Turkeys to the People

I'm a white meat eater. You?

As you read, note that a lot of people in our world are eating none of the items pictured here on this Thanksgiving Day, November 22, 2012. And note that the foods are in order leading off with my favorite and working my way down (through the heaped plate).

The car pulled up to the yellow line, engine rattling, blue exhaust puffing out of the tailpipe. The trunk is open, grubby but empty. In the driver's seat is an unshaven man with a cigarette in the hand that holds the steering wheel, belly peaking out of his 'Dew t-shirt. An old woman, at least 80, sits in the passenger seat. From her eyes you can tell that she cannot see. She is slouched in every regard--sagging shoulders, vacant face, uncombed gray hair, misbuttoned shirt--except for the hand that tensely holds her cigarette. Life for them has been tougher than I can imagine. Behind them, a line of cars stretches beyond my field of vision, snaking around many block of our tiny village.

Don't give me that jello-type stuff--I want
some crunch and snap in my cranberry
relish. And, Craig Graybill makes the
best relish--please UPS me some.

They (mother and son? neighbors?) are actually in a pretty good mood. They are in line for the drive-through food distribution at the local food pantry. They are about to get food, including their very own turkey. And they are in a good mood because the food pantry has a policy of treating each client as a valued customer, a welcome visitor, someone special. This is a special place on a special day; the food pantry on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Their yawning trunk will runneth over.


I worked the Thanksgiving distribution this year. I was passing out flyers for a jobs and education program for young adults in the community. I was going to stay for an hour...but it stretched into two and then two and a half hours. It became my privilege to greet and talk with the people in every car. As the director of an agency that invests in this food pantry (United Way of Vinton County), I was especially interested in meeting the recipients of the food. Who were these people? Were they gaming the system? Did they look needy enough?

I like the classic chunks of sweet potato with
brown sugar--marshmallows optional.

I opened this blog post with a description of the people you expect to see in a food pantry line...people who are ugly, disabled, smoking, in need of a handout. But I hope you see the pain that was in that car, too, and in every car that came through that day--about 400 cars in all in our impoverished community. Don't ever say to me that it's well-off moochers coming to the food pantry until you have spoken to the people in every car through the line.

I was especially interested in the food recipients because in the past year I heard comments from many people about the food "handouts" and about people who have "too nice of cars" to need food assistance; and fielded questions about how the recipients are screened to weed out "people who are just looking for a handout"; and heard one too many "why don't they get a job" statements.

Yum. Judy Graybill--are you eating them right now?

First, let me back up. Under hero-director David Graham and his hero-volunteers, our largest local pantry (Methodist CARE Outreach) has, yes, gone to a drive-thru system. The young people I work with at my day job (and the program for which I was handing out flyers) actually helped convert a large aluminum carport into a drive through lane (they helped install a giant ventilation fan). No one has to park, get out of his car, take a cart around to gather food items, then return to her car to unpack it all into the trunk or back end of a vehicle.The drive through line has speeded up the distribution of food, but it also means that "regular" citizens (of course getting no public assistance--medicare anyone? home mortgage tax deductions anyone? Pell grants anyone?) driving along the streets can see exactly what each car in the food distribution line looks like.

I always think of my Grandma Bessie
Dickerson when I eat yeast rolls. Thanks,
Robin, for carrying on the tradition.

Second, let me back up. Probably some people are scamming the system for food. So what? So we don't feed hungry people? I would rather feed 20 undeserving people than for even one needy person to miss getting food. It's food. It's not gold. I can't judge someone who is cadging food. I know from my upbringing that free food is very hard to resist. Even when I am not needy and not hungry, I feel like I should grab some and stash it somewhere. My brain overrides this impulse most of the time, but it comes out in weird ways, such as the monstrous-huge collection of free pens I have from trade shows and such. When I die, they'll find 3,000 pens stashed in coffee mugs all over my house. Just saying, I am not in a position to critique anyone's behavior.

Plus, it's not gourmet. Canned vegetables. The apples a bit too ugly for Giant Eagle's beauty contest. Off-brand cereal that was left on the shelves for good reason. Sometimes something odd, like a 12-pack of spearmint gum or a 20-ounce bottle of artificially flavored maple syrup. That's the high reward of stealing from the food system. Better to stake out cars at Krogers!

Wait--I want more Cool Whip!

"Well, if they can afford a Suburban, what are they doing getting a handout for food?"

Here's an answer. A lot of the people who qualify for the food distribution borrow a car. Or, a kind neighbor or family member drives them. Or, they share a car with other recipients. Or, a case worker, home health aid, or caregiver brings them. Regardless, each recipient has to show his or her card, which is verified by a volunteer. A colored strip is placed under the windshield wiper of each car to indicate how many allotments that car gets (a family of five gets more food than a person living alone, for example). Then the car proceeds through the drive-through's tunnel of food, where volunteers put the right amount of each item into the car. It's cool to watch--and, as I mentioned above, especially cool to see the respect and good cheer handed out with the food (I'm sure that adds to the food's nutritional value). If an allotment is two cans of corn, then a family with 5 allotments will get 10 cans of corn. That's how it works. By the time the car reaches the street, it is full and can motor off home.

Moist, sticky, bready, with oysters, from a box or
hand made--love my stuffing.

In addition, the cars may look good from the outside, but they are not running that well. The smell of gasoline and exhaust fumes indicated inefficiency. The windows don't go up and down anymore. The door is wired shut. Many cars had distinctive pings, rattles, rumbles, and ka-chunks. These were not great cars. I know. I was checking on that for you. The better cars were mostly those of volunteers taking people through the line.

