Part 4: summary/conclusions

[tries to answer why this was a useful contribution to anthropology, and what I learned]

Will we let things come to this? Are there alternatives?

I am amazed at what I have gotten out of my volunteer efforts at Food for People. Above all else, I found that many of my largely unconscious middle-class biases against “the poor” (especially "white trash") were painfully exposed (Moo, fall break wk, Romney finally disavows 47% comments).

I am a “progressive” when it comes to the situation of new immigrants in the US because I have seen their faces, heard their stories, and witnessed many of their experiences (RCA, Ch 1). I thought it was the immigrant experience that made some people so impoverished, hopeless, and desperate. However, at Food for People (and as a reflection of Humboldt County’s demographics) most of the shoppers are “white” (like me), and I found them to be much more diverse (and “human”) than I expected of "tweakers," "bums," and "post-70s hippies" (Moo, fall break wk, Local blog post on poverty and hunger).

I remembered how the white farm workers from Oklahoma were revealed to be human in John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath." It was Steinbeck's ability to reveal the humanity in those that had been stigmatized by society that made the book (and subsequent movie) a classic. While the city elite in Salinas, California may use him as a tourist draw today, Steinbeck was vilified, and his books were burned and banned throughout California and elsewhere for decades! I hope that my students will read it someday, to see that even white citizens of the USA were marginalized and persecuted by American growers and the coercive institutions supporting the elite of that time.

In the 1930s, poor white people were disparaged by many in the media and politics as undeserving "hobos, "commies," and "Okies." The CHP set up roadblocks on the Arizona border to keep out "trouble makers" that might fight for better pay and working conditions! Today, new stereotypes keep many Americans from having much sympathy for the destitute; you can probably think of many reasons why you don't want your money going to help "bums," "hippies," and/or "druggies" that you see on the streets. Local governments in both California and Arizona are currently trying to close food-banks because of many of these same sorts of biases, or lack of empathy (Moo, fall break wk, Hitler to Mother Teresa, AZ town tries to close soup kitchen, CA town tries to close food bank). The "Us" versus "Them" dynamic that is both biologically rooted and culturally constructed (Krissman, wk 4) is still with us...

Too little has changed from the Depression era... "Ghost of Tom Joad" (the common-man hero in Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath") still informs revolutionary aspirations in the new millennium, as the Rage against the Machine video demonstrates. So little has changed that many Americans -- even in "progressive" Arcata -- have become hard-hearted, making it illegal to engage in the basic activities of the poor, such as panhandling, defecating, and sleeping in public... Where do we want these people to go? What do we want them to do? Everyone knows that there are millions of people that cannot find jobs! I guess we just want "Them" to disappear, to die out of our sight, smell, and sound... Some do, with suicide rates escalating, particularly among our shell-shocked and destitute military vets.

Thank the gods that there is an alternative approach, which is to take care of the poor, to try to help them, and to treat them like human beings, even if it is a hassle, and even if it may cost us some of our precious time and money! Yes, some clients are able-bodied. However, many are drug-dependent, and/or mentally and/or physically disabled. Of course, many of the homeless don't have access to bathrooms, laundry facilities, or clean clothes… But many have suffered reversals of fortune in their personal lives that seem to have destroyed their social identities (RCA, Ch 4); others have been the victims of social traumas that affected millions (RCA, Chs 3, 7, & 8), including recession, unemployment, shifts in the global economy, and organized violence by gangs of criminals or governments. Whatever the situation for grownups, many of the Food for People's clients have children and other dependents that are innocent of the vices and/or traumas of the adults! All of these people are human beings that deserve to eat! Do we really want a society where the weak, powerless, poor, and young are left to starve, like in the case of rural Brazil (C&C, Mothers' Love)?

Which causes more poverty: drugs or war?

Most of the clients that I have helped were humble, or even embarrassed to be at a food-bank. After all, they were typically enculturated with America's prevailing ideology of "individualism" (Krissman, wk 10). Indeed, a large portion of our clients, and of the nation's impoverished and homeless are military vets, many of whom suffered physical and/or emotional traumas in our many wars... Many of our clients are  very appreciative of the services that Food for People provides. Most shoppers like the fact that they get to choose among the fresh and packaged foods available. (At many food-bank pantries recipients just line up for a prepackaged, take-it-or-leave-it box of staples.)

