Community Hunger Day

I committed to Community Hunger Day this week.

The goal was to go without food for a day and, while doing so, reflect on the situation of our many friends and neighbors who often go hungry.

I wasn't too excited about going without food (I really like food and I don't like being hungry). I also was a little concerned because Community Hunger Day was on a Wednesday. My biggest workout of the week is on Wednesday nights. It's a class that I attend so I have no control on how long it lasts or how hard the workout is.

I've often thought that working out would be hard on an empty stomach...and I don't understand how we can expect poor people to have this holistic view of health when there are so many other factors that prevent them from being healthy.


So, as I thought about it, my mind said, "I could skip the Wednesday night class since I won't have eaten." That didn't seem fair. If my goal was to reflect on the difficulties of poverty, I needed to try to go about life as usual and see how it affects me.

At about 10:00 p.m. the night before Community Hunger Day, I realized I hadn't eaten dinner. Thinking that my fast would be much more challenging if I hadn't eaten since 1:00 the day before, I hurried to grab a banana and peanut butter before going to bed (which isn't real either, considering that many people don't get to choose to eat something before they decidedly go hungry).

The next morning I went ahead and had my two cups of coffee, but no other breakfast. By about 11:00, my stomach was growling and I kept almost getting up from the computer to go find something to eat. By about 3:00, I had settled into work and had kind of let the hunger go because of the many other things I had to do. At 6:30, I left for my martial arts class.

Once in class, I was fine for about the first 30 minutes. Martial arts takes a lot of concentration. As I worked on my forms, my mind wandered. I kept thinking about how hungry I was and hoping that class would be over early so I could go home, go to bed, and forget about being hungry until the morning when I could wake up and eat.

After about 45 minutes of working on forms, I was placed on the mat with a higher ranking belt to practice sparring. Of all nights, I was left on that mat to spar for about 45 minutes...an extremely long time that takes an enormous amount of energy. I was completely zapped by the time we were told to stop. I thought sure the class would be over by then, but it wasn't. We then began working on a drill that I thought I would get left out of because I had been sparring for so long. However, luck wasn't on my side that night. I continued to have to expend energy on drills that weren't normally that difficult, but without any food in my stomach had become very physically and mentally challenging. I kept hoping, praying, pleading in my mind that he would end the class, but no such luck. Of all nights, our class went on for 3 1/2 hours! Toward the end, I had finally gotten to the point where I felt dizzy and weak to the point I couldn't stand. I'm guessing my body could only afford to expend so many calories without taking some in. Three times, I had to sit off to the side to recover.

On the way home, I had to break my fast. I had absolutely no energy and was feeling pretty sick. I stopped at a gas station to pick up a protein bar. Sure enough, just that small snack made me feel much better.

The next morning I woke up and couldn't wait to eat something. I started thinking about how I could eat more because I had eaten nothing the day before. I had to straighten myself out a few times as I told myself that eating more today wasn't going to help anything. Eating regular portion sizes would be just fine.

It made me think about kids and families I know who seem to way overeat every time they get a plate of food. I had just watched a young boy come into one of our gatherings at CityWalk and refill his plate three times, heaping over each time. I wondered if he might have been like me...thinking he might as well take advantage of having food while it's there...even if it doesn't fix yesterday and won't keep you full until tomorrow.

It wasn't a fun day for me and has made me completely hesitant about signing up for the Food Stamp Challenge after watching the FoodStamped documentary. Going hungry for a day or living on a food stamp allocation for a week and professing that I now know what that's like seems like it could be a little insulting to someone who has to deal with hunger on a regular basis. Hunger is a on-going problem that needs to be solved systemically so that my annual hunger fasts aren't a slap in the face to my friends and neighbors who don't have the luxury of only fasting one day out of the year.

(You can check out a petition generated by the FoodStamped people here)

Teachers! Stop the cupcakes!!