Listen. The faces of people who need food have a type of strain to them that I learned to recognize when my day job started providing breakfast and lunch to participants. Hunger takes the humanity out of a human. You can't sing and be hungry. You can't learn and be hungry. It's hard to be courteous and be hungry. The general cheer of the recipients in the CARE food line is a tribute to each and every volunteer who helps to bring them food. They honor and dignify the suffering of each person as the food goes into the car.

Salad? You served salad? What were you
thinking????

SIDEBAR: VOLUNTEER!

For most middle class and above people, the distribution of food to the poor happens outside our awareness. We don't see these people and sometimes we see them but invisibilize them. But, they are the least among us, as in "the least of these my brothers." Take a vacation day and volunteer at a food distribution in your community. You'll find out how it works, who gets food, who "those people" are. And I'm sure you'll be awed by the dedication of the people who serve regularly at the pantry. "Feed the hungry." It's a pretty clear message.

SIDEBAR: PLEASE COMMENT

Do you know of any other food banks who do a drive-through? I'm only familiar with the ones here in the county. Please add a comment to this posting if you know of other innovative strategies for making the food distribution respectful and expeditious.

Easing the Pain of Poverty, Part 4

Reminder: This is the fourth in a series of blog posts about easing--not ending--poverty. What can we do to make life easier for poor people? I've let my mind roam on this topic, discussing it with others, sharpening my observation of life around me. So, here we go again.

Also, remember that I'm not at all concerned with implementation of these ideas, nor do I claim them as original. I'm just answering the question, "How can we make life easier for the poor?"

Free GED. It costs as much as $50 for people who earn the absolute lowest among income groups--people without a high school credential--to take a test. Them that have no pay must pay to play.

Why? Why do we place a barrier in front of people who have already been ill-served by middle-class oriented school systems, by the rootlessness of poverty (they move a lot), by the heinous mistake of getting pregnant, by lack of family or community support, or simply by one or two bad decisions made when they were young and, as the young so often are, stupid. Fifty dollars is a lot for a poor person to scrape together and feels more like a punishment than a fee.

Please note that I am dealing specifically with Ohio GED rules and practices. What's the policy in your state? Why don't you know?

The GED, or general equivalency diploma, serves as an alternative to high school (although people in high school are not generally permitted to take it). It signifies that you have learned a core knowledge somewhat equal to a high school diploma. The five parts of the Ohio GED are reading, writing, mathematics, social studies, and science. The Ohio test is being revised.


I propose that the GED be free. No ifs, ands, or buts. And that an online course of study be developed and offered free also. Society will be paid back a hundredfold by this investment in often highly-motivated people. Let's (right this instant) remove any and all barriers between needing a GED and getting a GED.

A note to schools: please do not denigrate the GED to your students--it makes them feel trapped and as though they will be branded a LOSER for the rest of their lives. The GED is well-received in college admissions offices and by employers and is harder to pass than high school standardized tests (and no accommodations are permitted).

The Free Fleet I propose a fleet of hybrid or electric Priuses, Civics, and/or Focuses.be made available to poor people. Gas pricies have hit poor communities hard. In some cases, gas costs more than a person actually earns. Local jobs are scarce, so to be employed you must drive (and drive...and drive). It's a tough expense for people with good jobs, but nearly impossible for the poor who are clustered in low-paying jobs. Financially, it's a toss-up--if you work, you have no money and if you don't work, you have no money. In many cases, it doesn't make sense to work.

I don't believe that being poor and being lazy go together. To outsiders, though, I'm sure it looks that way. I regret that. When I see people lined up to get into federal jobs programs, people calling me to see if I've heard of anybody hiring, adults in their mid-twenties calling to see if they can get back into a jobs program for youth--when I see these, I know that the people in my community are not lazy (not lazy disproportionate to any other group of people). However, even the programs I know often require driving--having a car, having a functional car, having a driver's license, having gas money. I'm not even suggesting auto insurance here.

A fleet of small cars with high gas mileage would allow people to get to where the jobs are and to begin to drive out of the deep hole they're in. I know that lots of programs are working on this and lots of ideas are being floated. How about this: If you get a job, we'll get you a car, a decent car with a good repairs record. You can keep it as long as you keep working. That's it.

Environmentally, it would be cool to try out a fleet of electric or hybrid cars in a defined opportunity zone, such as McArthur, Ohio, to Chillicothe, Ohio, or McArthur to Jackson, Ohio. Plug-in stations would be easy enough to install. And with our focus on tourism and natural beauty, efficient cars would make sense. Car pooling would also be great, but I don't see why we should expect the poor to be more virtuous than the rest of us individual car owners who travel 90% of the time without passengers. It's the American way.

Is this pie in the sky thinking? Yes. Would this be difficult? Only if we make it difficult. Why should we care? All I can say is that I care. Poor people are not abstractions to me--they are my neighbors, friends. They love, they mourn. They are trapped. I care. I don't believe we can write anyone off as useless. I am so fortunate. I have been directed in my life to the golden crossroad where good luck and good preparation intersect. I'm lucky, and I was well-educated by luck. It wasn't my superior efforts toward achievement that kept me out of poverty. The Christian tradition (and most other religious traditions) says to tend to the sick, the poor, the grieving, the prisoners, to demonstrate a loving kindness. My job right now seems to be writing about poverty.

I had to call people the other day to tell them they did not have jobs. The flatness in their voices, the long pause before they acknowledged the news...those were people I cared about, many I knew. I'd like to give them each a Prius. A shiny red one. With a full tank of gas.

