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“Journal: Soup Kitchen Praxis” Shannon Tota World Views & Values Fall 2009 Tota 2
November 22, 2009 I just arrived home from the soup kitchen. With a classmate, I have spent the past five hours in the Queens Galley Soup Kitchen in Kingston, New York. I am tired, but satisfied, in the way that only a good day’s work can bring. Today was full of new experiences and made me feel a sense of fulfillment that I haven’t felt in a long time. As my mother once told me, “we are beings made for service. Helping others just makes us feel good.” I believe that helping others makes us happy because it gives us meaning in our own lives. Philosopher and theologian Cornel West explains this: “A rich life [is] trying to leave the world a little better than you found it…This is true at the personal level…[but there’s also] a political version of this. It has to do with what you see when you get up in the morning and look in the mirror and ask yourself whether you are simply wasting time on the planet or spending time in an enriching manner.” 1 To fulfill our potential as human beings on this earth, we must work to make a difference in the world. This difference can be as small as helping one person, one day at a time, but it must be done. Not only that, but when we help others, we are really helping ourselves, by enriching our lives. Although I was not looking forward to doing a pedagogical service that included paper writing, research, and grading, I was really looking forward to getting back into the service experience, for this reason. With my life still in the chaos of moving to a new school, 1 Loeb, Paul R. (1999). The Soul of A Citizen: Living With Conviction in a Cynical Time. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, p 5 Tota 3
I had unfortunately stopped doing my regular volunteer work in my community. I really felt that today was an opportunity for me to again begin doing what makes me happy. Beyond that, today I experienced the world from a different point of view. From the outside, the Queens Galley Soup Kitchen is unimpressive. In fact, from the inside, the building is not impressive either. What did impress me today was the feeling of the place. The building is a strange connection of three houses into a twisting, confusing maze of hallways and odd shaped rooms. I was told that the building housed thirty‐five residents at any given time. The kitchen features a large stove, a sink, a cracked linoleum island, and hundreds of shelves packed with a multitude of food items and utensils. I marveled all day at the spirit of the Queens Galley. I had expected a somber atmosphere. Instead I found hope and lightness. I am speaking, of course, of the people I encountered in the kitchen, people with whom we cooked elbow to elbow, and grew fond of in such a short period of time. Quinton, the head chef is a large man, full of smiles. He firmly and kindly rules over his kitchen, jokes with us, but keeps a strong eye on the cooking. His strength and his flexibility are evident, and necessary when cooking for so many. I got the impression that his job is extremely difficult, but he is always laughing in the kitchen. He brings light to an otherwise extremely dreary and crowded kitchen. Working under the command of “the King,” as he likes to be called, is a tiny woman. Upon meeting her, I was first confronted with her great inner and outer beauty, and then by Tota 4
the heart wrenching sight of several deep gouges running down her cheek. There is no doubt about it in my mind: this woman is one tough cookie. She reinforces this idea by bossing us around as soon as we set foot inside her kitchen (“the King” had stepped out for an hour) even as we towered over her. However, with “the King” around, she giggles like an innocent schoolgirl. To talk to her and laugh with her, her scars struck me once again. It was almost as if she had seen and survived the evil in the world and decided to work for the good. Her strength made me question my own. Would I be able to face what she had and still come out smiling? Perhaps I was being fanciful, but I got the immediate impression that she was different from anyone I’d ever met before and would ever meet again. I also could not help but be reminded of Victor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning. Frankl, who was an Austrian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor, contributed to the world of psychology on the subject of the Holocaust. His most poignant quote, in my opinion, is when he is describing human nature: “Everything can be taken from a man or a woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.” 2 Even when everything else is stripped from a person, they can still choose their outlook on the world. When I thought of the woman, with whom we cooked, I was brought back to this. She had experienced hardships, had been marred, most likely by the hand of another, but had still chosen to be positive and help others. It was remarkable. There is one other thing that makes the Queens Galley different from all the other soup kitchens I’ve experienced. I found there a “come one, come all” spirit. “Customers” 2 Frankl, Victor. (1946). Man’s Search for Meaning. New York: Pocket Books. Tota 5
