Article on Food Insecurity in Chicago

The name of the article on food insecurity in Chicago is "Reporting From FamilyFarmed: Community Food Insecurity" written by Martha Bayne on March 12, 2010 on the chicagoreader.com website. This article talks about the approximately 600 Bhutanese refugees that have resettled in Chicago. The Bhutanese are dealing with issues of community food security- the access to affordable, nutritious and culturally appropriate food. A woman named Sarah Eichberger is one of the only dieticians in the U.S. who works specifically with refugee communities- she assesses the nutritional needs and risk factors of refugees. As stated in the article, "After 17 years in a refugee camp, living on fixed rations of beans, lentils, oil, salt and grain, new arrivals to the U.S. are often anemic, with depressed immune systems and compound health problems. When they arrive stateside they can quickly develop hypertension and diabetes from an unfamiliar Western diet, and gain weight from a suddenly sedentary lifestyle." It is discussed that refugees are at greater risk at being food insecure because, 1) The language barrier makes it hard to get a job and many refugees are also unaware of additional food benefits they may be eligible for, 2) They may have no idea how to budget, 3) Due to years of harassment in Bhutan, refugees are likely to be mistrustful of government, and 4) They fear that if they ask for help, that they will be arrested. Also said, there is a lack of familiarity with common Western industrial food. Eichberger discovered that a refugee client was using the cans she received from a food pantry to decorate her apartment- she didn't realize the cans actually contained food. To address all their needs and foster connections between the Bhutanese community and their neighbors, Eichberger started two community gardens. The author of the article stated that hearing the gardeners talk about the joy they have gotten from being able to grow fresh fruits and vegetables as they did before they fled Bhutan, was heartwarming. It was stated that the Bhutanese felt that it was so nice that they had food grown by their own hands. They learned that everything they have, they need to share with the family and the community, so they end up sharing everything they grow in the garden. One of the Bhutan refugees stated that the only drawback so far has been adjusting to the restrictions of urban living. It was stated by the same refugee that "In Bhutan, whatever we needed for food in our daily life we would grow ourselves. We only went to the market to buy clothes." At the end of the article it is stated that when she (the same refugee just previously discussed) came to Chicago and went to examine the Heartland Alliance garden, she said, "I saw this very small area and thought, how can we grow anything in this tiny space?"

In "So You Think I Drive a Cadillac?" by Karen Seccombe, food insecurity was discussed on page 122. There is food insecurity and then food insecurity with hunger. Seccombe explains that food insecurity is "defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as households that were uncertain of having, or unable to acquire, enough food for all their members because they had insufficient money or other resources." Food insecurity with hunger is "defined as households that were food insecure to the extent that one or more household members were hungry."

Reflection on "Streetwise"

"Streetwise" did a fabulous job at portraying the lives of teens who are living on the streets of Seattle and their struggle to survive. Many of the teens discussed in the film had either no families around or were runaways, and the film showed how these people tried to survive on their own without any resources. The film dealt with issues such as begging for food and/or money, prostitution, theft, drugs and suicide. The teens discussed in the movie wanted the same kind of things out of life that we all do: a nice house, a T.V, a car, etc; however, they had to deal with the very little that they had. Out of all the characters in the movie, Dewayne's situation had the largest effect on me. Dewayne's father was in prison and his mother abandoned him, which left him a victim of the streets which was beyond his control considering he was only sixteen years old. He slept in abandoned homes if it was possible, otherwise he had to resort to sleeping on the streets. The film showed Dewayne visiting his father in prison. He seemed to be soft spoken with his father and the father did most of the talking. His dad told him to stay out of trouble otherwise he was going to live a life like himself. He was telling him he was going to be out soon and was trying to talk sense into him to be good so he won't have to experience jail and follow in his footsteps. Overall, Dewayne dealt with false promises, trust issues (because his mother abandoned him), family issues (because his mom was gone and his dad was in prison), and insecurity (he didn't know each day how and/or if he was going to eat nor where he was going to sleep). Dewayne ended up committing suicide in a juvenile detention center by hanging himself the day before his 17th birthday and just before he was going to be released. He couldn't take being back on the streets. It was really sad to see that only a handful of people attended his funeral with two people being his dad's guards from prison. The father was distraught because of his failure to properly raise his son. His father sat by his coffin and apologized to him for not being able to take a part in his life.

