Why the food bank almost made me cry.

Today I volunteered at the Capital Area Food Bank in Austin, TX.  Because, ministry in the wider community.

While I was there I spent 3 hours sorting cans into various bins that would then be repacked into 25lb boxes which get sold to partner agencies to distribute to those in need.  (Food Banks sell the food you donate at grocery stores, churches, etc. to food pantries, soup kitchens, and other agencies...this is NOT a bad thing.  It is typically sold at $.05/lb or less to agencies and this fee goes to operational costs of the food bank.  That means more food to more people, with less overhead costs.)

So, these cans come from a variety of places, Randalls and HEB sell bags that have been prepackaged with a certain dollar amount of food, HEB sells slips with dollar amounts which then are translated into canned goods which get sent to the food bank.  Places that do food drives will collect cans and send them to the food bank.  Food comes from all over the place, and someone has to sort it into appropriate amounts and check to make sure the food isn't past dates or bad or otherwise non-sellable.

This is a BIG problem, in the two food banks I've volunteered at...people are really willing to give away that can of condensed french onion soup that expired in 2007 thinking "well, hungry people would rather eat this than die" and then they feel good about themselves for being so generous.  Only, there's a big problem when that happens....it literally goes from their pantry, to the can sorting people, who READ THE DATE, and then from there straight into a landfill.  So, falsely generous feels good about themselves person just felt good about making someone else throw away their trash.  At the Capital Area Food Bank, food items (with the exception of baby food) are allowed to be out of date by various amounts of time (cereals, 12 months....tomatoes, 18 months, canned vegetables, 3 years....etc) and these items are still incredibly edible....just don't donate something that expired in the Bush presidency or earlier!

Anyway, so I was sorting canned proteins (think chili, beans, tuna) into their holding container and started pulling out can after can of vienna sausages.  Also in my box to sort was some coffee creamer that didn't have a lid and a bag of spaghetti that had to be taped up because someone had used part of it.

And I almost had to leave the room because I was on the verge of tears.

When I was in Urban Servant Corps for internship, we were able to purchase food from the food bank (which significantly helped us stretch our meager grocery budget) and we regularly purchased things like the 25lb boxes of vegetables, or 25lb boxes of beverages, or 25lb boxes of canned meat.  Basically, any time we could buy a box of assorted things we did it, because you often got some variety as opposed to just a case of canned peas.

And when we opened these boxes (now, this part would generally be done by the staff of the food pantry) it was pretty dehumanizing to get people's rejects.  Opening up a box of grains to see that we got 3 boxes of taco shells with the box tops for education cut off (as if poor people don't care about supporting their schools), boxes of costco spaghetti with 2 of 6 bags missing and the box taped back shut, and the like made us feel like we weren't even worthy of having real food, but that we were just worthy of having people's rejected items.  And we weren't really experiencing poverty...we were experiencing faux poverty. 

I can't imagine what a person who is already dehumanized enough by society for being unable to feed themselves regularly must deal with...that they are already in a bad place and have to deal with eating people's rejects.

So, for the love of God and the love of people, don't donate vienna sausages to food banks....unless you really love them yourself.  Don't donate K-cups of coffee that you took one out of the package and didn't like so you closed the box back up and dropped it in a donation bin (chances are, the recipients won't have a keurig anyway, so this is not a helpful item to donate...unless they are crafty like we were.  We got a K-Cup pack once and opened every cup, dumped out the grounds into our coffee can, and used them that way.  Again, because we had the time, energy, and thought to do so...luxuries not every hungry person has).

Really, truly, the best way to feed hungry people is by giving money to your local food pantry, or donating money to the food bank itself.  But donating money is not as glamorous as donating items, so if you want to go that route (and keep me volunteering!) please donate things you'd actually eat.  I call it food with dignity.  People deserve to eat like humans, even if their food is given to them by food pantries.  Because with the rising income inequality in this country, you might not always be on the giving end of the food system in our country.

Shoot Me Instead

It's no secret that racism is alive and well in the United States.  

Recently, news was made in North Miami Beach, where officers were found to be using pictures of actual people in their target practice.  Not only were these officers shooting at actual people, but they were black people.  

The chief said that this was protocol, that the officers were learning facial recognition...

Is that because for so long white people have internalized that black people aren't human, thus aren't able to be recognized?  Is this because the police force in North Miami Beach believes stereotypes that black people have different facial features than white people?  Who knows....but what we do know is that they were using mugshots of black people, some of whom were citizens of the city that these police officers patrol.  

What we do know is that police are being taught to shoot black people.  Argue all you want, but when you shoot a picture of a black person right between the eyes, it becomes easier to do that when the living, breathing black face is in front of you.  And this is a travesty.  It's a travesty that this happened, and it's a travesty that it has likely been going on for much longer than this.  It's a travesty that the actions of these officers were defended, and that no punishment is going to happen.  

It's a travesty that the real punishment here is toward black lives.  

It's a travesty that videos like this must be made.  And distributed.  And followed.  

I, as a middle class, educated, white man, don't have to watch videos like this....police assume I'm probably not guilty of anything.  

I, as a middle class, educated, white man, MUST watch videos like this.....to constantly learn about the struggles my sisters and brothers of color face, so that I can stand alongside them.  While I'll never truly understand what it means to be black in America, I damn well will keep listening to black people, keep praying with black people, keep detesting the horrible acts of violence toward black people, and keep educating myself about race in America and using that education to work toward ending violence toward black people.  

An amazing group of (mostly) Lutheran clergy have started a Facebook event in response to this news of target practice on black bodies.  I know slacktivism is a real thing...and I've been guilty of it before, but I'm proud to join this event titled North Miami Beach Police, use our pictures for your target practice.

Clergy people* are being invited to send a picture of themselves in clergy wear to the North Miami Beach police department to use as target practice instead.  It is my sincere hope that these pictures will be used.  Not so that cops become predisposed to shooting members of religious traditions, but because people are used to looking white folks in the eye.  Shooting a picture of a black person is easy, when you're raised in a society that lynches people on a daily basis.  Shooting a picture of a person with the same color skin as you is hard, because you see yourself.  

Maybe, when these cops are shooting up pastors in target practice they'll finally make the link that they're shooting at humans.  And then that will lead them to look at black people as humans too, and not shoot them.  

So, North Miami Beach Police, use my picture to shoot.  I hope you get me right between the eyes, so that you can see that murder of innocent people isn't the answer.  Especially if they are black.  

*It was noted in a comment on the Facebook event by a black pastor that she would not be sending her picture because there were already too many of her friends and family members who had been shot by police.  By participating in this event, and having my photo sent, I understand that I am able to do this because I do not have to follow the 10 steps to get home safely after an incident with the police, but I do hope that it opens more people's eyes to the reality that we live in a country where just because of the color of my skin, I don't have to walk around in fear of police shootings.