Poverty: Easing the Pain, Part 3

This is the third entry in my series about how to ease the stresses of poverty on the poor. From my experiences in two different poverty simulations, it is clear to me that the conditions of being poor in the United States often ensure that poor people will remain poor and that poverty will be an untenable way to live. I'm not trying to end poverty. Please read my previous posts about poverty to get more background on this series. Now, back to my list of suggestions.

Second Poverty Simulation At a recent conference, I went through a second poverty simulation. In structure it was identical to the first one I did. In my own role, though, this was a totally new experience. In my first simulation, I was a "provider." I dealt with the poor, but I wasn't one of them; I was the mortgage banker. This time I was poor--a breadwinner mom with three kids (one of them pregnant) and a laid-off husband. I thought I knew what it would be like. NOT!

Well before the whistle started the simulation, my family and I were deeply into how to get things done. Our pace of speech quickened. We passed materials around and dropped them and picked them up backwards. From my first experience, I knew that many families in the simulation would not get their families fed, so I made it my personal priority to get food every week (15 minutes) of the simulation. For the first seven minutes of the week, I had to go to work, then I needed to cash my paycheck, get gas (transportation vouchers) for the next week, and go buy food.

My youngest child--the one who was
removed for neglect--was a stuffed bear.

My family started off with only enough transport vouchers to get me to work and one other place--I had to go to the only place you could get vouchers: the quicky loan place--and I had to cash my check there, with the userer taking up to $30 per hundred of my pay. Still, I could get vouchers and that would get me over to the grocery store to get food. By the end of this sequence, there was no time left in the week. I left most of the other needs of the family to the others after pretty much throwing the spare vouchers at them.

My family did OK. Dad and the sixteen-year-old were both able to do things during the day. We got food every week (OK, partial in week 4) and paid the mortgage and car payment. One of our children was removed from the home for neglect (she got left behind) and we were almost callous about it. Dad went over to see about getting her back; there was no one supervising her so he just brought her back home. I also found that I did a horrible job at work (we had to fill out surveys). My mind was not on the work--it was on what the rest of my family was doing, whether there would be a long line at the quicky loan place, which place was closer to the quicky loan place--the mortgage place or the JFS, would my husband get us some food stamps this week... My handwriting on the surveys sprawled all over the place and I wrote down random responses. Not the model employee, but my family did eat.

Get the churches together I wish that the preachers in my county--anyone who considers him or herself one--would get together and talk about what they see in their congregations. Some will report hunger, others wealth. Some will report despair, others hope. Together, they could direct resources for the assistance of the poor.

In my rural community we have lots of churches, mostly small and self-started organizations, meaning that a man (usually) who feels the call starts his own congregation or spins one off from another church or takes over an existing church. These churches come and go, strengthen and weaken, and are not affiliated with any major protestant religion. In the villages (no place in the county counts are a city), we have actual denominations--Methodists, Baptists, Freewill Baptists, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Catholics, Community of Christ. However, the denominations struggle with attendance levels and are also dependent on the personality and/or leadership skills of a particular preacher.

The local preachers I know are decent people--even the ones who would consider me the Anti-Christ if they knew the membership cards I keep in my purse. I know of one small group of these ministers meets regularly--primarily pastors from mainstream denominations--and can assess community needs. In larger rural towns, ministerial associations can be a major voice that calls attention to needed changes and reforms for the poor.


Poor on the board Organizations who help or make money off the poor should be urged or mandated to include some poor people on their boards. The boards I have been on (and the one that is my boss) are made up of middle class to upper middle class professional people with college degrees. We talk about the poor as though they were an abstraction--and to many of us the poor are an abstraction. We make programming decisions and funding decisions that affect them without consulting them. Board members are generally people of good conscience who reflect the goals of the organizations they direct. But they may lack in their knowledge of other sectors of our society--well-off people would certainly not want boards made up of only poor people to make rules and decisions for them!


The Twelve Socioeconomic Levels - United States

Thinking in terms of lower, middle, and upper class Americans is an oversimplification. I like the dirty dozen given in this list. I pasted this from someone's Facebook post--if you can verify the source, I will gladly give the author full credit. I used to be an 8, but have sunk to a 4 through medical expenses and illness. I have hope of hopping back to 8 someday with the support of my education and family support, just like most 4s.

1. Generational Poverty - The harsh conditions of this type of poverty may keep these families from breaking the barriers for generations.

2. Working Poor - These families live paycheck to paycheck, often in fear of being laid off.

3. Working Class - Generally these workers have more stable employment than the working poor. They may use their hands and bodies as a primary tool to do their work.

4. Situational Poverty - A crisis (e.g., health, divorce, etc.) results in an income drop causing these situations. They generally make it back to middle class due to assets such as education, family support, etc.

5. Risen from Poverty Middle Class - They have gained some resources. They often become the “safety net” for others (their immediate family, friends, etc.).

6. Illusory Middle Class - These Americans have houses, cars, TVs, etc., but they also have staggering debt associated with each possession.

7. Lower Aspiring Middle Class - Adults imitate neighbors with consumer purchases. Going to college is emphasized with children although they may not have gone to college themselves.

8. Solidly Middle Class - They own their home and have investments or business. Assume children will be college graduate/professionals.

9. Upper Middle Class - They have a higher income due to professional jobs and/or investment incomes.

10. Millionaire Middle Class - They have a net worth of over a million dollars, but have not mentally accepted their wealth.

11. Owning Rich - They own income-producing assets sufficient to make paid employment unnecessary.

12. Ruling Rich - They hold positions of power in major institutions of society and may live secluded lives or are protected from the general public.

Poverty: Easing the Pain, Part 2

NOTE: This entry continues two previous posts--"Poverty Sim: Walk in My Shoes" and "Poverty: Easing the Pain, Part 1."

