The Poor are the Purest Conservationists

So, for AmeriCorps Week we camped out at the farmers market to tell people about AmeriCorps. As were were sitting there, friends of mine from the Getting Ahead class were coming by and we were chatting. I noticed they all had bags of clothing with them. Lots of bags. Then I remembered that it was St. John's "Open Closet" day.

Twice a month on Saturday from 8-noon, they have a free store. I need a new pair of shoes, and even $10 is outside my budget right now, especially since my bike repairs are going to be like $50, so I thought I'd run over and see if I can find some shoes. What I discovered is the culture of poverty.

For example, when I first arrived I couldn't get into the store because a family of like 8 people, who I would observe as being Latino because of their skin color and that they were speaking Spanish, were coming out the door. Each had a bag or two of the clothing. Inside were several more, mostly women, carefully picking through the clothing. The clothing was only roughly sized so it took a lot of work to pick out goods. There were lots of men's and women's jeans, and modest price-point clothing.

By looking at the brands of clothing available, and the types that had been selected for the store, the people giving to St. Johns were lower-middle class. The brands, although mostly 10 years old or so, were from places like JC Pennys, Sears, and those kind of retailers. Even in the suit section [I also was looking for work clothes] were unlined and mostly polyester. Quality clothing is made of linen, cotton, wool, or would be a polyester crepe, not a polyester twill. Anyway, this is the story of two classes.

I wrote a paper in college about how thrift stores are like archeological sites. In my research (although this never got into the paper by the end) I read this book about the beginning of thrift stores. Thrift stores are recycling. They are part of a system. At the top, clothing is designed and built. The clothes are produced and it takes energy and planning to get them to the right stores in places all over the world. It takes oil, both in transportation, and oil to even make the polyester. Oil is controlled by those with the most power and money. The power feeds itself oil in these clothes. The middle class consumption of it is immense. It is the primary consumption.

Well meaning people know they consume a lot so when styles have changed, bodies have changed, and they recognize they have excess, they cast away their clothing in a culturally appropriate way - a type of philanthropy - by giving it to Goodwills, Salvation Armies, and non-profits so it can be re-used by someone not on the same consumption level. This is a second generation of the energy of oil.

So, if you think about it, people - not just the trendy hipsters - but the people whose situation dictates they shop or get clothes from these free stores are the ultimate conservationists. It isn't the people with low-incomes who drive out to Asbury to the Goodwill. The poor shop local out of necessity.

The ones I observed there were all complaining because of the rain. They had walked there, children in tow in second-hand strollers.

The sad part is still how oil prices most directly affect people in poverty at the same time as they are saving it. Fluctuations in transportation costs and that unpredictable fluctuation represents a higher percentage of their total income. Of my total income.

So, as I was leaving the store (with the one item that I could find up to my standards, but sadly not a pair of shoes) another woman and her 2 kids was also leaving the store. I think I paid attention to her because last night at Dubuquefest, my friends were talking about the huge number of disfigured and inbred-looking people who were there. I knew several of the people they were pointing out from Getting Ahead and Hillcrest Wellness Center. I stood up for the people I knew, but I think I should call out that negative judgmental behavior from my friends more.

I mentioned in passing that I hope she didn't have to travel far in the rain. She said it wasn't far. Her shopping cart/stroller was filled with bags of clothing. I asked if she needed help carrying the stroller up the stairs, and she accepted. As I was leaning down to help pick up the stroller with the baby in it, her other daughter was holding an obviously second-hand doll. She was really proud of this polyester (oil) and plastic doll she had just got. This doll had been loved by someone else and now it was going to be re-loved by her. That doll is a the ultimate form of oil conservation.

Stories from Poverty

I have been under the impression that the goal of one of my programs is to remove some of the barriers to mainstream financial institutions so families can build assets. It is also to re-engaged those who may have accounts but don't know how to use them to build assets. People who are in poverty (both situational and generational) nearly all fall into these two categories. These are who programs like mine have targeted in other cities and been successful with.

I sent the marketing team some Pew research and 2 other case studies of un-banked and under-banked people in markets that also did programs like ours. The audience is women, often with young children, 20-35 year old, new Americans (some people call them immigrants), minorities, and people who live in densely populated areas. We can point to the neighborhoods on GIS census maps.

My envisioned target population fits squarely in the disengaged people focus of VISTA work. The suburbs doesn't even show up on the maps of where our disengaged populations live.

I knew there was an underlying middle-class ethnocentrism but I chalked it up to the those involved being removed from the realities of poverty. It isn't that they don't care, they do care a whole lot, but they don't have the language to even talk about the situation. The new marketing plan is like something out of The Ugly American.

Here is another true story of what it is like in poverty, one from this evening.

I had a drs appt today. I'm lucky enough to have insurance, but I don't really understand how it works. I'm really fearful that if I go to the doctor for a follow-up it won't be covered because the insurance only covers 1 doctor visit a year. To pay my co-pay, of all $5, I had to break out my parking quarters and change purse. I got strange looks from the receptionist, but I paid it and I don't have to be afraid of being short $5 in my bank account.

