“When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.”
Helder Camara
What is hunger? According to dictionary.com, hunger is feeling of discomfort or weakness caused by lack of food. A person that has no shelter, love and food is considering being homeless. This makes their demand for food and shelter high. Poverty, for centuries has been look over in the United States of America, and for America to have one of highest poverty rates, it is a disgrace. It is a disgrace because America is one of the wealthiest countries, therefore; the government has the resource, in order for poverty not exists at this caliber. By going to St. James Food Pantry, it showed me that poverty in America is still being overlooked.
Since the semester started, I have been volunteering at St. James Food Pantry located on 29th and Wabash which serves the 60605 and 16 zip codes. As an African American female, being a part of society middle-low class, I was shock to see that it was other races especially Asians, coming into the facility for help. I was shock to see Asians coming into the facility because in the media African Americans are the ones depicted to need assistance not Asians. However, volunteering at St. James showed that all races need help, not one more than other. Walking into the food pantry, one will immediately be welcomed by the secretary or volunteer coordinator, Ben. The staff at St. James is friendly and aware of their client’s needs. They bring a since of hope and love to the community in which the government has overlook the demand of hunger their citizens face daily.
St. James Food Pantry was not what I expected it to be. It is small-quaint building on the corner o...
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... comparing their clients to the people in different community’s s there is a significant difference in class inequality. Not able to support themselves or family shows the differences in class because to support living a person needs money. In majority money is the main aspect in determine class difference.
Being in a society where people only care about themselves shows why there is a disparity between the have and have not’s. In the healthcare field, people need to demonstrate an altruism behavior because they service the people. Going to St. James showed me that I need to be more humble in order to be a successful RN. St. James Food Pantry helps their client to build life skills so they can be able to function in today’s society. As I volunteer more at St. James, I hope to receive more direct contact with clients and understand how homelessness can occur.
In Charles E. King’s “Homelessness in America”, he writes about the population of homeless people in America and the fact that children are part of the growing population of the homeless in America. Also, in “My Anger and Sadness Over Pesticides”, Cesar Chavez writes that pesticides have endangered the lives of farm workers and their families. In addition, in “The Gulf War is Still Being Fought”, Joelle Foshee writes that even though the gulf war has ended, a new war is still being fought and this new war is known as the “Gulf War Syndrome”. These are all injustices in America today. However, homelessness in America is the injustice I have chosen to address because the population of homeless people has grown higher due to insufficient help from the gove...
Imagine your skin tightening around your body to the point that you see your veins, no fats or muscles, the foul odor that comes from your mouth, your eye sockets sunken in, your eyes bulging out, the visibility of your collar and chest bones, your stomach bloated, and your body eating itself. These are the symptoms of someone who is starving. The dictionary definition of someone who is starving or hungry is someone who displays the need for food, the need for calories in their body. This is a feeling that millions of people feel every day because there is not enough food being farmed for them to eat, food is too expensive for them to buy, and because they do not have the knowledge nor ability to grow and maintain their own food. This all can be fixed with one simple solution and that solution would be agricultural
On an average night in our community, there are around 9,500 individuals and families without a place to stay, according to the State Research Group on Homelessness and Poverty (2009). Because of this fact, there is a desperate need for shelter and volunteers to serve at these shelters. There are only 1,995 emergency beds, which is not enough to accommodate all of the homeless, and there is an even smaller number of workers willing to volunteer. The Homeless Center offers beds and meals to the homeless, working poor, and unemployed. There is a need to do service learning at this location because volunteers are needed to serve as greeters, serve meals, conduct daily prayer time, lead worship, work with the Big "A" Club, fellowship with the attendees, prepare the newsletter, help with maintenance and repair projects, organize clothing rooms, and help with many other tasks The purpose of this study was to serve the people of downtown and lighten the load of work for the staff of the Homeless Center. This paper will address the purpose, research questions, literature review, findings, discussion, and implication of my service-learning project at the Hope Center.
Imagine living but not eating, needing, but not having. In the United States there are currently forty-six point seven million people in poverty; forty-eight point one million people with food insecure that is including thirty-two point eight million adults and fifteen point three million children. It is painful to know that there are people that do not make it through the night because of not having any food. Those people have to wake up to no food and go to sleep with no food. The definition of ‘hunger’ is the feeling of discomfort or weakness caused by lack of food, coupled with the desire to eat. Action against Hunger says “At least one million malnourished children die every year because they lack access to the necessary treatment. Seventeen
In Janet Poppendieck's “Want Amid Plenty: From Hunger To Inequality” she argues that America puts excessive focus upon hunger issues among the poor when there are many other important issues that go unnoticed. Poppendieck believes that it is time to find a way to shift the discourse from undernutrition to unfairness, from hunger to inequality. In today's society, there are many food banks, food drives, soup kitchens, etc. Food is extremely abundant in America, therefore Poppendieck's statement is proven true when she states that there is too much focus on hunger. Throughout this text, she strongly supports her claims about hunger, equality, and poverty in general.
