A Real Face of Poverty

I went to the store yesterday to pick up a few healthy items for my refrigerator.  I didn’t have a large selection of grocery stores to chose from because I live in Roselawn, a neighborhood close to becoming “a food desert”— where there are no fresh fruits and vegetables available.  I had to choose from corner stores, “Save A Lot” (with limited fresh fruits & vegetables), “Walgreens” and  “Dollar Tree” (where everything in the store cost $1.00 an item).

Krogers left our neighborhood a long time ago and the nearest one would have taken up too much of my gas and energy to get to.  It was snowing heavy and I was pretty sick; I was coughing and sneezing– so needless to say, this sista chose Dollar Tree to shop for my needed food items. I really didn’t have a lot of money to spend because I’ve been trying to cut  my food budget. I’ve been on this quest to eat more healthier– to be honest– I’m trying my best to move to a plant-based diet and be more conscious of what I’m eating without breaking the bank.

I walked to the back of the Dollar Tree store to get some bags of frozen fruit.  My plan was to find some frozen mango or pineapples.  Well, when I got to the back, there were several empty shelves and most of the frozen fruit was gone.  This young mother was there and she was literally throwing most of the frozen fruit bags into her basket. (I thought to myself , wow, someone else realizes that Dollar Tree offered the best deal too! Ten 12oz. bags of frozen fruit for $1.00 meant this price was even better than the 64oz. bag of frozen fruit that Walmart sells for $9.97. )

“We can use all of this fruit to make smoothies”, she said to her two small children.  They were holding the shopping baskets for her, as she continued to put bags of frozen fruit into their baskets.  (My heart smiled because this young mom reminded me of myself.  Although we were poor growing up, my mom always showed us how to make a dollar stretch and get the most out of what we had. So as a young mother and even now, I’ve learned to stretch that dollar really good.) That’s what brought me into Dollar Tree on that day.  I’ve been stretching dollars.  If truth be told, that’s what we all do at one point or another in our lives.  It’s called survival.  And many of us are just one or two pay checks away from this thing we call “Poverty”–  not having enough money to meet basic needs including food, clothing and shelter.

However, poverty is more, much more than just not having enough money for our basic needs. So I thought about the faces of poverty that people in leadership roles are painting for the community to see.  We are saturated with images of children being sent to school hungry, often with the smell of unbathed sweat, matted hair and torn clothing– and we’ve named this thing “Childhood Poverty” (like it’s a singular problem to solve by just providing a free lunch) or to appeal to those with purse strings– to pull at government dollars that often go to research and studies or money that is used to line the pockets of those who want to give an image of swooping down to save those in need.  We are even saturated with images of unwed mothers on welfare buying designer clothing and purchasing hair weave and fake nails like they’re the perpetrators or cause of the problem.

So those of us who look at this thing called poverty may even look at it with an attitude of disdain. The real face of poverty isn’t just found in these examples.  We have to start looking at it from a place of “I’ve been in your shoes and I really know what you’re going through” and “I came out– let me, not just tell you, but let me show you how to change some things”.  Poverty doesn’t have to be a destination but it is a place or condition that we have passed through on our way to…

So today, I share, amidst all who have an ear to hear, “I am a real face of poverty”– A sister shopping in the food section of Dollar Tree to get frozen fruit because there’s not and abundance of fresh fruit or vegetables to buy in my neighborhood.  I am a real face of poverty– A sister stretching every dollar and dime to make ends meet.  Many of us have been there at some point in our lives. I looked at the young mother and saw a mirror. That’s the part of me that connected with her shopping in Dollar Tree yesterday.

And as we continue our war against poverty, childhood poverty or whatever we choose to call it–that’s the kind of warriors that we need on the front lines of this battle- those who have lived this thing!… Those who can relate to what they’re fighting against; and those who will remember “….but for the grace of God, there go I.”