Although this film was sad and difficult to watch at certain moments, it did a great job at showing the viewer the harsh realities that occur while living on the streets. These people were not even adults, they were teens who were out there trying to cope and survive taking one day at a time. For people who have no idea what it's really like to be a homeless youth, "Streetwise" would be the perfect film to watch as it was so real. My heart goes out to each and every one of the characters in the film, as what they go through on a daily basis are things that the vast majority of us can not even conceive of happening to us. The truth, however, is that this is a reality that occurs on many of the streets of big cities throughout our country and we all need to be more aware of this.

Ehrenreich Text

I am going to discuss Ehrenreich's experience in Key West, FL working as a waitress. Her first waitressing job was at a place called "The Hearthside" where she worked for two weeks from 2:00-10:00 pm for $2.43 an hour plus tips. She goes into much detail about what it was like for her working in this kind of industry. She mentions on page 17 that that a third of a server's job is "side work" which includes sweeping, scrubbing, slicing, refilling, and restocking. "Managers can sit- for hours at a time if they want- but it's their job to see that no one else ever does, even when there's nothing to do, and this is why, for servers, slow times can be as exhausting as rushes. You start dragging out each little chore because if the manager on duty catches you in an idle moment he will give you something far nastier to do" (pg. 22). Ehrenreich explains that the restaurant has something called the "break room." This is where the employees put their bags and clothes and take half-hour breaks. She continues to explain that taking a half-hour break in the break room is not a right and it can be taken away. Also, the lockers in the room can be searched at any time which can make any person hesitant to leave their belongings in there. Ehrenreich states that she hasn't been treated the way she has been at The Hearthside- she has to line up in the corrider, is threated with locker searches, and is peppered with carelessly aimed accusations. She states that the other problem in addition to the management, is that the job shows no sign of being financially viable. She adds that housing is the major disruption in everyone's life at her job. The Hearthside's health insurance plan kicks in only after three months and until then, you have to go without routine care or prescription drugs and end up paying the price. She then discusses that she sometimes leaves work with only $20 in tips. Servers share 15% of their tips with the busboys and bartendenders, and therefore, with wages included, they make about the minimum wage of $5.15 an hour.

Ehrenrich then explains taking on a second job at another restaurant called "Jerry's." At Jerry's there is no break room because there are no breaks. She states that for six to eight hours in a row, you never sit unless you have to go to the bathroom. "I start out with the beautiful, heroic idea of handling two jobs at once, and for two days I almost do it: working the breakfast/lunch shift at Jerry's from 8:00 till 2:00, arriving at The Hearthside a few minutes late, at 2:10, and attempting to hold out until 10:00. In the few minutes I have between jobs, I pick up a spicy chicken sandwich at the Wendy's drive-through window, gobble it down in the car, and change from khaki slacks to black, from Hawaiian to rust-colored polo" (pg. 32). She talks about one time she was left $1 on a $92 bill and that some leave no tip at all if one little thing goes wrong that is not even her fault. The tips average only 10 percent at Jerry's with the base pay of $2.15 an hour. With the obligation to share tips with the busboys dishwashers, she says they average about $7.50 an hour.

At The Hearthside Ehrenreich made about $5.15 an hour and at Jerry's made about $7.50an hour. According to the Poverty in America website, the Living Wage calculator calculated that for one adult living in Key West, FL the living wage is $9.70. The poverty wage is $5.04 and the minimum wage is $7.25. So while Ehrenrich was working at the Hearthside she was making well below minimum wage and close to the povery wage, while at Jerry's she was making just above the minimum wage.

Action Project

I am in group number one for my Action Project with Franca, Miguel and Clarence. The agency in which we volunteered through was called the Grace House and was done on March 19, 2010. What the Grace House and our group did was complete a fundraiser in which we first all distributed brochures to families, friends, peers, etc. to provide them with the option to purchase lunch and/or dinner with different food items at different prices. This was done before the actual date of the fundraiser (March 19th) so once the day came, we knew who ordered what, where they were located, and how much of the different foods needed to be prepared.

On the morning of March 19th, Miguel and I met eachother at 8:00 am at Northeastern to drive downtown together, which is where the Grace House is located. We stopped at Jewel on the way to purchase plastic containers, sodas, plastic silverware, plates and napkins to help with the preperation of the fundraiser. Once we got there we were all given different orders we had to organize and drop off. The order sheets informed us of how many lunches in total were ordered and which specific items we needed to box up. We were responsible for making sure each order had the exact meals specified on the sheet and organizing everything into large boxes (as some orders had 12-15 meals that needed to be delivered). After getting together all the orders, we then drove to the different locations to drop them off with each of us having one of the women who live in the Grace House to ride with us to help with directions. Once we got to the specific places, we asked for the person who called in the orders and collected the money they owed for their food. After this was all done, we returned back to the Grace House. At this point I personally had no more orders to box up and drop off, so I helped others with preparing theirs. Along with this, I helped the women who were in charge of making the food to clean everything up for the start of dinner. This process lasted until 5:30 pm.

