Our group, along with several other select college groups, worked with the Washington D.C. branch of the Youth Service Opportunities Project (YSOP) Washington D.C. branch, which is based out of the Church of the Epiphany. On some days, our group was split into two groups, the Red and Blue groups, while on others, we worked together and in conjunction with a couple of the other college groups, such as the ones from New York University and Syracuse.
Throughout the week, we helped at several outreach programs targeted at alleviating the problem of homeless and hunger in and around Washington D.C. Throughout the week, our entire group, our sub-groups, and the other college groups like us were sent to many facilities in the D.C . metro area including Food and Friends, D.C. Central Kitchen, Bread for the City, CentroNia, Thrive D.C. and many other facilities.
Now these facilities offered us our first token of insight into the true causes and effects into hunger and homelessness, and showed us just how multifaceted they truly were. For instance – when you consider the problems of hunger and homelessness – they seem to fall hand in hand, don’t they? Directly correlated even? Well, initially we believed that to be true. However, in these facilities, we did everything from chopping up cucumbers and onions for meals to be served at homeless shelters, to packaging food for people who suffer from AIDS and cancer, to helping to take care of bilingual 2-5 years olds of low income families. When we initially considered the problem of hunger (perhaps especially because in our mission title, it was grouped with the term homelessness), our beliefs streamlined it along with homelessness. However, in going to all of these facilities, each with different goals and initiatives that attack hunger in their own ways, it opened our eyes to the fact that hunger affects everyone. In America, 1 in 5 children wake up not knowing where they will find their next meal. And while some of these families are in danger of being homeless, it is not the case for all of them. What we realized is that some are of a low-income status due to the unavailability of work opportunity, while others who suffer from chronic medical conditions simply cannot afford to eat right after paying for their medical treatments.
Monday afternoon of our trip, we heard the story of a man that was homeless during the course of his adult life – twice. He began his story by telling his that he was once a man of many spoils and pleasantries, telling us of his former career on Capitol Hill and of his summer home and fishing boat on Chesapeake Bay. He told us that his lavish lifestyle and seemingly perfect family life drew to a sharp halt when his wife of 19 years filed for divorce. It was then that what he had yet to know as a serious depression that had plagued him all of his life, would then take over. In an instant, he found himself taking his last shower and closing his front door for the last time, and that night, as he recalled, he slept on a park bench for the first time in his life. It would be the first night of many in 3 years.
On Tuesday, we worked with a program called Street Sense, which is a newspaper written by the homeless of D.C. and sold by them as well, which serves as a way to help bring in personal revenue and aid in the improvement of their own lives by their own efforts. We were charged with the task of selling 5 newspapers to complete strangers. Does it sound as scary as it was? Well, it wasn’t that scary, but let’s just say that people can get tremendously hostile when you’re trying to sell a newspaper to help the homeless for a mere $1. Most of us couldn’t manage to sell our mere 5 papers, while each of the vendors are given about 100 papers to sell each day, which our mentor, L. Morrow, bragged he could sell within no effort. He told us of how the opportunity to sell these newspapers came as a tremendous blessing for him, and brought him up out of homelessness and into a slightly better condition. As we sold the papers, we saw many of the vendors selling as well, and quite passionately at that.
Stories and experiences such as these helped us to realize that homelessness can happen to anyone for an incredulous slew of reasons, the primary reason being lack of affordable housing. Homeless people are simply people who eat, sleep, dream, pray, breathe, and survive like those of us who are more fortunate – albeit the fact that they have no formal location to live and develop a life within. These stories also taught us that the stereotypes typically dubbed upon the homeless community –lazy, uneducated, you name it—are indeed unfair generalizations to make.
On Tuesday night, we cooked a large meal of lasagna, mashed potatoes and brownies at the Church of the Epiphany for the homeless and those of low income. We were to not only serve those who entered the church doors with a warm meal, but also with equality and with a smile devoid of any pity or stereotyping. I must admit, and I know I can speak for my fellow ASB’ers when I say this, we were quite apprehensive as to how we would complete such a task. However, as the night wore on at some tables, slight chuckles became loud, raucous laughter, and polite conversation turned into easy-flowing debates and discussions. We began to learn a little about those we had come to serve, as their hard faces began to loosen with laughter. We learned that some of the individuals were alumni of some pretty great colleges, mothers and fathers, and even travelers from as far as Ethiopia. As we all agreed later that night during our reflection, at some point during the night, these individuals had become more than just “homeless people” – they simply became people.
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| Our last day with Sarah, the YSOP Program Director! |
- Christina Kelly & Nikita Patel