only have to be polite and not intoxicated or drugged to gain entry. Basically, the rules are outlined as such‐ no violence, no drugs/alcohol, and no meanness. If you follow these rules, you are welcome. The chef did tell us that some people come just for the delicious food, even if they do not need it, and they are treated like everyone else. After smelling it all day, I can attest that it is that good. The Queens Galley also treats their people differently than other places at which I’ve worked. Instead of the traditional line up, people sit at tables in the dining room. At five o’clock, they are served soup and bread as a first course. Everything is served in real dishware, with real cutlery. The soup tonight was a tomato‐based vegetable with rosemary. For the main course, we served roasted pork with green beans and garlic‐mashed potatoes. I was particularly proud of the mashed potatoes, as I had made them earlier. Dessert consisted of donated pastries from Panera Bread. To drink, there was water, coffee, tea, and hot mulled apple cider. Leaving the soup kitchen, I felt a sense of accomplishment. Today, I have fed hungry people. However, there are many sides to every experience. I did meet an individual there who brought up some very interesting, and unpleasant, questions. He was a very doubtful person. Volunteering at the Queens Galley from a near‐by church, he had joined a group that came this once to help during Thanksgiving. I found his cynicism saddening, although I could understand how he had gained it. This man told me that he had always thought that more could be done than just creating a soup kitchen. While I agreed with him on this point, he revealed to me that he often used that as rationale for not volunteering at soup kitchens. Although I did not Tota 6
confront him with my thoughts on this matter (after all, he was there helping this time), I feel that this kind of attitude is the reason why we haven’t had enough change in the world to date. While he meant good at heart, his demeanor clearly said that he did not believe the soup kitchen would help beyond feeding one person one meal at a time. I disagree. The Queens Galley is more than just a soup kitchen. It is a place of hope. It teaches people to hope that their lives will be better, that other lives will be better, and that people really do care for each other. It gives individuals their dignity along with their dinner. The soup kitchen was more than just a place where people ate. It was a safe place, a gathering place, and a healing place. However, his doubt made an impression on me. While serving the people, I felt disconnected. Today, I unfortunately felt like I was just feeding another hungry face. I realize that the distinction, for me, is that I do not know these people. I do not know their stories, their families, or even their names. I am a psychology major, and as a person who studies the human condition, I feel a compulsion to learn as much as I can about people. At the same time, as a person who has experienced meanness, I am also cautious. Unfortunately, this reserve stopped me from connecting with the people. After thinking about this, I find that I can relate to them because of the fact that I do not know their names. Being one of the masses is an experience that I’ve found to be quite unpleasant. This year, as I’ve changed schools, I was a stranger to the people on campus and they were strangers to me. The hardest thing for me was that no one said my name anymore. To Marist College, I was just another face. I was no longer an identity, because no Tota 7
one knew me. It is an extremely disheartening feeling, and one that I worked to shake off. Now, thankfully, I have begun to know people and they have begun to know me, but from this experience, I understand what it feels like to be a “stranger in a strange land.” I need to use this to be more empathetic to the people I’m serving. I’m sure that it will allow us to make more of a connection. November 29, 2009 Returning from the soup kitchen once again, I found my experience to be different than the previous one. While I had enjoyed the time spent in the kitchen preparing food, this time I was in more of a serving position. I interacted more with the people I was feeding. After last time, I really thought about why I had felt that disconnect, and what I could do to make a difference this time. I decided that it was important for me to learn one person’s name. Her name is Debbie. It was her birthday, and her husband asked us if there was something special we could do for her. So, Quinton, “the King,” whipped out a cake and put candles on it. We carried it out lit and sang “Happy Birthday,” to her intense embarrassment. It was really striking today, that these people are just like anyone else. Today, I saw the humanity in the people we were serving. They were eating together, laughing together, and just being together. I think that the last time, I was a bit intimidated by them. They were strangers and they often acted in strange ways, to my eyes. However, I reflected upon my sense of disconnection after last week. Tota 8