Then I had to go to HyVee to fill a prescription and ran into a friend of mine from the Getting Ahead class - a current Circle Leader. While I waited for my prescription, we were looking at treats she could take to an event her daughter was involved in at St. Lukes. She was going to have to use her food assistance credits to pay for it. She is about 3 months pregnant. She was borderline diabetic before the pregnancy [the link between poverty and disease, ESPECIALLY diabetes is very very strong - stronger than race and disease], but because of the pregnancy she is  now full-on diabetic. We were looking at the sugar free options and comparing unit prices. Sugar free treats are far more expensive. We weren't comparing unit prices on half-gallons of ice cream, it was unit prices of the more expensive but single-serving options. She could buy 5 seventy-five cent 3 oz cups-the cheapest minimum amount-instead of the $2 more for a far more economic purchase. But she wasn't going to spend the extra $2. In addition to this joke of unit price "savings", diabetes now puts an extra burden on monthly finances. So does the pregnancy. She can get pre-natal medical care before the baby is born, she can get WIC after the baby is born, but the diabetes and its exponential corresponding costs and pressures on her financial situation are eternally playing out in the grocery store line.

Life in poverty is a melee of negative situations. For Teresa it is  negotiating parenting responsibilities, social concerns [what would people think if she said she couldn't contribute to the community center's event that her daughter has been involved in for several months - she would lose social prestige- one of her few assets] budgeting her minimum nutritional food assistance credits, pregnancy, and a new frightening health concern.

But my friend, Teresa, is left out of the new program's picture of prosperity. I breaks my heart.

In another note, this is the same Black woman who has been used as an example of the success of another program about the mom who started out in a Getting Ahead class with her kids in foster-care. Now  she is trying to go back to school, and has had her kids returned to her. I think her goal of getting a job when she is 3 months pregnant is unlikely because she would have to tell the employer she will need a few weeks off come November.

My co-worker Jodi is also expecting in November. It is amazing how different Teresa and Jodi's pregnancies will be.

When Poverty and Unemployment Are Misdiagnosed

http://takingnote.tcf.org/2011/05/when-poverty-and-unemployment-are-misdiagnosed.html



This is a really good read. My adviser from college is a Medical Anthropologist who does a lot of work in this field (cultural barriers to healthcare and nutrition.) She does it in rural Idaho, and in central and south America. Surprisingly, rural Idaho and Central American poverty have a lot in common.

This article makes me upset. I just got back from the grocery store and I looked through my cart and as I checked out I was thinking "I'm not buying much food" thinking I was getting groceries for 2 weeks. When the bill came up, it was just over $90, which is just over half of the $172 a month I get in food assistance. I only got 4 bags of groceries. I didn't buy any candy, soda, meat, or carbs except one box of pasta. It isn't that I don't have enough food, but living like this creates habits that are undermining of healthy behavior.

Through the "assistance" program we are also unintentionally being taught to live hand-to-mouth. Food assistance is calculated on minimum nutritional standards. The program is set up that way so that a bad few can't abuse it. Even if my great idea comes true of somehow helping people nutritionally plan out the spending of the assistance they get, they will never have an at-home food safety net if they get the minimum nutrition.

Coming from, what I think was pretty middle class, I grew up with parents who were children of farmers. We always had a 2-yr supply of food at the house. My parents were Mormon, so some of it was apocalyptic preparation, but even as a faith tradition it comes from the history of farmers having a food storage as an asset in case agriculture failed. When I was a kid [and even in college when I'd go eat at the Restaurant of Dad], it insulated our family from food insecurity.

Sure, I can buy the 20 pound bag of rice or potatoes, but the percentage of my food assistance money that it cost means I have to trade it for broccoli or apples. This echos my complaint that unit price means nothing to someone living in poverty.

This also makes people receiving assistance most at-risk for food price changes due to the fluctuating price of gasoline. Transportation costs effect the price of the fresh and most nutritional food first and most dramatically. Maybe I deserve to only eat rice and beans [I chose to be poor, right?], but honestly, I take pride that I live in one of the richest countries on the planet. I think I deserve to eat the apple. Removing my choice to pick to eat an apple is an insult to my very cultural identity as an American, and robs me of my dignity.

I've thought about using the food pantries in town to begin building a food asset in my home. The pantries give away the types of supplies that end up in the back of the cabinet anyway. They are a valuable community asset. The liquidity of that asset is still a barrier. They are only open during the middle of the day 3 days a week. Have a job and you lose access quickly.

Geeze, I hope most people don't over-think this stuff like I do, or I'm going to have to start a support group. Oh, wait, that is why we have Getting Ahead - a poverty recovery support group.

How to talk to your kids about the Zombie Apocalypse.

It is ever parents' responsiblity to prepare their children for the zombie apocalypse, unless of course the kids are just being bred for food for the parents. For those who don't see their fat children as food, this book can help.

"We’re sure you already know this, but May is zombie awareness month,  which means there’s no better time to start preparing your kids for the inevitable zombie apocalypse. It can be hard to start a dialog with your kids about what to do once the infection spreads, because you can’t talk about it without exploring the possibility that you will become infected. Author Matt Mogk wrote That’s Not Your Mommy Anymore: A Zombie Tal, to help you teach your children how to figure out whether or not you’ve become a part of the zombie horde. And, more importantly, what to do if that happens. So what are you waiting for? Order a copy and teach them all about zombies – it’s the right thing to do. $8"

Zombie Ants!

Yes, dead ants reanimated by a fungus in their brain. Luckily, it is not transferable to humans, as far as we know. But stay alert.

http://www.news.com.au/technology/sci-tech/tropical-fungus-in-thailand-rainforest-taking-transforming-carpenter-ants-into-walking-zombies/story-fn5fsgyc-1226052753828