Looking Beyond the Symptoms

As I was leaving the office last night there was a homeless man leaned way over into a garbage can eating his dinner. I was standing next to him waiting for the light, wishing I still had that banana in my purse from breakfast. Earlier that day I had been at a meeting discussing the intricacies of the food bank system in Pierce County. By mapping the locations of the food banks in comparison to the pockets of significant poverty, we could begin to strategize efficiencies and locate gaps in service. It’s an immense system to get your arms around and this type of analysis could provide insight into how it’s working. There are large food banks that operate as standalone nonprofits serving thousands from all over the county and there are churches providing parish donated food to neighbors. Some are open 5 days a week; some are open once a month. There are people who have to hit four food banks, taking two full days of traveling and waiting, to get the items they need to properly feed their families. The logistics of distributing food is complicated and certainly might benefit from systemic restructuring. However, people in our community are still going hungry.

I’ve been in meetings where people say that we just need to get more food into the system. This always brings up a question for me about the system itself. We have two food distribution systems, one for those that can pay and one for those that can’t. Food banks were a response to the dismantling of the food stamp program in the 1980s; as the system continued to erode, concerned citizens created more food banks. There is great compassion in this history. It is a basic human right to have enough to eat, so when food was needed people came together to feed them. But opening more food banks is not a success story for a community. Putting more food into the system feels like building more prisons: attempting to solve a problem rather than creating a new reality for the poor and downtrodden in our city.

I am curious how food banks fit into the larger system of poverty reduction in order to alleviate hunger; not just today and tomorrow, but five years from now. And although it is not the food banks’ responsibility to lead this conversation, it does get straight to the heart of their missions. A coordinated response depends on mapping the whole system in order for all of the players to recognize their role. Creating a new reality will involve addressing many components of poverty, such as raising the minimum wage to a livable wage, ensuring that those eligible for food stamps are enrolled and accessing the grocery store system, and working with farmers to support a local food economy. The complexity expands further when you look beyond the working poor to those who are dealing with mental health issues or substance abuse, the people who may never make a livable wage or be eligible for food stamps. Food banks will always be necessary for people in need of immediate help, particularly in economic times like this; but to truly alleviate hunger a systemic restructuring should include all of the components of poverty.

This elderly man in tattered clothes salvaging someone’s tossed, half-eaten Starbucks bagel out of a garbage can is one face of the poverty in our community. My compassion for him is a response to a visual cue that he is in need; but the visual is a symptom of something much greater. When I look beyond the symptom to the bigger picture, I begin the process of accountability for the poverty in my community. And with accountability comes a deep desire to create a different future.