Interview
with David Proctor, Director for Media and Social Relations for the
Idaho Foodbank
Proctor: Hi Alicia. I’m glad you want to look into the issues of
hunger and poverty. In our country we have 50 million people who aren’t sure
where their next meals will come from, yet our Congress seems determined to cut
the help those people need. At the same time, we waste $165 billion worth of
food every year. There is a documentary coming out March 1 titled “A Place at
the Table.” It will be available on demand before it will be in a Boise
theater, so it might be worth your time. It addresses hunger on a national
scale and points out that the problem isn’t scarcity. There is plenty of food.
But as a country we are not willing to get it to the people who need it. Let me
see if I can answer some of your questions.
Birch: From the
Idaho Foodbank's standpoint, what can be done by individuals in Idaho's society
each and every day to help combat the issue of poverty and hunger? Can 1 person
really make a difference?
Proctor: This is not an
uncommon question. Yes, one person can make a difference. Every volunteer hour,
every can in a food drive, every dollar donated makes a difference. We have
people who donate 20 hours a week on a regular basis, almost like part-time
employees. There are others who come once a year for a few hours. We have
people who hold huge food drives (like the Letter Carriers drive) and some who
do them in their neighborhoods. We have people who donate their pennies, others
who donate a few dollars a month. We just got a donation from a woman in
Mountain Home who died recently. She was a widow who lived in a single-wide
trailer and donated over $300,000.
We can provide three meals for every dollar, and
every can of soup or jar of peanut butter will end up in someone’s kitchen.
Yes, it all makes a difference.
When people ask us what
we need, we tell them, “Food, funds and friendship (volunteers).”
Birch: Do you
have any additional information or stories regarding the issue of poverty and
hunger in Idaho and how the Idaho Foodbank has helped a family get back on
their feet during economically hard times? (These stories were sent to me via
email.)
Proctor: Here are two long pieces that people
have written for us. I have some shorter ones, but almost all are about people
in trouble, not success stories. Those are hard to find.
My name is Dawn. I am the face of hunger in Idaho. I am the
stories of the people you just watched in that video.
Many people think those of us who need food assistance are
nothing but dead-beats and leaches; if we would just put the bon-bon down, get
off the couch and get a job, life would be splendid. Ah, there’s a nice
fantasy. The truth is that most of us are not dead-beats and leaches. We have
jobs. We have families that need to eat. We have children who are wondering
when dinner will be ready. I had children who were wondering when dinner would
be ready. One time, instead of telling my children I had nothing in the house
to make for dinner, I called my ex-husband and made-up some excuse about
needing him to watch the kids. That way I could take them to his house and they
would get dinner.
I eventually went to Community Ministries for help. I was
ashamed that I had to ask for help. I felt welcomed and not judged. They gave
me a big box of food. Healthy food. I was ecstatic that I could put something
in the cupboard and fix something for my kids to eat.
I am a single mom who has always worked full time, who RARELY
receives child support and whose extended family has needs of their own, so I
have been the sole means of support for my son and myself for quite some time.
When the recession hit a few years ago, I was laid off by my
employer who was a bankruptcy attorney. Three weeks later I began to receive
unemployment which was helpful but certainly did not replace what I was making.
And all the while I was looking for a job.
I started to apply for every job that I could. Eventually I
found myself applying at McDonalds. They told me I was over-qualified. I was
feeling desperate and defeated. I realized that if I was going to adequately
take care of my son, I was going to have to ask for help. For me, this was like
admitting defeat.
Everything
went well at the Health & Welfare office. What I was not prepared for was
how society would treat me. The first time I received my food stamps, I went
shopping for the whole month. It seemed like the smartest way to plan.
When people at the grocery store saw my cart, they were not
pleased. I had purchased meat, fresh vegetables and fresh fruit. I didn’t know
buying healthy food was frowned upon. There were rude comments, eye rolling and
whispering--- people pointing at my cart—even some hostility from the cashier.
I started shopping late at night so I might avoid all those judging people. I
even considered shopping in another town so no one would know me.
In January 2011, I finally found a full-time job with the State
and in May of that year I received my last disbursement of food stamps. While
my son and I were standing in line to purchase the last groceries I would have
to use food stamps for, a woman in front of me in line started to chat with me.
She said, “I should have known better than to come to the store on the first of
the month with these losers and their food stamps. Don’t you feel the same?”
Knowing exactly how I am when it comes to judgmental people, my
son told me not to say anything to her “Please Mom, don’t!” I told my son “I
have to!” I had always made sure that my son had no idea that I was receiving
food assistance so I quietly told her I received food stamps so she must think
I’m quite a loser as well. I said “I’m sorry you feel this way when you don’t
even know me.” I was not going to stand in the same check-out with this person
and as I moved my cart to another lane she called out, “Well, you don’t LOOK
like you’re on food stamps!” Several other customers heard her. My son heard
her. I was mortified. This was like a sucker punch for her to say that…in front
of my son. Nobody WANTS to feel this way.
My name is Dawn. I may be the face of hunger in Idaho, but
thanks to you and The Idaho Foodbank, parents and families, like me, do not
need to face hard times or hunger alone nor do we need to feel ashamed. Your
generous donations really do make a difference…a difference to real people,
like me.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Dear Idaho Foodbank,
I thought I’d drop you a
note and let you know how things are going. I can’t believe it’s been almost
two years since we’ve visited! Things are going well for my little family. My
twenty-two-year-old son has finally begun a life of his own. He’s now living
and learning at our local Job Corp. I am so proud of him. My daughter is almost
six years old, loves to fish, is starting school in the fall, and is bright as
a penny.
Things are going well for
me, too. I’m in graduate school, pursuing a degree in Composition and Rhetoric
so that I can teach Basic English to non-traditional students, like me. I only
have about sixteen months of school left. I am looking forward to graduating,
finding a job, and getting my family back on the right track financially. It
will feel great to have a couple of bucks in the bank account and not have to
worry about if I’ve got enough to cover groceries for the rest of the month.
College has been the most
difficult and rewarding journey of my life; working at my small in-home
daycare, being a wife and a mother, interning when opportunities arose,
starting a new career midlife, all while attending school has meant a great
deal of juggling and more than a few tears of frustration. But, I’m doing it.
I’m doing it, in part,
thanks to you. College is expensive. There is always some unexpected expense
that pops up: a computer repair, a book I need to purchase, or a car breakdown.
If you hadn’t been there to help me out, I’d have been forced to choose between
my family going hungry or my dreams of completing my degree. Your help has fed
more than just my family – you have provided nourishment for my soul. Thank
you.
I’ve been thinking about
our twenty-year history of give and take – being a young teen-mother in need of
assistance, to a financially stable daycare owner that created a small foodbank
in the garage in your honor and donated turkeys every Christmas and
Thanksgiving to a middle-aged woman in search of an education to provide
stability for her family – and I wanted to tell you how much I value our
relationship. You’ve done a lot for me.
Now, I want to do
something for you. Every year the daycare children and I grow a garden. We
measure the plants, as they grow. We count the number of vegetables we harvest.
I try to make it a learning experience. This year I thought I might teach them
a new lesson – charity. We are enlarging the garden and have always had bushels
more veggies – tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, and
cucumbers--than the daycare can consume. Could you use this produce? Or maybe
you know someone who can? I thought, maybe, with your approval, the kids could
bring the food down with me and see where it goes.
I am sorry my gift is so
humble this year. I wish I could spend time with you, but I have more on my
plate than I can handle, already. Let me know about the produce.
Your friend,
Chelle Gluch
(Chelle is now in
graduate school at BSU and hopes to teach at CWI)