REMINDER: The ideas included in this blog post are not terribly new—most have been at least attempted. And, keep in mind that my goal in sharing these ideas is NOT to end poverty, but simply to remove some of the stresses that are added to poor people’s lives because they are poor. Most of these ideas are met with skepticism, others with outright hostility. Alas. I can’t let a negative reception keep me from putting all of these ideas together in writing in a publicly available forum.

ODJFS: Burn-out prevention Thanks to cutbacks in almost every program for poor people, county Job & Family Services departments across the state are under great stress. They have laid off workers to cut their budgets at the same time that the number of people requiring services has soared. This puts the remaining workers—the ones charged with helping the poor—under great stress.

          I call upon my own memory of the poverty simulation I participated in recently. I was the mortgage banker in this valuable role-play experience, collecting rent and mortgage payments from poor people. The rapidity with which I developed an intolerance and even a scorn for the people I served was shocking to me. It was stressful to see that I was powerless to help and was often the agent of pain for my customers. I don’t know if this bears on the stress carried by JFS caseworkers, but I have seen some workers treat some clients with the same rudeness and eye-rolling that came over me in the simulation.

          These workers need help. They need a plan for burn-out prevention. I don’t know what the plan would be—massages at work? Weekly debriefing sessions? Free coffee and bagels every morning? New desk chairs? (OK, the desk chair thing is personal—I know a new desk chair would be valuable to me personally.) I think regular infusions of food from our local wunder-chef, Chef Mary from Flutes & Peppercorns, would be a welcome stress reliever. Anyway, something needs to be done for these dedicated professionals to help them feel like something other than a paper-pusher or payment policer.

Expand OBB (Ohio Benefit Bank) The Ohio Benefit Bank (OBB) is a wonderful computer program that determines likely eligibility for various programs, from food stamps to FAFSA, from TANF to tax filing. (TANF is “temporary assistance for needy families,” pronounced TAN-iff.)  Individuals may process themselves through the OBB program, but usually a trained volunteer guides the data collection and entry. OBB is a one-stop application process; applications are generated and sent directly to appropriate agencies, whether it is for your Golden Buckeye Card or for WIC for your baby.

          OBB can be used anywhere there is a computer and internet service (like our shiny new McDonalds in McArthur). Or, it can be used at your bedside at a retirement home. Or, you can use it by yourself on a computer at the library. The casualness of the settings removes barriers for many people, especially people who are dropping painfully out of the middle class and cannot face going “up on the hill” (as we say about Vinton County’s JFS) to apply for assistance.

          Some Job & Family Services offices see OBB as a competitor—something that is eroding their authority. OBB counters that the program only allows people to apply for benefits more easily—JFS still has total control over determination and administration of benefits. I hope that these two entities can find a way to co-exist or even cooperate in bringing services to poor people.

Appalachia last in line: 2-1-1 The twenty or so counties who still do not have 2-1-1 information line service are all in counties designated as poor and Appalachian. The Appalachian counties that do have 2-1-1 are often serviced through neighboring non-Appalachian counties—and that’s fine.

          But a county like Vinton is surrounded by other struggling counties. Who is going to step up? Where is the funding going to come from? The United Way is the implementer of 2-1-1 in many counties, but my United Way only has one part-part-time employee—me.

          I think It’s funny that between United Way and my other employer, I am sort of a mini-2-1-1, a referral service to a range of callers. And my efforts pale compared to the real 2-1-1 woman in Vinton County—Brandi Betts of the Chamber of Commerce. Thank you, Brandi, for your patience with so many random requests for information.

          2-1-1 would assist every resident to navigate among care providers, find the food pantries, find Sojourners for runaway and homeless youth services or for Youthbuild or work programs. 2-1-1 would focus only on helping and not be torn by numerous other responsibilities. When are the poor people of Appalachian Ohio going to get it?

Subsidize family activities: The free ride I remember from my own impoverished childhood what it felt like to  be left out, what it meant to never go to the amusement park everyone else was excited about, to never ride the rides at the county fair. That’s just one reason I am proposing that we find ways to subsidize rides at local events such as McArthur’s Wild Turkey Festival (no, not THAT kind of Wild Turkey) and the Vinton County Junior Fair.

          When I mention this idea, many people respond with outright hostility. They refuse to consider it. As I often observe, there is a feeling that the poor must be punished for being poor.

          But I insist. Let’s find funding for all children to ride free. It shouldn’t be necessary for families to sacrifice food or rent money to make sure their kids can ride the rides.

         In Vinton County, where 90% of schoolchildren qualify for free lunch (highest percentage in Ohio), the school district recently decided to just give free lunch to every child. Everyone gets to eat. No more stigma of being identified as one of the free lunch kids. This generous act may have been the result of financial realities, but it is the free lunch for all attitude of the schools that made me think about free rides at local events. Now, where do we apply for the free tilt-a-whirl grants?

My parents used a pencil and
ruler to make their own
spreadsheet.

Sidebar: The Frugal Poor--My Parents

          My family was poor--poorer than my sisters and I really understood. As with all children, our own family was the norm--we couldn't believe what went on in other families! Others were "less" normal than us.

         What set my family apart from other poor families is that my parents had a plan. From their church, they learned about budgeting and tithing and record-keeping. (To figure your tithing, you had to keep track of your income and expenses--sort of like God was your shareholder.) We always asked whether something was a necessity--and the opposite of "necessity" was "no." There was always a big sheet of paper magnetized to the fridge, on which my mom or dad would record anything we spent individually or as a family. This was a good thing and kept us off public assistance and kept us housed, clothed, and fed. We even had some savings. 

