Thank goodness I did not delete the BuckISERV email.
BuckISERV is an OSU organization that does Alternative Breaks.They send a thousand or more students all over the US and world to do service work for a week out of their break. For Spring Break 2015, over twenty different trips went to four different countries.
The specific trip was meant only for Bachelor's of Science of Pharmaceutical Science (BSPS) students. We learned about it way back in December 2014, and I knew immediately that I wanted to go. I mean, the participants paid only $375 and the trip leaders paid $190. When will I ever get to go to New York City for less that $200 again? Never. Of course, that is not all I spent in NY. The $200 only covered lodgings and transportation. But still.
Seeing as this was the COP's first trip with BuckISERV, there wasn't really anything pharmacy-ish about it. Instead we worked with the Youth Services Opportunities Project (YSOP), a Quaker organization that works with 90+ hunger and homelessness agencies around New York City and Washington DC.
Our trip of 15 was divided into three groups, matching three groups from the University of Arizona. Yeah they got a bit of a shock when arriving to east coast weather. Anyways, each of the six groups were sent out to a new location around the city each day. Between all of us, we served over 3,000 people in some kind of aspect of hunger and homelessness.
My group went to Brooklyn twice and to the Bronx twice. As much as I loved the subway, I was not pleased to have to ride it for two hours or more everyday. It's only so cool for so long.
Day 1: More Grace Redemptive Center
The first day we went down into Brooklyn to serve at a food pantry called More Grace. It was run by volunteers, the leader of which was named Rose. Since we were there on Monday, the volunteers were readying bags to hand out on Tuesday.
The most memorable thing about More Grace was the thousands of onions we bagged for the next day. Literally. Twenty fifty pound bags full of red onions were bagged in grocery bags to give out the next day. We began to worry we'd get weird looks on the way back for smelling like onion.
In addition to bagging onions, we bagged up a small thing of groceries. Each bag had the same basis: a cereal, a box of milk, a jug of juice, three cans of veggies, some kind of grain, and some kind of protein. The ladies would line them up on top of some freezers, and once all thirty were all lined up and had the same items, Rose would say go and we would bag them all up and load them into carts.
Overall this day was pretty good, though there was not a whole lot to do. After lunch we kept asking for more things to do, but they said "we'll come get you" over and over again. It was fun to have a break for a while, but we already had to leave early to get back to YSOP, and we didn't feel like we did a whole lot.
Day 2: Immaculate Conception Soup Kitchen/ Baby Buggy/ YSOP Dinner
This was a day where we learned just how important it is to have the proper contact.
We arrived early and asked for our jobs as usual and they told us to wash down the tables and then roll the utensils. We got all of this done within half an hour or so.
This was a mistake.
Around 10:30 am, an older man came over to us and started yelling at us. Apparently, YSOP never tells them when volunteers were comingand there was a group of adults with developmental disabilities doing workforce development that come everyday and we just took all the work from them. We apologized as best we could saying that we were only given locations, to which he basically told us to shut up.
We worked out a new location with YSOP, and ended up on another hour and a half train ride, this time from the Bronx down to Midtown. We apologized again and left.
It turns out that the woman who was supposed to work things out wasn't. YSOP told us that normally all the volunteers work together and it's a lot of fun. Just goes to show how important good communication is.
We ended up at Baby Buggy, an organization started by Jerry Seinfeld's wife to make an upper scale thrift store for new or gently used baby items. We spent about an hour sorting clothes. It wasn't bad, but we were so tired and angry that it kind of sucked.
That night though was one of the best experiences there.
The New York Society of Friends is based in runs a 12 person private shelter, and that night we cooked dinner for our guests. We made lasagna, salad, garlic bread and brownies. Around 6:30 our guests arrived and we served them food and played games.
I invited one of the women over to sit with me and our the two trip advisors/ COP career advisors. At first it was really odd to break the ice. I mean, it's always difficult, but it is always harder when you know the reason you're there.
Next to us on the table was pack of cards, so she pulled them out and taught us how to play spades. It was so fun. We started off kind of slow and by the end of the night we were all laughing at how one of the advisors couldn't remember the trump cards even though we had written them out for him.
As we played she talked about her life a bit and something stuck out. She talked a lot about wanting to go somewhere where she could ride horses or how much she liked swimming really far out off of Coney Island.
Later on that night, all of the OSU teams got together at our hostel to have a group reflection. Our theme was Humans of New York, because the photographer does such a good job of giving everyone he talks to a sense of humanity. I asked people to think about any "Humans of New York lines" they heard, or what sort of thing stuck out to them. There was definitely something significant about the woman we talked to and how much she seemed to want to get away.
Day 3: Bed-Stuy Campaign Against Hunger
On Wednesday we went out to Brooklyn again. We signed in and began talking to the woman in charge named Regina. She showed us around the office where they assisted people with taxes, helped people apply for SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program aka food stamps), and the warehouse where they had the food pantry.
Each person got a certain number of points based on the number of people in their family. These points could then be used to get three days worth of vegetables, fruits, grains, and protein. It operated very much like a store, but with volunteers who made sure people only could take as much as they were allowed. They could "shop" the full pantry once a month, and come for fresh fruits and veggies once a week.