Poverty often dictates that parents often have to purchase cheaper, more filling food to work within their budget and their limited hours in the day. There are some excellent programs that help parents plan their shopping lists so that they purchase more nutritious food for their children. Unfortunately, for parents who are taking the bus to jobs or are working more than one job, they don't often have the time to take the time to prepare food in the way that this new shopping list dictates.

I have been known to be critical of parents who feed their children junk food or provide the kids with money to buy chips and a soda from the corner store. Unfortunately, it's sometimes the parents who are at home, but have other concerns, that are the least educated...and possibly the least concerned...about what develops their children's brains long-term.

At our After-School Academy, though, we are not just struggling with educating the parents, we fight the influence of the schools and other community organizations. Schools, these days, justify nachos as providing a milk product and a grain...as well as other absurd justifications of the four food groups. But beyond that, teachers dismiss kids with cookies, cupcakes, chips, and other high fat, high sugar junk food.

The latest issue of Edutopia quotes Jan Pruitt, from the North Texas Food Bank that provides much of our food at Central Dallas. Pruitt says teachers are often surprised to learn that a "problem" student is really just hungry: "They will say, 'Oh, my gosh. I never thought of him being hungry.'"

I'm guessing the teachers in our area recognize that kids are hungry. However, maybe we need to start educating people that just because a child's "hunger" has subsided, doesn't necessarily mean he/she will be equipped to learn. In fact, that much sugar creates an adverse affect. When the children come home eating their cookies and cupcakes, they are not in the right mindset to sit down and do homework...and then attend enrichment classes. Their after-school sugar high creates hyper-activity, irritability, and other behaviors.

I'm a very big sweet tooth. However, I've learned that eating sweets leads to wanting more sweets. I've always been a pretty healthy eater, thanks to my mom. But until I got into my late 20's, I was perfectly satisfied having a brownie sundae fill me up...or cookie dough...or any homemade dessert. I justified the 5 cookies I might eat because they filled me up and I figured they were about the same amount of calories as a larger meal. What I didn't realize was that my body and brain functioned much better on a bigger, healthier meal. When I finally started leaving out the sweets, the craving wasn't so strong.

I'm convinced that our charitable acts of giving poor kids cookies and junk is the reason when they do get a free meal, they throw out the sandwich and soup and eat the cookie and chips. Let's educate those providing lunches and snacks for our children. They need fruit and vegetables. As my mom did us, they need to be encouraged to taste two bites of everything so that they can develop new taste buds.

We have got to do better by our children.

Food insecurity...what about the children

Yesterday, in the After-School Academy, Sam* (not his real name) pulled me aside after the program and asked for the left-over snacks. Because I'm such a rule-follower and the state says we can only serve snacks for a certain time period...and we can only serve one snack per child, I told him we couldn't give him the extra snacks. As he puffed his lip out and stomped off saying, "But I'm still hungry," I wondered if there was something more to the story.

Every day Sam attends the school's after school program, then comes to us. By the time he gets to us, he misses the snack...but he always asks for it. I began to think there was something more to Sam's request.

I called him to the side and quietly asked him if they had enough food in the house. "When my mama gets her check, we do," he explained. He wasn't sure when the next check was coming. With at least three other kids in the house, I knew one extra snack wasn't going to help. As I talked to Sam, I asked him if his mother would be mad that he told me. He shook his head no. I asked if I could talk to his mom. He said yes. Sam and his two brothers and sister ran home with the rest of the kids.

After all of the kids left, I went to Sam's house with thoughts of getting into our food pantry after hours and getting them some food...or letting his mom know so that she could go herself.

Sam came to the door, munching on a sandwich. He barely cracked the door open. He quickly explained, "My mom's not here." He no longer had the cute smile he couldn't help flashing at the After-School Academy. I asked when she would be back. He said he didn't know, then closed the door. I asked him to open the door again. I asked if he had what he needed. "I have a sandwich. I'm fine."

I felt (and still feel) horrible. I should have just given him the snack he asked for.