         However--yep, there's a "however"--the budget of my parents didn't allow for much extravagance in the fun-having department. Our gifts from Santa were a bit on the practical side (while our poorer neighbor kids received a lavish haul every year--we were jealous). And only once do I remember going on a non-church-camp vacation. (We hardly knew what to do with ourselves.) And we seldom rode the rides or saw the latest Disney movie.

We always got "books" of Lifesavers for
Christmas--and socks and underwear, of course.

         I felt that I was privy to some deep knowledge in terms of how my parents handled money. I knew my parents were doing the right thing. But I hated it. I had wants that just wouldn't go away--my wants had way more to do with not seeming peculiar than about a deep urge to ride a Ferris wheel or eat an elephant ear or see a movie. I became my own outcast, went about in my own world, became mentally inventive, grew into a writer. But I have never lost the outsider mentality fostered by my parents' budgeting zeal (and other family peculiarities, of course). I'm pretty frugal, too, and it has kept me marginally afloat during the past several lean years. But it's still not fun. Free rides would be great.

Poverty: Easing the Pain, Part 1

NOTE: Please read my previous blog post, "Poverty Sim: Walk in My Shoes," before you read this one. It will put into perspective my motivation for continuing to brainstorm about poverty.

Admirable hours--most banks close at 5:00 most
days and are closed on Sunday, making it hard for
working people to get their banking done.

Poverty: Yuck. Poor people: Can't be punished enough for being poor. Or that is how it often looks to me. It seems like every piece of assistance comes with a value judgment attached, or with a sneer, or with a shower of condescension. Those people are poor because that's what they want. They don't want to work. All they want is a handout, all they do is suck the surplus out of the economy.

I hear these attitudes all the time, from my middle class friends, from political candidates, from the very people who serve the poor. Harsh words for the despised, the discarded.

Yes, I know I'm a bleeding heart liberal, but I do not want to end poverty. What I would like to do is restore respect for a group of people who work very hard, even when it doesn't earn money; who care deeply about their children and their children's futures; who jump over a hundred hurdles a day and never get to the finish line. I would like to find ways

(1) not to end poverty, but to ease some of its worst stresses;
(2) to remove some of the chains that bind people to poverty;
(3) to establish dignity for every person regardless of whether they get food assistance or subsidized childcare, or work in a jobs program instead of "real" job.

Many BHPH car dealers overcharge for the car,
loan at obscene rates of interest, repossess
fast, and sell the same car again.
(Rinse and repeat.)

Heather Pennington from the Ohio Association of Food Banks said she wanted to know more about the people in my county (Vinton, perennially one of the poorest in Ohio) and what might help them, in food terms and in general. Accordingly, I have been brainstorming with myself (always fun to call on my many selves), with co-workers, with the internet. Every time I came up with something, I wrote it on a little piece of paper and stuck it into an envelope. Last week I had a wonderful time hashing all the ideas out with Heather and her associate Dawn on the front porch of my ramshackle bungalow on the edge of McArthur. I think they were wondering exactly how many little pieces of paper were in that envelope.

Heather asked me to type up the list for her and I thought: "Bing! If I'm going to type, I might as well type right into a blog entry, then cut and paste them to her." Never waste a keystroke. So, here it is--my list of ways to make the lives of poor people in my region less stressful and more productive.

DISCLAIMER: My purpose in this blog today is not to discuss feasibility or all the problems people have had who tried to implement any of these ideas in the past. And, these ideas are not new. People know these ideas. But implementation has been sporadic and best and non-existent at worst. Keep in mind--I am not trying to end poverty, just to ease the stress and strain of it.

Enough caveat emptor. Here we go.

Barefoot and pregnant: Cheap and easy birth control.

Early pregnancies make possible
the classic 5-generation family photo
and allow for the rise of a matriarch
whose power crosses many
generations.

I know that condoms are cheap and easy, but men don't like them and often won't use them. That's why this strategy is directed toward women preventing their own accidental pregnancies through the patch, the pill, the shot, the shield. These do not prevent sexually transmitted diseases, but that's not the issue that drains the energy out of our women. The shot and the shield would help in the prevalent but under-reported instances when the man throws the birth control pills or the diaphragm in the wood stove and insists on having sex anyway; or when sex is only marginally consensual; or when the husband will not let his wife have the car to go to a doctor's appointment. My local domestic violence shelter can tell you some horror stories about how "accidental" pregnancies are often associated with family abuse. They exposed my own condescension on this issue.


Have I put your nose out of joint yet? Read on....

This is a quaint vision of the parent-teacher
conference...but I mainly selected this picture
because Bob Cousy is featured in this issue.

School conferences on Saturday and Sunday. Yes, each child's whole family may come along, and yes, teachers definitely need to be compensated in some way for doing this. But I am advocating weekend parent-teacher conferences--let's have a party. Get some pizzas cooking; get some Ski delivered from the local distributor; plan some entertainment for whoever is waiting around in the cafetorium. I do not buy the stereotype that poor parents don't care about their kids' education. They have many barriers to weekday conferences--no paid time off from work, being fired for absence from work, distance from work places, multiple users for one vehicle, no child care for the other children in the family or elder care for Grandma, no appropriate clothing for the institutional setting...are you getting the picture? I believe that, given the opportunity, poor people will demonstrate how much hope and concern for they have for the education and future chances of their children.

Stay with me now....

In Appalachia, the road to recovery is rocky and
full of detours and hairpin curves.

Community-based treatment and treatment beds. Every parole officer, social worker, and law enforcement officer, or anyone else whose life intersects with addicted people is familiar with this issue, and efforts have been made in my community to attempt to make help available locally. Too often, though, a person who desperately needs drug or alcohol addiction treatment has to wait weeks or sometimes months for a bed to open up--and the bed may be 50 to 150 miles away. These sufferers are often lost to the system by the time treatment is available.

