Chris
“Do you need volunteers?” The young man speaking to me was a living, breathing dream for any pantry coordinator:
His hair wasn’t gray. That meant he could probably lift.
He had a car. That meant he could probably haul cardboard to the dump.
I wanted to pinch myself. Was I dreaming?
“Sure, What do you have in mind?” I asked.
“Well, I can probably work one evening a week. I’m ready to get started. What needs to be done?”
After that, Chris showed up every Wednesday and did anything and everything that needed to be done:
mopping the floors.
folding down empty boxes and stuffing them in his jeep until he couldn’t get even one more in the vehicle.
Bringing case after case of canned goods from the storeroom to the pantry room.
Organizing the storeroom.
CHRIS DIDN’T TALK TOO MUCH ABOUT HIS SITUATION. Our culture has this $$$ taboo making it difficult for people in his situation to explain what the real problem is. We’re all ready to bare our souls when discussing sex, crime, illness. But we zip our lips over $$$.
Employers play the taboo card to the max. If the average person in our country only knew how difficult it is for a person to live on a minimum wage, maybe the wages would increase. Meanwhile, the $$$ taboo keeps people from knowing whether Walmart pays better than Target which may or may not pay better than McDonald’s.
MINIMUM WAGE WORKERS HAVE DIFFICULTY GETTING BENEFITS. Overtime, retirement and health insurance are simply not available to most in the struggling class.
Housing poses the biggest obstacle for low wage workers. Many simply cannot afford anything beyond housing and transportation.
Slowly, his story sort of revealed itself over the next few weeks. His job in a big box store in Kingston was an hourly position with neither enough hours or enough wages to buy both rent and food.
HE WAS EVERY WOMAN’S GRANDSON. Peggy assembled his package for take out each week.
We all cheered when he came and were totally grateful for everything he did. We loved Chris. And, as with all things that are too good to be true, he left after a few months to work in another big box store offering more hours and a few more pennies each hour for pay.
Goodbye Chris, we love you – wherever you are.
SEVERAL MONTHS AGO, I WROTE IN A BLOG POST THAT I see the sidewalks of whatever town or city I’m in as nothing more than wards for the untreated mentally ill.
TODAY I WRITE THIS: When I go in a big box store or chain restaurant, I don’t see a person behind the vest or the colorful. What is see, instead, is the collective low wage American worker living in a perpetual state of emergency. Lunch consists of chips or a piece of bread. Home is a car, van, or a sofa somewhere. The loss of a day’s work means no groceries for the next…if there is any money for food after paying the rent and transportation.
POVERTY IN AMERICA IS NOT A SUSTAINABLE CONDITION.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
