My group went to St. James Church in Madison Avenue today. I was being very observant of the Church neighborhood while we were heading there. I noticed that there were no fast food restaurants that I had seen when we were at More Grace Redemption Center in Brooklyn. Also, there were high end designer stores and I saw more fancier cars than I did when we were in Brooklyn. I had already come to a conclusion that this was a high class neighborhood and was excited to see what kind of service project they had for us because I was pretty sure it wasn't going to be a food pantry. I hadn't seen even one person who wasn't properly dressed and looked clean while we were heading there. In my eyes, there was no sign of homelessness in that area.
When we got to the Church, we met the volunteers that we were going to work with and they were all very friendly. To my surprise, it was actually a soup kitchen in that area and we immediately got to work.I was slicing and buttering bread. The bread looked expensive and they had a variety for people to choose from. In my head, I still couldn't believe that there were homeless people in that area so I asked one of the volunteers what they defined as homeless to meet the criteria for the service they were offering. They were open to the public and got around 90 people every Tuesday that they served lunch. I couldn't wait for lunch so as to see who their crowd of 'homeless' were.
Before lunch time, my group was taken to a hall where lunch would be served and given instructions on how we would be serving restaurant style. I was blown away. This is something I will probably talk about forever and try put it to practice as I continue my service volunteering in the future. I was very impressed by their reasoning behind their serving style.They do that in order to provide a different eating experience for their guests which are the homeless population of the area. The homeless get food from different soup kitchens and pantries. They stand in long lines for hours in most cases to get food. St.James tries to provide more than just food but also make their guests feel special by having food taken to them. Their menu was similar to what one would get in a decent restaurant and included dessert as well. This was also a surprise to me. I had never seen or heard or imagined the homeless being served dessert. I was very happy after serving at St. James and hoped that we would do a similar thing for the last two service projects remaining.
After serving at St. James, I realized that we think and treat the homeless as if they aren't the regular people that we are. Whenever we are tired or feel like we want to be served, we go to restaurants or salons or spas.When we are there, we expected to be served. We feel like we deserve it because we are tired or stressed or just in the mood for that particular service. Also, because we pay for such services and can afford to pay for them. I have an on campus meal plan and the food gets repetitive. I go out to eat sometimes for a change because I get sick and tired of the campus food. I had never thought that it was a privilege to randomly go eat in a restaurant when I don't feel like eating campus food. It has always felt like I deserve it and I have the right to not be trapped with campus food.
Whenever we help the homeless, we try to do the bare minimum and expect them to be happy about it because we voluntarily extend help to them, it is not an obligation. We live in better conditions and have better lives and generally see more good than bad unlike them. We are taken aback whenever something bad happens and they are taken aback whenever something good happens because they get used to bad things happening to them. Thoroughly thinking about it, the homeless are the ones who need to be served and made to feel special because of all the psychological destructions that they experience.
I thought of St.James as the restaurants that I go to when I get tired of campus food and thought of campus food as the different soup kitchens that the homeless go to for meals that are pretty similar and involve them lining up for hours. I have learnt that nobody is 'other' like how I thought of the homeless before. Everybody needs what I need regardless of their financial position or what they are going through in life. Just because they can't afford to go a restaurant doesn't mean they don't need to or that getaway isn't required for their mental well being.
Evelyn
Who is the "we" you speak of in your 4th paragraph? How can you be sure that your comments are representative of a "we" and not merely representative of your personal opinion or experience? How has your lens as a Tanzanian student in the US shaped your perspective of poverty/homelessness? Why were you blown away at the fact you would be serving restaurant style? Explain where that feeling/thought was coming from. What connections to course readings or discussions can you make that back up your thoughts or experiences?
ReplyDeleteThe "we" represented my personal experience with almost all people that I have had a poverty related topic conversation with. It made me conclude that people have a similar broad view of what people in the poverty situation are, their experiences and how they are treated.
ReplyDeleteBeing an international student from Tanzania, my view and understanding of what poverty is was very mainstream and shallow. Poverty meant someone who is hungry, homeless, or who lived in bad conditions. Two weeks into this class, my understanding is a lot different. I have gotten to understand the complexity involved in homelessness and poverty in general. All the cycles involved and how the different types of povery such as generational and emotional as we discussed in class are interrelated. The biggest lesson was how poverty can be hidden. One can be working and still be in deep poverty for many reasons such as government policies working against them.
I was blown away at the fact that they serve restaurant style because I had only been exposed to situations where the poor were just merely helped or have food given to them. Not necessarily in a disrespectful way but not in a way that would require effort and impacting their emotions at the same time. How food is handed out at pantries were the poor just line up for the food is what I had in mind of how the poor generally get served/ helped. I felt like through the restaurant style serving at St. James, we were addressing emotional poverty that we had discussed in class. I felt that people left in a better mood after being served.