One thing that stood out to just about everyone on the trip was that there were volunteers who seemed not to bat an eye at turning away these people who were hungry. Of course they do this all the time, and in the five hours I stood there directing people to get the right grains, I could start to tell how they did it. Most people respected that they were allowed this much, or couldn't get that this week, but there were some who insisted anyways. At first I gave in a bit, but then I noticed it more and started to understand. The amount of food available compared to the number of people coming in was not a huge margin.
The best part of this day was this one guy. When he got to my station I asked how he was and he said "I'm blessed". He had this huge smile on his face, and he was so happy. I helped him get the pasta and rice he wanted, and he moved on to the next one. You could hear in his voice how excited about life he was from the time he entered until he exited.
Day 4: St. George's Love Kitchen
This was the best day by far.
We arrived to this soup kitchen in the Bronx around 9:30 and expected to be immediately put to work. Instead we got the chance to introduce ourselves and chat with the other volunteers a bit before the rolls arrived and we started to help out
The doors opened at noon, so once the rolls were buttered and the tables were set, we got more time to talk with the other volunteers. They explained that it was the third Thursday, which meant their group came to help instead of the kids from the school.
One guy named Artie told us about his grandchildren and how often they go to see them. He told us about how he had lived in the same house for almost fifty years, and he didn't like to ride the train so he drove. One woman named Florence told us about how long she had been volunteering and how she started.
Once the guests arrived, most of us acted like waiters. First soup, then spaghetti and vegetables with a piece of bread, then their dessert bun. It was busy for about forty-five minutes, and then most everyone had left.
We helped clean up a bit, and then they offered us food. We accepted and started eating, but what fascinated me was that they kept offering more (even when they gave half a plate's worth of pasta). We talked more about volunteering with another woman who had been a detective for almost thirty years before she resigned and was volunteering to figure out what she wanted to do next.
Before we left we got hugs from everyone and Artie walked us out to make sure that we knew where we were going. It was the best day so far, and a perfect way to end the week.
I couldn't decide on a name for this post because of all the amazing things I did this week. Here are a few I considered:
- Service and Showtunes
- Live from New York... It's Saturday Night! (And Also The Rest Of The Week)
- I Saw Idina Menzel Perform Live On Broadway And You Didn't
- One Short
DayWeek In New York City - I HAVE OFFICIALLY SEEN WICKED ON BROADWAY I CAN DIE HAPPY
- Ain't No I in Island
- When Did Food Become A Privilege And Not A Right?
Amongst others.
The real topic here though is the last point.
I have been taking a social policy class and one of the most poignant things I have learned about was food inequality.
The big thing was the SNAP Challenge. The assignment was to live a week on food stamps, or $30 for one week. We got a day off, but we had to go six of seven days. We kept a journal and at the end we wrote a reflection.
At first it was okay. I made some casseroles, a had stuff for sandwiches. I felt pretty good. In fact, having misjudged the amount of broccoli in the package, the casseroles were probably the healthiest things I had eaten in a while. I was okay. For a while.
As the week went on, I started to feel worse and worse. My classes were really difficult. Taekwondo club was more trouble than fun. I was tired all the time from working ridiculous hours at my job. And on top of that I couldn't eat.
I couldn't take it by the end, and I gave in. It had gotten to the point where I was crying everyday because I was so overwhelmed. I was also writing an addiction paper at the time. I could totally understand if someone's life was like that all the time why they'd want something to take the edge off.
As we learned about this, I was also preparing for the BuckISERV trip. As a trip leader, I did training every week in addition to a Kick-Off event the week after the SNAP Challenge. And going on the trip peaked my interest even more.
Because everything I had ever heard about food stamps and food assistance was about how people were using their money to buy x, y, and z instead of food. Or that this person was caught doing this. Or that they just needed to get a job or a better job or an education or anything.
That's all utter bullshit.
Yes. There are some people who are fraudulent, but 99% of people are not. They are hungry. And hunger doesn't mean starvation. It means that they aren't able to get healthy food for cheap. It means they have to eat processed food because it is the only thing that they can afford. Think about how many cans of food or Ramen noodles you could get for $20. Now think about how many heads of lettuce or organic meats you could buy. Which is better food? But which one is cheaper?
But if you look up news about hunger, you only see the 1% of people who are cheating. Of course, then we have to treat the other 99% who are just trying to survive the same way, right? We have cut it even more, so that that 1% of people can't cheat? We have to let children go hungry, or people get health problems from eating bad food, or telling people that they are inferior because they don't have enough money to afford decent food.
It totally makes sense that we treat food like it's a privilege as opposed to a right.
And by totally makes sense, I mean it's time for a change. We cannot deny people the right to get healthy and fresh food because they don't make as much money as someone else.
I am still trying to figure out the next thing that I want to do about this because I'm still trying to figure out the big picture. This, as well as every other social justice issue, is interconnected to 10+ others. How we move forward is under debate because in order to fight the big problem we have to figure out how to fix the smaller ones.
In New York, we heard a speaker from YSOP who has been doing advocacy and activism throughout her whole life. She said in order to make a big change, we need to help foster a generation who cares. As she said "we need to teach the next generation to give a damn".
I think we can be that generation. We can be the ones to stand up and say "this isn't right" and "this needs to change". We can be the ones to give a damn.