I don't know what happened in the 30 minutes between the time that I talked to Sam at the After-School Academy and after he got home, but I believe in my intent to help I messed up. I know from experience that a white lady walking up to an unknown door causes people to question, "What did you do?!"...or it could be CPS...but it's not usually anything good. I'm guessing that's what Sam figured out on his way home and chose not to risk his mom's embarrassment or anger that he had told someone he was hungry.

It makes me think about kids who never told me about their struggles and their hunger until they were adults. ...good kids who found ways of survival--sometimes community programs, sometimes stealing, but always too embarrassed to admit their family's inadequacies.

I went back to the After-School Academy to explain the situation to our other staff members in hopes of figuring out what we could do.

We talked about sticking extra snacks or food into his backpack...but then decided that could get the him in trouble...and could potentially cause every other kid to begin asking for food to take home. We wanted to figure out a way that wouldn't single his family out...and could also potentially help other families in similar situations as well.

We finally thought about CDM's Hunger Busters program, offered at the community recreation center on Mondays and Thursdays...and I became very thankful that Central Dallas has such a variety of programs and partnerships to which we can connect--programs that allow us a little more freedom to make exceptions when needed.

Starting Monday, we will begin working to figure out how to incorporate Hunger Busters into our regular programming at the After-School Academy so that no one is singled out. We will hopefully figure out a way to get Sam and his siblings what they need.

For the rest of the weekend, though, Sam will remain on my mind.

Think people in poverty are scamming the system? Think again!

Who's really scamming the system?

Each summer we operate a summer program called Urban Experience. The program is designed to educate people outside of the inner cities about issues that impact our friends and neighbors in the inner city.

This year we are working with the USDA to provide a session called Buck and a Half lunch, the amount per person, per meal that families receive through food stamps. The USDA's goal is to teach people how to make healthy meals with only $1.50 per person.

Our goal at the Urban Experience is to educate people on the time, effort, and obstacles associated with attempting to provide that healthy, buck and a half lunch.

Although I am very aware of the research and commentary that talks about the injustices and inequities in the inner city, it always strikes me harder when I actually see it laid out on paper. I had asked two of the people helping with the Urban Experience to price the menu ingredients at the local Walmart and the community corner store. Despite my awareness, I was still shocked by what I saw.

Before I show you the numbers, keep in mind that...

1. The prices only compare foods that are similar in brand; we did not try to make this look worse than it is by comparing name brand to off-brand.
2. The community corner stores lack the majority of foods needed in order to create this healthy lunch; therefore, without adequate transportation, these healthy meals would not even be an option.
3. The community corner stores offer primarily chips, soda, and snack foods. These high in sugar and fat foods offer the ability for a filling food, though not healthy.
4. When comparing prices, corner stores often offered small sizes (like 8 oz) while grocery stores offered larger sizes (like 16 oz). When comparing prices, we had to purchase two 8 oz sizes in order to equal the 16 oz we needed for the recipe.
5. The corner stores did not offer a cheaper, store brand. All items were name brand.

In the price list below, the first price is Walmart, the second is the community corner store, and the third number is the difference between the two.

Chili powder $3.18 $2.36 +.82

Flour tortillas $1.50 $1.79 +.29

Black pepper $2.50 $1.99 +.50

Green beans $.50 $1.19 +.69

Vegetable oil $3.88 $3.99 +.11

Vinegar $.62 $.99 +.37

Pineapple $1.12 $1.69 +.57

Ramen noodles $.14 $.50 +.36

Salsa $2.50 $2.99 +.49

Miracle Whip $2.12 $2.99 +.87

Paper plates $1.28 $1.59 +.31

napkins $1.64 $1.39 +$1.14

The total amount spent for one meal at the corner store versus the grocery store is $5.93 more. Of course, most of these are condiments and sides. Most corner stores don't stock up on healthy foods for neighbors to purchase.

When you take into account that if someone has no transportation or bus fare and would need to purchase their items from the corner store, $5-$6 extra per day to make a meal ends up being about $150-$180 per month.

Is it really the poor who are taking advantage of the system??