We all know that the War on Drugs has neglected to supply funding for treatment. But in rural communities, this is especially serious. The number of counselors, therapists, psychiatrists, and mental health services in general is minuscule and services are far apart. I can't get blood work, a mammogram, and a bone density test without driving to three different towns more than 100 miles apart. Put me on drugs, give me a broken-down car and gas at $4.00 a gallon and I am not going to get to treatment.

The best painkillers are simple phrases of love and
appreciation.

The rural poor also suffer disproportionately from painkiller addiction. And it's not only the dealers who are getting rich. Drug-makers are dumping huge numbers of pain-killers into the system, and doctors are prescribing them. If you read my "Poverty Sim" blog entry, you'll remember the upstanding gentleman who ended up committing robbery to keep his family together--it wouldn't be a hard decision to sell just a couple of your pills to a neighbor. Twenty bucks could get your kid a nice outfit to start school in.

Are you getting me now? Still with me?

I apologize for dragging you through all this, but please don't tune out. I've got a lot more to share, but this blog entry is getting too long for a single-setting read (which violates my "rules of blog"). I'll try to post Part 2 on Monday.

Poverty Sim: Walk in My Shoes

Why am I interested in the poor?

First, I've been pretty poor at times, getting closer to the fire than I ever dreamed. Imagine Star Trek's Enterprise skimming the outer edge of a planet's atmosphere, feeling the heat, but pulling out just before being burned to a cinder. That's me and poverty. I've never really  had to land on that planet, live its culture, get wet from its rains, experience the upheavals of its plate tectonics. I've just skimmed. My parents were poor and I was raised poor, but Mom and Dad managed (through hard work and amazing self-sacrifice) to keep the nose of the ship just above the re-entry burn.

Second, I live in an impoverished rural area and work with low-income families. I am curious about the values and practices that are common to my home. And, from study (thank you, Ruby Payne) and observation, I see that most of the "help" that is applied to my region is misguided and sometimes damaging. There's nothing like help that feels like a smack in the face or that makes no allowance for local conditions, desires. My favorite image for the help applied to Appalachian communities is butter spread on cold toast. It just don't soak in. Interventions must be guided from within, not smeared on from without. Low-income people will tell us what they need. Will we listen?

Third, I am aware of my own good fortune and assets. My mind is good. I went to college. I have people who care about me. I have enough--I can move to the next level, enhancement. At the same time, I am aware that I am about two months away from full-blown poverty if I lose my job, need expensive medicines, or add a child to my household.

Fourth, humans have always been explorers, and I hope to be part of that long tradition. As a writer of fiction and non-fiction, I see that each person is his or her own planet, developed in response to very specific conditions; and yet we are all part of a phenomenal spider web of connection and commonality. (Thanks, Darwin.) If you would cross a concert harp with a spider web, you'd get a sense of the concerto of interdependence I'm talking about.

So, exploring other person-worlds and community-worlds and walking in the moccasins, pumps, trainers, wing-tips, steel-toes, flip-flops, fluffy pink house shoes, and plain old bare feet of this world is my favorite hobby. And, might as well start at home, right here in poverty-stricken but incredibly rich Vinton County, Ohio. That's why I'm interested in the poor. That's why last week I attended an exercise called a poverty simulation, in which a group of non-destitute middle Americans did a guided role-play of being poor. If you ever get a chance to participate in one of these, please do it. You'll be richer for a better understanding of the poor.

About 60 people filled up the social hall of the Presbyterian Church in Jackson, Ohio, to do a sort of being-John-Malkovich slide into someone else's--a poor person's--skin. The edges of the room were lined with tables representing community entities--Job & Family Services, a bank, a daycare center, the Quicky Cash vendor, utilities, the mortgage banker, a school, a workplace, Community Action, the homeless shelter, and jail. Inside this ring of tables were chairs grouped into any number between one and six chairs.

The chairs represented families. Out in the waiting area, each attendee was given an identity card. When the doors were opened, participants searched around until they found their "home" and met their "family." Each family had a packet of information, telling them all about themselves--age, medical condition, mortgage/rent obligations, placement of children, employment status...a demographic souffle. To simulate the money spent on transportation, each family was given transportation vouchers that had to be spent at EVERY stop they made. Lots of play money floated around.

The facilitator (from the Ohio Association of Food Banks) announced that the simulation would last a month--a month of 15-minute weeks. She would blow a whistle to announce the beginning and ending of each week. If you went to school or work, you had to spend 7 minutes there each week before you could go about your business. During the month, the family was to keep itself fed and housed and serviced with utilities. Week 3 was summer break from school. (One woman lost her "job" because she couldn't find daycare for Week 3.)

The groups dug right in, sometimes talking right over the facilitator in their urgency to get a plan together, to somehow make sense of their new lives. What do we do first? How do we get baby Jill (a 50-year-old man with a full beard) to daycare? Should we go for food or for transportation first? While you go to work, I'll drop the boy off at school, pick up my unemployment check, and go pay the mortgage... Oh, their plans sounded so great, logical and clear.

Except. Meet me, Joy the mortgage banker, one of the "providers." We had packets, too, giving us a set of activities for each week in the simulation. I had a "closed" sign. I had warning notices. I could evict. The careful planning blew up when the line was long at the bank and by the time you got to my office, the "closed" sign was out and I was walking through the community handing out overdue warnings. When I got back to my place of business, I could see a participant eagerly pushing through the crush to get to me. Then the whistle blew. That's one week late on the mortgage.