All the money that was made from this fundraiser was given to support the SOS Children Village of Haiti. In the end we ended up raising about $2,500 which I feel will greatly help the people of Haiti. This was an extremely fulfilling experience and I can't describe the joy I had knowing that I was going to make a difference in these people's lives.

Amber's Blog Critique

I read Amber's blog titled "Homelessness and Poverty" on April 8, 2010. First, I loved the colors used in this blog: there were different shades of pink on a white background. Again, the use of these colors made the information on her blog really stand out. She used a video bar which portrayed four different pictures of poverty, a few other pictures relating to the topic throughout the blog, as well as a calander at the top of the page. I thought the calender idea was original, however, i'm not sure as to how it relates to poverty and homelessness. For me, it still did add to the blog's creativeness. The first picture when you look at her blog was of an emaciated (to say the least) African American child. Under this picture Amber wrote some words of her own to get the reader to think about how many of us take food for granted in this country. Along with this, she discusses an article titled "Out of Sight, Out of Mind" which states that we waste 96 billion pounds of edible food on a yearly basis. This shows how much food is really wasted in today's society if this information is correct. I always wonder, for example, what restaurants do when the day is over and they have a large quantity of food left over. Do they save it for the next day? Do they donate it? Or do they throw it out? I'm sure each place does something different, however, it should be a much more common practice to donate all this extra food as opposed to throwing it out when we have people who are literally starving on our streets. Overall, I really liked the layout of Amber's blog, as I feel it was different from many of the others I have seen.

Franca's Blog Critique

I read Franca's blog which is titled "Hunger and Homelessness" on April 7,2010. The first thing I noticed about her blog was the picture with the hungry child looking for food in a refrigerator that didn't have much. The picture made it obvious that this was in a run-down home. I think this picture portrays hunger really creatively. Anyone, at least myself, who sees a young child looking for food when there's nothing to choose from, as in this picture, will realize how prevelent hunger and homelessness really is and how it even affects our country's children. It's sad that innocent children are victims to this social problem considering they have no control over their lives at a young age. I also feel Franca did a great job at describing the Action Project we all took part in. Reading her experience reminded me of mine, as we were both there together. It was nice to be able to take part in something as rewarding as our fundraiser was, as I know the work we did will greatly help the orphans of Haiti. I liked her white background with the green writing as it made everything stand out as opposed to blend in. It was easy to find and read each of her blog posts. Lastly, I loved that she posted different pictures throughout her blog that portrayed different ideas of hunger and homelessness. It helped me, and i'm sure it will help others, to get a real feel of how drastic this issue really is.

Seccombe Ch. 5- "Day-to-Day Living and Decision Making"

Seccombe claims that living and surviving on welfare touches all aspects of a person's life, not just the economic realm. After reading the chapter, I absolutely agree with this statement as Seccombe does a great job at providing the reader with numerous examples to support her point. This chapter started out by explaining to the reader that a group of Florida legislators and state policymakers voluntarily signed up to be paired with a welfare recipient for one month to see what it's like to walk in their shoes. Although Seccombe gave these legislators and policymakers credit for attempting to understand the daily experience of welfare recipients, she still said that their experience should not be confused with the actual realities of welfare assistance, because these legislatures and policymakers knew there was an end point to where they would be able to go home. There was a light at the end of a tunnel for them, which is not quite the case for actual welfare recipients. The rest of the chapter discusses the many impacts that welfare has on a person's life.

