I used to volunteer at the Helping Place. It’s a local charity. Because I have engineering degrees, I helped them with their computer program. They would take donated computers, fix them up, load donated software, and give them to poor students. This helps poor kids compete academically.
When I first showed up, I was given a proper tour of the facilities. There was a huge food pantry where people came to get groceries.
When a poor person came looking for help, they were assigned someone who would talk to them about their situation. Sometimes we’d help them pay a utility bill. We almost always gave them groceries.
When I was taken on a tour through the pantry, the volunteer who staffed that area explained how they helped a poor person fill their cart.
“First we take them through the dry goods aisle,” he said. “Depending on family size, they can get up to 4 items from here. There’s rice, beans, pasta, cereal. If they have more than 2 kids, they can get an extra box of cereal. Also, here’s the bread section. We always have extra donated, so we let them take as much as they want.”
I saw packages of Wonder Bread sitting besides carefully wrapped artisan loaves. I also saw boxes of crackers, instant mashed potatoes, instant macaroni and cheese meals and cartons of oats in this section.
Then he showed me where they had a good selection of produce — lots of veggies in addition to sacks of onions and potatoes. “Most of the time we have fresh seasonal vegetables because the local farms will donate whatever doesn’t sell at the farmers’ market that morning.”
“I tell people to take as much as they want, no limits. But a lot of them just don’t like salads and don’t know how to cook vegetables. I tell them it’s good for them but they’d rather have another box of pasta. They always take fruit, though. And they like canned vegetables.” At the end of the day, the volunteer confessed, the staff sometimes took what was left, rather then let it spoil.
Next he took me down the canned goods aisle. Here I saw not just canned corn and peaches but also tins of tuna and SPAM and bottled pasta sauces, cans of soup and a few bottles or jars of things like ketchup and pickles. There were also jars of peanut butter and jams and jelly.
“We also sometimes have things like coffee, juice, canned milk and tea in this area,” explained the guy showing me around. “There are limits to what they can take, to make sure we have enough to go around.”
Then he led me to the refrigerated section. “They can have a gallon of milk, and a carton of eggs. And a package of fresh meat.”
Finally there was a small aisle with snacks. There were salty snacks like potato chips on one side and sweet snacks like candy bars on the other.
“They can have one of each,” he said. “Plus, if there are kids, we give them a choice — they can have ice-cream, if it’s available, or a boxed pie.”
“That makes me curious,” I said. “You are mostly giving them essentials. But then you also give them junk food.”
“We don’t want to punish the poor,” he said. “Most of the people who come here are families going through a hard time. They have children. It’s important for children to have nutritious food, but it’s also good for them to have an occasional treat. We want them to know that we care about them and so we give them more than just the basics.”
I saw this same attitude when I reported for duty in the computer area.
When a child came in to get his (or her) computer, we gave everyone a walk through. It surprised me that some parents were unfamiliar with how a computer worked. We made sure to answer all questions. We wanted them to feel comfortable before they took it home.
In addition to essentials like a word processor though, we always loaded a couple of games onto the hard drive, so the children could play. We didn’t want to give them only the bare minimum.
I felt good about this. Poor people need the essentials. But the poor also need to know we care about them. If giving a child a game or a carton of mint chocolate chip helps that child feel special and loved, then I am all for it.
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This post was previously published on Medium and is republished here with permission from the author.
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