The simulation was loud and pushy. Common courtesies vanished. Raised voices. Arguments over who was next in line at the bank. One of the saddest reactions I saw (several times) was tired resignation, like when I refused to take a housing voucher because they were no longer accepted after Week 2 of the month. There was no flexibility in the rules. My mortgage banker self developed more rapidly than I thought possible into a confrontive and snotty worker. By Week 4, I was (to my shame) flipping groups of chairs over with a grim glee--the signal for eviction. When the evicted participants came to me to ask what was happening, I found myself saying (with shockingly smug superiority), "You're homeless--the shelter is right down the street."

One participant started an argument over getting incorrect change at the Quick Cash place, with police involvement. The police, of course, sided with the business owner and off the cheated man went to jail. While this argument was diverting everyone's attention, another participant, without even thinking, cleaned out Quick Cash's cash drawer and tripped merrily over to me to pay the mortgage. Stealing really seemed like a rational act. The thief could feed and house her family. The man who sought traditional justice got screwed. In real-life, the thief is a respected member of the community who probably never even gets pulled over for speeding.

Several families in our group did not manage to feed their families. In fact, a couple of families had not managed to secure food for their families during the entire month. The facilitator worked her way down: who had managed to get food all four weeks; a decent number of hands went up. Three weeks out of four; a larger number of hands. Only two or one of the weeks; several hands up. No food; a smattering of hands. When the connection was made to children and families going without food for a significant amount of time each month, the whole group sobered up. This wasn't just a game about poor people--it was a regular experience for many of them.

These types of insights were happening all around the room. Even in the wrap-up, people were angry because the bank didn't have enough tellers. The simulation was still playing out inside them--the stress lasted.  It was a high blood pressure experience.

Some of my insights (these are not unique or special--most people in the group had these insights).

INSIGHT 1: Many of the behaviors associated with poor people, such as pushiness, hostility to authority, and not paying the bills on time, spring from the conditions of poverty, not from the personalities of poor people. Most of the "nice" people participating in the simulation rapidly developed these traits.

INSIGHT 2: Poor people do not have leisure time. They are our modern hunter-gatherers, always on the go, on the move, just to fill the most basic needs of their families. Poor people are either working or exhausted. Throw a parent-teacher conference into the mix and the whole structure of the week may collapse.

INSIGHT 3: Helping kids with homework (oh, those middle school "projects") and tending to your key relationships is something there is little time for. The participants I was with gasped when the facilitator asked whether they had interacted with their families in any way other than urgent problem solving. None of them had.

INSIGHT 4: A low-income or part-time job can be more of a liability than an asset--it greatly increases transportation and daycare costs and, given the structure of our business culture, may bar you from all of the activities that are only available from 8:00 to 5:00.


Conclusion and INSIGHT 5: Making assumptions is a human way to simplify the data each of us deals with in our lives--but assumptions make an ass out of u and mptions. Please add imagination to your assumptions--try on someone's dollar flip-flops and see how it feels. Sign up for a poverty simulation. Read any book by Ruby Payne. We can't afford to write off a whole group of people--any group. Put your "ass" in compassion instead of assumption.

Drive-Thru Community Baby Shower

[Part of the purpose of this director's blog is to record process. In this post, I'm at the very beginning stages of planning a community event.]

Here's my latest hair-brained scheme: Have a baby shower for all of the babies recently born and to be born in Vinton County. Let's celebrate the birth of every child with the basic necessities--diapers, onesies, rattles, wet wipes, and more! Let's give the future citizens of Vinton County a head start even before Head Start. United Way of Vinton County will sponsor this event, with lots of community support, but it will not be a fund-raising enterprise. UWVC just wants to demonstrate its commitment to the future of this place we call home.

I propose a community drive-thru baby shower. Pull up, get a piece of cake and a cup of punch while your donation is unloaded, and drive on. We'll even give you a receipt--and you never have to get out of your car. This idea is my attempt to do what every non-profit struggles with--making giving as easy as possible. I recall food drive-throughs, toy drive-throughs at Christmas. People seem to like the no-fuss approach to just dropping it off without leaving the car.

I admit that this idea was triggered by the McDonald's restaurant that is being built on the road I drive to work. As the block walls went up, I was tickled to see a drive-through window hole, and then a second one (meaning that we'll be able to pay separately from ordering and picking up food--we've hit the big time). The thought of just cruising through for a coffee or sandwich makes me happy. I'm not sure this is a good thing about me (or my culture), that I want my food to not interrupt my flow, but I do own it; it's real. It's (for better or worse) part of who we are at this time in this place.

My first step in planning any event is to go through the classic journalism questions--who, what, where, when, why, how, and how much. I know that if I can answer these, I've covered the basics. Let me know, readers, what you think about this event--your ideas, suggestions, and cautions.

Who (is doing the work): United Way of Vinton County (sponsor); potential partners include other agencies that serve families, women, and children, such as Sojourners, Head Start, Help Me Grow, Shepherd's House, HRS, ISS, schools, Families and Children First Council, Rio Grande Community College, Ahoy, Health Department (immunization schedules) and many others.

[Just since I started writing this, I've been on the phone with wonder woman Trish from Shepherd's House and she agreed to help with this project.]

I'm hoping that some corporate sponsors will jump on board, such as Kohls and Walmart. A big donation of disposable diapers would not go amiss. Would the state highway patrol come and demonstrate correct installation of car seats? Does the library want to have a readathon? Does the American Red Cross want to give babysitting classes that day, or infant CPR?

This lengthy list is only limited by my imagination (and yours--would love to hear suggestions).