In many ways, the people I fed in the soup kitchen were strangers to me, just as I am a stranger to them. I do not know their names, and they do not know mine. This was extremely difficult, because I am a person who will always want to know about other people. It also caused a barrier between us because I am cautious in uncertain situations. The fact that these people were strangers to me only reinforced my caution and uncertainty towards them, as I am sure they felt that same reserve toward me. My reservations transmitted themselves to the people with whom I interacted. This time, I made a conscious effort to become acquainted with the people I was serving. I tried to be more open with the people, and I found that it really helped me to connect with them. I think that is what the Queens Galley is really about: connection. It tries to prevent people from becoming forgotten, becoming unknown. There, people know each other and care about each other. This is what I had been missing last time. I had been missing the basic human connection. So, today, I found that I really made an effort to connect and it began to happen. I began to forge connections, not only with the cooks, but with the other volunteers, the hungry people, and the community. The importance of human connection cannot be emphasized enough. Not only have I found this to be personally relevant, but it held great significance in the life of Morrie Schwartz, a man who is biographically depicted in Mitch Albom’s philosophical text. Albom recounts the life and worldview of a beloved sociology professor in his Tuesdays with Morrie. 3 Morrie viewed the world in a unique and comforting way. He saw the beauty of love in the world and he continued believing in the simple pleasures. Morrie tells Mitch, 3 Albom, Mitch. (1997). Tuesdays With Morrie. New York: Random House. Tota 9
“love is the only rational act.” 4 He believed in loving each other, and the impact he made on others’ lives was evident. Learning from Morrie, I must also work to give my love freely, even to those I barely know. The actions I take in my life must reflect this, and giving of myself in service is one way I can give love. Public service also creates connections, which Morrie appreciated. He places specific emphasis on the connection of human touch: “You know what's funny? Some people just don't like to be touched. I always found that rather odd. When we're babies, we live to be touched…to be held, cuddled by your mother…comforted. We never seem to get enough of that. We need it so badly.” 5 Morrie believed that we are all connected to one another on this earth and that one of the most vital parts of our connection included human touch. Like the giving of food, touch demonstrates our love and gives comfort. When feeding each other and touching each other, we show that we truly see each person who comes into our lives. We are showing that we truly care. As Morrie says, “we can never get enough of that.” 6 Connection, like touch and food, is life giving and sustaining. We are meant to live so we can connect with one another, not only on an intellectual and spiritual level, but also on an emotional and human level. Morrie understood this, and it shaped the relationships he had. Through his example of connection, he influenced Mitch to become more open and loving, not only to Janine, his wife, but also to his brother. 7 Just as it changed Morrie, my understanding of human connection drives and molds me in every aspect of my life. 4 Albom, Mitch. p. 52 5 Jackson, Mick. (Director). (1999). Tuesdays With Morrie. [Motion Picture]. United States of America: Carlton America. 6 Jackson, Mick. (Director). 7 Albom, Mitch. Tota 10
Through my connection with the people at Queen’s Galley, my eyes were opened to a world I had never really experienced. From my praxis work I found myself wondering why these people were hungry. They seemed just like everyone else, and I questioned why they had fallen on hard times while I had not. In researching world hunger, I found that hunger was more widespread than I had previously believed. 49 million people in the U.S. live in households where they either are hungry or are at risk of being hungry, including 17 million children. 8 I had never before thought about situations where hunger is a constant threat as being called hunger, but I began to realize that there can be no other name for it. Even the threat of hunger means that such families do not have enough money to receive their basic needs without extreme struggle. I also found that in the world, almost 16,000 children die every day from hunger related causes. 9 So, I found myself wondering, why are 923 million people in the world hungry? 10 There are many reasons for world hunger. I personally believe that the greatest factors are the unequal distribution of resources, poor and unequal infrastructure, and greed. The factor greed has on poverty, and thus hunger can be seen in Latin American farming practices: “The amount of land per worker has dropped in developing regions, with the exception of Latin America, and forecasts are for this trend to continue.” 11 This is because it is more profitable for farms to be mechanized instead of hand operated. 8 "Why. (2008). "The Facts About Hunger & Poverty." Retrieved from http://www.whyhunger.org/resources/just‐the‐facts.html 9 Why. 10 Why. 11 WomenAid International. (2003). "Hunger." Retrieved from http://www.womenaid.org/press/info/food/food4.html Tota 11
