Interview #1

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.

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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)