“La vida de los pobres”
Posted by Michael McKenna on Thursday, September 1, 2011
Editor’s Note: All summer, Share Our Strength staff will be visiting summer meals sites across the country to show our work in action. This post is part of that series. To learn more about Summer Meals, visit strength.org/summer. 
Among the many groups in America today that sadly fall under the category of the poor, immigrants are one of the most vulnerable, often literally without a voice in the predominant tongue of this country. Last week I had the privilege of speaking with mothers at El Centro del Inmigrante, a social service agency serving the immigrant community (and free summer meals!) in Staten Island, New York City. I was reminded of a conversation I had years ago in a migrant shelter in El Paso, TX with a Mexican woman who in describing her recent hardships, simply told me, “Asi es la vida de los pobres.” In other words, “that’s just how it is when you’re poor.”
So what is it like when you’re poor? In Port Richmond, it can mean you’re a day laborer or housecleaner struggling to raise a family on $6 or $7 per hour, yet whose work skills are less in demand when the economy heads south. It can mean you don’t go to a government office to sign up for WIC because you didn’t know that your children qualified. It can mean you are a victim of domestic abuse (the prevalence of domestic violence during periods of economic hardship is well-documented). It can mean you are stocking your shelves with canned goods from a twice-weekly pantry. And it can mean that two nutritious meals provided by the NYC Department of Education in conjunction with partners as part of the Summer Meals program make a huge difference for the health of your children.
When we arrived at El Centro at 10:30am, the staff and guests were wrapping up a clothing distribution. El Centro runs a women’s program that couples food and clothing distributions with workshops on health, nutrition, and other topics helpful to mothers. Around 11, a volunteer started distributing a bagged lunch. As you can see in the picture, even the broccoli was a big hit! The mothers told me that they really valued the program because it helped make sure there kids ate healthy meals all summer.
Like so many of these summer meals site visits, you alternately feel hopeful and empowered that good organizations are connecting vulnerable Americans with services, while simultaneously feeling distressed at the stories of hunger, unemployment, stress, and even violence. Thankfully, El Centro and its sister-organization Project Hospitality, are a familiar entity within the community, which makes them a good point of entry into the benefits system. A social worker on staff facilitates full-benefits screening (including online applications for SNAP and Medicaid) and a separate meal program for parents helps boost the likelihood that mom and dad will show up with the kids.
One more story that I have to share! Ricardo is heading into the 4th grade on September 8th. He loves math, but recess is a close second in his list of favorite classes. He also drinks coffee, or perhaps more accurately sugar with coffee-flavored milk. He put two sugar packets in a little cup with a lot of milk and a bit of coffee left over from the breakfast for the parents. “I like coffee cause its sweet” he told me. He’s pals with Jesus and Edwin and they all huddle around a video game console. They politely put away their game to talk to me and tell me that summer’s been fun and the food at El Centro is mostly good. I’m optimistic they won’t fall through the cracks because I’m confident that the staff and volunteers and community brought together by El Centro won’t let them. I hope Ricardo’s predilection for math and love for coffee turns into a programming career (with caffeine-fueled nights learning code). And I hope they are members of a generation that won’t have to resign themselves to “la vida de los pobres.”
RELATED LINKS:
— Learn more about Share Our Strength’s Summer Meals work
— Help Support Summer Meals Work
September 1, 2011 | 0 comment(s) | Tags: new york, no kid hungry, summer meals
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