We’ve all heard the phrase “Charity begins at home.” This statement holds very true in my case, not because we needed help but rather because we were taught at an early age to provide help whenever possible. In our current economy there are many people not just in our community but throughout the world and beyond that are struggling. I was fortunate to grow up in a household with two loving parents who shared the importance of fundamental beliefs and values. Cynthia Street, the street I grew up on, was a comfortable middle class neighborhood that served as my first perspective of American life. Through my experiences in my neighborhood and also my interaction with my church family at Central Christian Church in Newark, I learned the importance of outreach work.
Homelessness is a major issue in our world today. There is an abundant amount of people who live on the street and barely have anything they can call their own. These people probably lived great lives at some point, they probably never thought of the concept of becoming homeless until it happened. Luckily there is help being brought to them from different kinds of sources in order to help get them back on the road to a happy and fulfilled life. Certain people in society have a desire to get homeless people off the streets, to get them food, clothing, and most importantly love. These people are volunteers who enjoy spending their free time helping the ones in need because they love to give back to their community . There is major volunteer groups out there like StandUp For Kids, this organization helps to improve lives of the homeless and street kids. Volunteers have a desire to get people off the streets because they know that no should feel as if they are worth nothing in this world. Besides the goodness of helping others, aiding to help the homeless people get back up in life, it can help make the economy better. Usually there is money
What is poverty? “Poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not having access to school and not knowing how to read. Poverty is not having a job, is fear for the future, living one day at a time” (What is poverty).
Growing up, I always had a nagging sensation in my heart that urged me to take care of anyone that was sick around me, doing whatever I could to make them feel better. As the years passed, I became more exposed to the world around me. I traveled around town and around the United States. I realized just how many people were far less fortunate than I. This new found knowledge struck a chord in me, being the naive child I was, I could not figure out how I could have so much while others have so little. When I was with my parents and saw a homeless man or woman crouching on a street corner, with worry lines strewn about their face, I would beg to go to the nearest store to bring them food. I continued to help those around me all through my
As I said earlier, one of the problem among homeless population is lack of of access to healthcare. Many homeless people were not even aware of their health problems and some of them did not even care. As a public health nurse, being aware of your surrounding and understanding the need of the people is helpful in order to provide better care. Homeless population are very vulnerable and they need a lot support from the people. I had fun doing this volunteer and it made me happy hearing homeless people say thank you for our effort in feeding
Poverty is “the state of one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions” (Merriam-Webster dictionary, 2015); in other words, struggling to provide a comfortable living style. It is the cause of family stress and many other problems, especially for the children. Millions of people around the world are struggling with poverty; families suffering to provide enough food seem to be growing in numbers. According to the United States Census Bureau, the poverty rate was highest in the 1960s and decreased greatly in the 1970s. However, it is now slowly starting to increase again. Recently released census data by the Bureau showed that one in five people are living in poverty (Census Bureau, 2014). Poverty is even
We, Aimee Johnson and Jessie Virnig, along with Amy Wilson and Shawn Klimek, decided to try to give the homeless a little hope. The week before Christmas we went door to door and collected food for the local homeless shelter. We decided to focus on collecting food because around the Christmas season, a lot of emphasis is put on toy drives and people sometimes overlook the fact that the homeless still need to eat. In order to broaden our research, we decided to collect food from more than one group of people. We went to an average middle class neighborhood and to a college dormitory. Before we went out into the neighborhood and dorms, we prepared a thank you letter to give to everyone explaining to them who we were, to tell them that we were collecting food for the homeles...
The question is, what is poverty? Poverty is about not having enough money to meet basic needs of life, including food, clothing, and shelter. Nevertheless I believe that poverty is much more that not having enough money. The World Bank Organization describes poverty as, “Poverty is hunger. Poverty is the lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty
Hunger and poverty have been a major problem in the world, which has being leading most people to death than cancer, Ebola, and malaria do. More than thousands of people die from hunger and poverty, and most of the people who suffer most are children below the age of ten. Hunger and poverty have contributed to the world food crisis that has an impact on the economy, the environment, and political issues. People living with hunger and poverty are more than those living a successful life in both developed and developing the world. Hunger makes victims live underweight, causing numerous of sickness to their health. Lack of
Poverty is a global epidemic that contributes to the deaths of millions each year. However, poverty is more prominent in some areas around the world than others. The Oxford dictionary defines poverty as the state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support, but it’s so much more. Poverty can be defined as being hungry, lacking shelter, being unable to go to school, being unable to see a doctor, or being powerless and having a lack of freedom. The reason behind the many descriptions of poverty is that poverty has many faces, and its definition changes depending on the place and time, however the effects of poverty on the poor are always the same.