April 2007 Archives

Saturday morning the honors class went to Keystone Communities (I think that’s the name; if it isn’t, then whatever) which is a local food shelf on University Avenue. It was closed at the time so we were given a tour of the place sort of. The lady working there told us about the place and how they operate and who uses their services. There are boundary lines within which their clients must reside in order to receive help. She also said that when the light rail comes through in a few years the dynamics of the area will change and so will the structure of their food shelf. From listening to her, the food shelf is doing amazing things for people that need it. They give 21 pounds to clients each month which may not be a lot, but it probably helps a lot.

Touring this food shelf was sort of like working at Feed My Starving Children. Both provide food for those who need it. The food shelf is not saving people from starvation, but it is providing food for people. It might provide some people to get caught up on a credit card bill, or go to the hospital, or do something fun for their kids. Not having to pay for food enables them to have a little more freedom with their lives. Those kids that are starving have a little more freedom to live with hope on account of their full stomach.

I think it was weird for everyone when we were offered bottled water. Everyone probably thought that it should be given to the poor people that come here for groceries. That was interesting to me. A food shelf that gives food to people that can hardly get by, and she offers some of the food shelf’s bottled water to us as refreshment. She maybe did that because there is an overabundance of bottled water and not enough people are taking it. Maybe this is a situation where we assume that the people in need are less than us and so we should give up our comfortable bottled water for their sake. I don’t think that not taking bottled water is going to do anything to help people. What will help is if we go to that food shelf and volunteer.

Wednesday’s speaker was Glen Crawford who works for Schwan's food company. He explained his personal background and how he became involved with helping the poor. He also gave us insight to how his company operates. His main point was that the different aspects of life must mesh together and not be separated. He feels that his faith, work, and family life have meshed together and he is happy about that. He also gave us some numbers about poverty that were basic, but very important.
Having Mr. Crawford speak was very similar to having Dick Gable (I think that's his name) come in to speak. Both talked about the companies that they were working with. In fact, both have worked for America's 2nd Harvest. Both speakers gave personal accounts of encountering the poor. Both are influential business men. Both have stressed the importance of faith in their lives.
Mr. Crawford had a few things to say that really struck me. First, the encouragement to have aspects of you life mesh together. It was great that he received this advice from a Psalm in the Scriptures. Right now, I don't know if different aspects of my life are meshing together or not. It is good to hear encouraging words like that. Another thing he said was that it is an embarrassment that our country is not able to feed our 25 million starving citizens. He said that we need to be at a point where we are reaching out to the world. He is very true in saying this. He knows how resourceful companies can be. And it is apparent that we have billions of dollars to spend because we are spending billions of dollars every week to fight a war that a lot of people are questioning. Well, hunger is something that cannot be questioned. It is here and we need to take care of it now.