Many shoppers at our choice pantry linger over small alternatives; from the dairy category, for example, “Should I get 2 small yogurts, a stick of butter, or a quart of low-fat milk?” These small choices make many shoppers feel just a little bit of control of their lives, which are often chaotic and desperate. Some decline some foods that they don’t like (or are not familiar with), or items that they know they would not be able to prepare or consume due to their particular living circumstances. Examples of such limitations include not having a stove, or a fridge, a kitchen, or even a stable residence.

Food for People staffers try to accommodate the special circumstances of these shoppers by offering more of those items that the shopper will be able to use; however, the federal program goods are provided with a rigid formula, and those items cannot be adjusted to fit an individual’s needs.

The foods in the choice pantry include the federal surplus staples (including canned, frozen, and refrigerated items in diverse categories from animals to plants), as well as local donations of all types. My favorite area is the fresh fruit and veggie table, which I have seen laden with the following good foods: lettuce and spinach (both bagged and fresh), diverse veggies such as peas, potatoes, onions, parsnips, greens of many types, beets, leeks, and more; and, fresh fruits, such as fresh picked strawberries, oranges, limes, and plums. Most of this local produce is organic, which is appreciated by many shoppers who usually have to settle for the cheapest commercial products (Moo, fall break wk, GMOs and the future of food), which they may regard as hazardous to their families' health (Moo, fall break wk, Pesticides threaten soccer kids).

Volunteers will experience it!

After a few hours helping shoppers, during a momentary lull, I found myself rocking on my heels, dazed by the cognitive dissonance I was experiencing (Krissman, syllabus, wk 1, etc.): bumper-sticker stereotypes versus real flesh-and-blood people; small piles of food for the too many in need; faces of joy and of shame; etc. The food coordinator (who is a DJ on a pirate radio in her spare time!), happened by at that moment, and I muttered something like “This place is amazing!” while tears welled up in my eyes. I was experiencing cognitive dissonance by having empathy for those that I had been taught to believe have no excuse for failure.

The part-time DJ later confided that the first 6 months can be emotionally trying – for volunteers and staff alike – due to the desperate circumstances of too many ordinary Americans. Nonetheless, the overall vibe amongst the staff and workers is a cheerful, can-do spirit that is uplifting, not depressing. As with most other experiences in life, each volunteer brings their personal perceptions into this new environment, and over time perceptions change as new experiences change the person (Krissman, lectures, wk 3; pdf on Cultural relativism), and as we begin to view the world through the eyes of other people (RCA, Ch 1).

Why facilities like Food for People are needed in "The Land of Plenty" (also in Part 1 of this blog), and where food commodities are the nation's biggest export, needs to be considered, as well as how a globalizing "agribusiness" has turned food from a basic necessity of life into a commodity that requires access to cash to obtain (C&C's Mothers' love, Krissman lectures, and Moo links, wks 10-13). Of course, in a world with increasing opportunities for employment, this would be less of a problem. But, due to a global depression caused primarily by members of the international elite placing huge and risky bets to try to get ever richer, the economy imploded, and has now stagnated for 5 years (Moo's many links on billionaires/elite, in wk 10 and fall break wk). Many hard working people have lost most of their savings, and are in the process of losing their possessions (RCA, ch 3); food becomes a scarce necessity under these conditions for too many people, and the government subsidized food-bank system is a last frayed safety net seeking to keep people alive and as healthy as possible (Krissman, lecture, wk 10, Colbert clip, and Moo, wk 13, Our hunger games).

In the end, volunteering at a place like Food for People allows people of many diverse backgrounds to experience an ethnographic encounter with other Americans, and allows the whole community to see what it is like to be an anthropologist... Thank you to Food for People, and to our many public and private donors who can use this last link to contribute something to less fortunate as we approach the consumer-frenzied gift-giving holiday season!