Seccombe states that the recipients clothes come from thrift shops and garage sales, that their cars are old and in disrepair, and dinners out are likely to be monthly excursions to a fast-food restaurant. Right here one can see that being on welfare affects the way one dresses, their method of transportation and the types of food they eat that they consider to be a "treat." Also discussed was a woman named Jana who takes no vacations, no shopping trips to the mall, and rarely goes to a movie or out to dinner. Due to her lack of money, Jana can't hire a babysitter for her children so she therefore has to stay home day after day to care for them all on her own with no breaks since she's a single parent. In this example, welfare greatly affects Jana's personal life or lack therof. "It is not easy to pay bills on time, to put food on the table, to pay for childcare, to nurse sick children, to find a job, and to locate donations and charities to help benefits stretch throughout the month" (pg. 112). Many poor people on welfare live in substandard housing which according to Seccombe, poses a potential threat to their health and safety as they must live in damp, dirty, crowded, dangerous, and disease-ridden conditions that may lack proper cooking or sanitation facilities (pg. 113). There is also a stigma attached to welfare that the recipients have to deal with on a daily basis which can have an effect on their self-esteem and self-worth. Seccombe discusses on page 117 that data from the 2003 Cobsumer Expenditure Survey found that poor households spend approximately three-quarters of their income on three items: housing, food, and transportation. It is also stated that women on welfare are most commonly without cars, telephones, washing machines, and clothing dryers which are things most Americans see as routine household appliances. There are also the issues that surround the holiday's such as Christmas or birthdays that Seccombe explains. "Poor children are not isolated from the consumerism that surrounds holidays. They are bombarded with commercials on television for expensive toys; they see their peers wearing expensive clothing and shoes at school; and they are frusterated by opportunities that are seemingly unavailable to them" (pg. 119). Additionally discussed was the issue that poor households do not have sufficient funds to buy nutritious foods. Healthy foods cost more money, therefore, welfare recipients buy food that is not nearly as healthy because it is cheaper and they can buy more of it. This can obviously affect one's health. Seccombe explains that the many concerns that face those on welfare causes recipients to be more depressed, and to suffer from more psychological distress than do others. Adolescent mothers were said to be particularly at risk for stress, depression, and psychological distress because the teenage years are difficult as it is, without the added responsibility of motherhood (pg. 125). "The poor experience a cultural dissonance. They are painfully aware of the American dream, which is laden with heavy consumerism, and fueled by cash or credit. However, they are disconnected from it" (pg. 127). Also, low-income areas are less likely to offer after-school programs for children and teens and according to Seccombe, poor families are less able to afford the costs associated with extracurricular activities, such as uniforms, or dues (pg. 129). This can also have an affect on one's personal life and socialization process. Seccombe ends the chapter by stating "Like other studies, I found that poor women and welfare recipients often share conventional, mainstream aspirations, yet harsh economic realities impinge upon their abilities to meet these conventional goals" (pg. 131).

Seccombe Ch. 4: The Welfare System Breeds Dependence on Itself

In chapter 4 Seccombe discusses the issue that the welfare system breeds "dependence" on the system. She argued that most of the women who expressed concerns with the welfare system did not say that it made recipients lazy, but that the system had "built-in incentives or penalties for work" (pg. 95). Being on welfare provides these women with some critically needed benefits that they would lose if they started to work. The issue is that these women on welfare, when looking for work, have limited options and would have to settle for working minimum-wage jobs that lack the benefits they receive through the welfare system. According to Seccombe, choosing to work a minimum-wage job with no benefits instead of being on the welfare system would jeapordize the health and well-being of the recipients and their children. From Seccombe's interviews, she states that without continued assistance with health insurance, childcare, transportation, food stamps and subsidized housing, working becomes prohibitive and sometimes dangerous (pg. 96). "They expressed frusteration that the welfare system, as currently structured, actually discourages them from working by raising their rent, eliminating Medicaid, and cutting them off from needed social services before they had a chance to establish themselves" (pg. 96). Seccombe also points out that both white and African American women talked about wanting to work, but felt if they did so it would reduce their already tight standard of living. They also felt that if they got a job they would be placing their children at risk because it would eliminate and/or reduce their eligibility for critical medical and social services. These women want more than anything for the welfare system to change so they won't be cut off from critically needed services, at least temporarily, while they start to get their life together by working.

I agree with Seccombe on the issue that the welfare system breeds dependence on the system. I don't know how we expect people to survive if they are cut off from critically needed services that the welfare system provides once they find a job, which for the most part are minimum-wage jobs. As we all know, minimum-wage jobs offer little to no benefits while the welfare system provides recipients with the basic critical services they need. People sit there and call those who are on welfare lazy individuals who don't work; however, there is a reason why many recipients do not work. It is not because they are lazy or that they simply don't feel like working, it's that they need to continue to receive Medicaid, subsidized housing, food stamps, etc. that they would stop receiving once they got a job. The jobs they find, however, are minimum-wage one's that do not offer the services that the welfare system provides. If a person had a choice to either live on welfare and receive the little money and services/benefits they do, or to live off a minimum-wage job offering no benefits at all, I strongly feel that there would not be a single person who would choose the option to work a minimum-wage job with no benefits or services. Our society needs to understand that many welfare recipients are unemployed because they need to continue to receive welfare to get as much help as possible. It is not right to call these people lazy or unmotivated because that is not the case. The case is that they have no choice or option to do otherwise. With this being said, I agree with Seccombe that the welfare system breeds dependence on itself.