Who (is benefitting): The newborns, babies, and mothers/families of Vinton County will receive some version of a gift box if they apply to certain agencies. One organization will be selected as the holder of the stuff and will distribute it upon receiving a referral notice from another agency. The holding organization will keep a list to prevent a mother from applying to more than one referral source. (I hate thinking of fraud when the goal is generosity, but that's how it is. I know that some donors will not participate if we don't have a plan to weed out dishonesty.) We can also use the list to send out United Way birthday cards, if we get that organized.

What: Vinton County Community Drive-Thru Baby Shower to shower the future citizens of Vinton County with gifts that make up a starter kit for babies and a pampering kit for mom.

Where: Wyman Park, the biggest park in the county. Cars will pull into the parking area through the park's south entrance, unload, get drive-through cake and beverage and exit at the north of the parking lot. People can also park and stay, participating in activities and browsing educational materials. Alternate locations might include Vinton Industries, Super Valu, Sojourners 605,  Beulah May’s lot, courthouse gazebo...or even the old high school parking lot.

When: Looking at a Saturday in September (8th or 15th?) right now. The United Way wants an activity planned for the longest day of the year, but I didn't find out soon enough to get this idea going. Time: 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m.

Why: To gather new and gently used baby items for distribution to babies in our community, to demonstrate that we are the village it takes to raise a child.

Food: Piece of cake/cupcake and fruity beverage ready for every car that comes through (because cake and punch is served at traditional baby showers); sell or offer hot dogs/buns, veggies/dip for those who are hanging around--an organization may wish to do this as a fundraiser.

Decorations: Pink and blue streamers, of course

Special Request: Donations of children’s pajamas and socks to Shepherd’s House

Referrals provided by: WIC, Shepherd’s House, St. Francis Center, Lutheran Social Services, Children’s Services, Help Me Grow, Goodwill, Truth Food Pantry, Sojourners, Care Outreach, police/sheriff, pastors, etc.

Activities: Every Baby a Winner Photo Contest (take photos of kids to post on facebook); infant/child CPR training; make tied fleece baby blankets; tie-dye onesies; read-aloud story time; face-painting, henna (?)

Booths: For adoption information, foster care parent recruitment, family planning?, youth homelessness, etc.

Donations: from Kohls, Walmarts, CVS, community, other retailers (focus on disposable diapers, wet wipes, new toys, etc.), Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Adena, Holzer system, Holzer Clinic, O'Blennis

Volunteers: needed for every function, but especially for cake making, unloading, and packaging donations into kits

Afterparty: Might need to meet the next day or that evening to sort out the donations and package them up for delivery

Empty boxes or bins: For collected stuff

Items accepted: Disposable diapers, pull-ups; Formula/baby food; Onesies and sleepers; Socks and booties; Wet wipes; Baby blankets; New and gently used clothing, toys, books; Car seats/booster seats (do these have to be new?); Items for mom--lotions, smelly soaps, loofah, book (What to Expect in the First Year)

Publicity: Press releases one month and one week out for all local newspapers, social media, radio, ask all partners to publicize to their members and clientele

Door Prize: I would love to be able to give out a free labor/delivery from Adena! I’m not kidding!

I'll keep you posted.

United Way of Vinton County Investments

PRESS RELEASE

May 13, 2012

United Way of Vinton County Invests $18,000 in Local Organizations

          The United Way of Vinton County distributed $18,000 in investments to local non-profit partners in April, 2012—an increase of $6,000 over 2011. Applications were received from eight groups; seven received investments, according to UWVC Director Joy Dickerson. “Our United Way Board had to make some hard decisions, not just about which groups to invest in, but also how much each partner would receive out of our limited funds.” A subcommittee of the board reviewed all of the applications and then made recommendations to the full board. The recommendations were ratified after much discussion at a meeting of the entire board. “Every board member showed up for the investment meeting—it’s that important.”

          The following groups received funding this year: Care United Methodist Outreach, Truth Food Pantry, Shepherd’s House, Vinton County Senior Citizens, R.S.V.P., the American Red Cross of Southeast Ohio, and Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Southeast Ohio. “The Red Cross and Big Brothers/Big Sisters are located in Athens, but they provide direct service to Vinton Countians.” Dickerson noted that the American Red Cross of Southeast Ohio provided assistance to many county residents following the heavy rains that fell in the area in the last two weeks, a reflection of United Way of Vinton County’s funding at work right here. The investment in Big Brothers/Big Sisters supports a student mentoring program that has been operating without funding for the past year. “We’re so happy to assist that program. Mentoring helps the mentor as well as the person being mentored—everybody wins with mentoring.”

Board members Jeff Griffiths and Emmett Joy work the United Way booth at the recent Wild Turkey Festival--in all,
six of eight board members worked the festival; a board member was present for almost every hour of the event.
This is a Commoner Journal photo--see more pix at thecommonerjournal.com. 

          The United Way of Vinton County continues to focus investment on the most basic needs of our community—food, clothing, shelter, and safety. “Our investments in the community were higher this year than in the past, but not as high as I wanted,” board member Linda Donahoe said. “I hope that as people learn more about the United Way of Vinton County, donations will increase and we can fund a wider range of activities,” she added. The recent Split-the-Pot fundraiser at the Wild Turkey Festival was an effort to increase people’s awareness of the United Way. “We made a small sum from the split-the-pot, and the winner went home happy, but the most important thing was that we met and spoke with so many people about the role of the United Way of Vinton County in the community, Donahoe said.

          Dickerson is happy with this year’s investment decisions, but hopes to increase community involvement next year. “Next year, I hope we can invite some people from the community to participate in making investment decisions.” Dickerson would be glad to speak with anyone who has questions about the United Way of Vinton County and how it works. She can be reached at 740-596-9811 (leave a message) or by email at united_way_of_vinton_county@yahoo.com.