that use those services. I was able to interview some of the people, which was quite the experience. The people were very candid about their answers (the majority of them anyway), and had no qualms about explaining their living situations. I was actually pretty disheartened by many of the answers as I realized the magnitude of this problem. While there may not be a ton of people that are necessarily homeless, the sad reality is that there are so many people (in the Springfield area alone) that struggle to feed and clothe themselves and their children. It was sad sitting there, listening to the answers of some of these questions. ‘Do you ever have to choose between paying for food and paying for rent?’ ‘Do you ever have to skip a meal because you don’t have money for food?’ Do your children ever have to skip a meal because you don’t have money for food?’. It’s heartbreaking to hear them answer yes to these questions and so many more like it.
I guess the saddest part of the whole thing is that people’s stereotypes of who the homeless/poor are is way off. While there are some people that become homeless because of their drug/alcohol addictions, the truth of the matter is that many people become homeless because of situations out of their control- they lose their job do to an injury, layoffs, or the company closing down and they are unable to find work some place else/Those that are poor are not poor because they are just lazy and don’t want to get a job. They may have suddenly lost a job, become ill, had a relative die and have to take care of their child(ren), etc. There are many circumstances that cause people to become homeless/poor- usually situations that are out of their control and hard to get out of.
But it was also encouraging to know that there are different organizations and agencies that will come along side these families and offer their services for free. But still, it doesn’t seem like enough. How are handouts going to break the cycle of poverty?
Today at the Food Bank I had the opportunity to go with to participate in the hunger study. I guess they go out to the different shelters, soup kitchens and food pantries and conduct surveys with some of the people that use those services. I was able to interview some of the people, which was quite the experience. The people were very candid about their answers (the majority of them anyway), and had no qualms about explaining their living situations. I was actually pretty disheartened by many of the answers as I realized the magnitude of this problem. While there may not be a ton of people that are necessarily homeless, the sad reality is that there are so many people (in the Springfield area alone) that struggle to feed and clothe themselves and their children. It was sad sitting there, listening to the answers of some of these questions. ‘Do you ever have to choose between paying for food and paying for rent?’ ‘Do you ever have to skip a meal because you don’t have money for food?’ Do your children ever have to skip a meal because you don’t have money for food?’. It’s heartbreaking to hear them answer yes to these questions and so many more like it.
I guess the saddest part of the whole thing is that people’s stereotypes of who the homeless/poor are is way off. While there are some people that become homeless because of their drug/alcohol addictions, the truth of the matter is that many people become homeless because of situations out of their control- they lose their job do to an injury, layoffs, or the company closing down and they are unable to find work some place else/Those that are poor are not poor because they are just lazy and don’t want to get a job. They may have suddenly lost a job, become ill, had a relative die and have to take care of their child(ren), etc. There are many circumstances that cause people to become homeless/poor- usually situations that are out of their control and hard to get out of.
But it was also encouraging to know that there are different organizations and agencies that will come along side these families and offer their services for free. But still, it doesn’t seem like enough. How are handouts going to break the cycle of poverty?
Wowzers...another blog so soon?!
ReplyDeleteAnd you changed your layout...thanks Sarah!
All for you!
ReplyDeletethanks!
ReplyDelete