June 4, 2007

June 5 - Hunger Awareness Day

They were playing a role, but they got the point

On Monday, workaday middle-class people stepped out of their jobs into a different world where they had no job, or had a job whose payceck couldn't possibly cover monthly expenses.

Or that they would have to have a transportation voucher every time they went anywhere, or that they would have to leave their children at home alone if they were to keep their job. Or that they would have to steal from their neighbors to feed their family.

About 80 Charlotte-area residents gathered Monday at Covenant Presbyterian Church for the Missouri Community Action Poverty Simulation. United Way staffers, who put on the simulation, said the program has been used more than 30 times in the area. In photo at right, WBTV's Brad Stafford films Monday's "poverty simulation."

Monday's event was  instigated by Unity Against Hunger and Poverty, a Charlotte collaborative of nonprofits, as a way to mark National Hunger Awareness Day on Tuesday, June 5. Friendship Trays is a member of Unity. Some of those attending were board members of the Unity nonprofits.

In the space of 90 minutes, participants met their new "families," learned their roles ranging from head-of-household to preschoolers and, depending on their age, took up their responsibilities -- shopping, paying the rent, going to work. At the end of the four truncated "weeks," nearly half the families had been evicted for failure to pay bills. Scores of people were hungry. And lawlessness -- drug dealing, stealing, even prostitution -- blossomed throughout the room as participants scrounged to find the cash that would keep family units afloat.

At the end, Facilitator Natalie Burnham asked participants to name things they did during the simulation that they never expected they would do.

"You stole something? Allowed children to wander? Husband left you? Stole drugs to make money? Took drugs? You were going to sell your body? OK, we haven't had that one before....

"You had to do this for only one hour, one hour. And you robbed people. You were going to sell your body. You went places where people who have to deal with this every day never go. It's important to think about that.

"It's important as providers ... to understand the strength and resiliency of the population you're serving. To not become depressed, to not become a substance abuser, to not need mental health services, to get off the couch and out of bed every day, just to do it again, takes a lot of strength and a lot of skill.

"And unfortunately, we fail to look at them like that sometimes. And so we create systems that really aren't helpful.

"So I challenge you to think about what kind of help is helpful, and would have helped you here. What would have made a difference? What would have helped you be more successful?"

In the simulation, participants found that waiting in line took so much time at each pay station that, even if they had the money, they didn't have time to pay all their bills on time. Transportation difficulties proved a constant irritant. Single-parent families yearned for more adults at home, noting the toll on youngsters forced to take on adult responsibilities. But two-parent families said work responsibilities made dealing with family issues nearly impossible.

Connie Purcell, cast as a bored 8-year-old, said she "wanted friends so much" that she had hungry friends over to eat the family's food. "Everything was so crazy nobody seemed to notice." Purcell said her simulation experience helped her understand the attraction of gangs: "It's no wonder that people go in search of any kind of companionship, no matter what the consequences are."

Lyn Sutterlin said she had seen hunger simulation programs conducted in churches and other places since the 1960s. "But this has a level, I don't know, it's a heavier dimension for me because we're post-9/11" and it has become commonplace to value security over empathy. "If I think of my neighborhood street, there is a huge percentage less consideration and concern for one another now than five years ago."

Solutions?

"One of the most paramount things is education," said Tony Montoya. "A good bit of it is that people don't know how to work the process."

In one unscripted moment one participant, cast as an elderly person living alone without any money, offered to move in with her neighbors and provide child care in exchange for food. Her neighbors accepted with delight.

One participant suggested that schools make sure students know how to run a household before they leave high school.