Therefore, corporations buy up large parcels of land and mass‐produce crops with only a handful of workers. Many families, who had previously lived on and worked the land, find themselves without homes and jobs. Families who still remain, struggle to compete with the productivity of machines. Another byproduct of mass‐producing farms, is the lowering of crop prices. This adversely affects small farm owners, who are unable to survive on cheaper crop prices. This has been occurring since the postcolonial times and is exploitation at its basest form: workers are used until they are no longer as profitable for large corporations and then they are discarded. In Honduras, for example, the Chiquita Brands International disrupted the socio‐
economic setup of the times. 12 Chiquita decimated villages in its quest for profit. When certain villages refused the court‐mandated evictions from their homes, the Honduran military (under the mandates of Chiquita) marched into the villages with “tear gas, bulldozers, and rifles.” 13 Not only did Chiquita push out villagers, but it treated its workers unfairly. Unfair, low wages, few benefits, active prevention of labor union formation, and unenforced labor protections were just some of the terrible practices that were imposed on the Honduran people. 14 In a world where companies with such practices, and organizations like it exist, is it any wonder why poverty exists? Another reason for world poverty and hunger is the unequal distribution of wealth, and the unequal and poor infrastructure of many world governments. 70 percent of the 12 Gallagher, Mike. & McWhirter, Cameron. (1998, June 28). “Bananas, Bullets, and Bulldozers.” The Cincinnati Enquirer. Retreived from http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Transnational_corps/BananasBullets_Chiquita.html 13 Gallagher, Mike. 14 Gallagher, Mike. Tota 12
world’s wealth belongs to the developed countries, which make up one‐quarter of the world’s population. The Third World, which makes up three‐quarters of the world’s population, shares the remaining 30 percent of the world’s wealth. 15 Struggling Third World governments have a hard time creating strong systems of government that help poverty and hunger. Also, the vast separation of the “haves” from the “have‐nots” breeds intense social and political unrest, which further worsen the government’s strength in any programs it may create to give aid. Beyond this, there is a trend of intense corruption among the leaders of Third World countries, in which foreign aid frequently serves to strengthen corruption and exploitation. 16 Although this investigation of wealth attempts to explain the poverty of the world and in turn, the world’s hunger, it does not explain why, specifically, people in Kingston, New York are hungry. There are many reasons for the existence of poverty in one of the most prosperous countries in the world. People do fall upon hard times, especially with the current state of the economy. But, even then, there should not be such dire need if the community, and the federal government supported those who were down on their luck in a better way. I think that the real reason hunger still exists in our local communities is that people allow themselves to forget about others, without feeling bad about doing it. They no longer care about the hungry of the world, or even of those in their own town. This is because they do not know those people. To many, the hungry are just another face in the crowd without a name. There is a separation, and those strangers no longer matter. This is not the way we were meant to live among each other. This is not the way I want to live. So, while I cannot 15 WomenAid. 16 Joint Economic Committee. (1999). Can IMF Lending Promote Corruption? Retreived from http://www.house.gov/jec/imf/corrupt.htm Tota 13
try to solve the infrastructure of the government in the United States or of the world at the moment, I will do what I can to prevent hunger in Kingston, by helping at the Queens Galley. I will work to prevent that community from becoming nameless‐ not just another hungry face in the crowd. Food can be so simple, but so vital. It can be purely for sustenance. Then, it is often simple, and hearty. It can be a celebration of life, in the form of a lush, bountiful feast. It can be used to forge new connections and strengthen old ones. In its greatest form, the preparation of food can be an expression of love and an act of inclusion. It was through cooking and serving at Queen’s Galley that I came to be a part of a loving community and to learn how to give back the joy I had received. Tota 14
Work’s Cited: Albom, Mitch (1997). Tuesdays With Morrie. New York: Random House. Frankl, Victor (1946). Man’s Search for Meaning. New York: Pocket Books. Gallagher, Mike, McWhirter, Cameron (1998, June 28). “Bananas, Bullets, and Bulldozers,” The Cincinnati Enquirer. Retrieved from http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Transnational_corps/BananasBullets_Chiquita .html Jackson, Mick (Director) (1999). Tuesdays with Morrie. [Motion Picture]. United States of America: Carlton America. Joint Economic Committee (1999). Can IMF Lending Promote Corruption? Retreived from http://www.house.gov/jec/imf/corrupt.htm Loeb, Paul R. (1999). The Soul of A Citizen: Living With Conviction in a Cynical Time. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, p 5 Why (2008). "The Facts about Hunger & Poverty." Retrieved from http://www.whyhunger.org/resources/just‐the‐facts.html WomenAid International (2003). "Hunger." Retrieved from http://www.womenaid.org/press/info/food/food4.html