In chapter two of Sweet Charity, the author does a very nice job of crunching big numbers down into meaningful statistics. Living on the poverty line around 15,000 dollars a year may seem difficult to imagine at first. But an average American spends one third of their income on food, which would be 5000 dollars for the year. This translates into 100 dollars a week and 25 dollars a week for each person in a four-person family. That’s only a little more than three dollars a day for each person. This astonishing statistic gives the author the right to question the poverty line. The author claims that the biggest problem involving the poverty line is that it was established back when clothing, transportation, and shelter were cheap, which enabled people to actually spend one third of their income on food. However, the prices of food, transportation, and shelter have risen, making it increasingly difficult for the poor to allocate one third of their income to food. After discussing the poverty line, the author goes into depth about the rise of food kitchens and why people end up going to them including reasons such as high shelter costs, unemployment, and inadequate public assistance. However, the main reason why people go to food kitchens and pantries is that they have recently become unemployed. And with unemployment rates high, the short-term unemployed become the long-term unemployed causing people to rely even more heavily on food kitchens.
I found this chapter very interesting. I’ve actually volunteered at a food kitchen before and I’ve witnessed the shame and embarrassment people feel. What really surprised me though was the fact that food kitchens would require people to validate that they are actually poor. Coming to the food aid service is embarrassing enough for many but having to prove that you don’t make enough money to provide for you and your family is even worse. In my opinion, giving to all, instead of rejecting a few is a much better philosophy that food aid services should follow.
1. What can be changed in our society to help people allocate one third of their income to food?
2. Should there be requirements for people to go to food aid services or should whoever feels the need to go be allowed?
To answer question 2, I do not believe their should be requirements. The people who go to these food aid services need the food. Yes, there are people who take advantage of it, but not enough people to create more red tape from the government. It is more important to get food to these people rather than deciding if these people actually need it.
ReplyDelete^^ I disagree. I definitely think there should be some sort of minimum income requirement to utilize these services. Technically, even though we don't, people like you and me who are fortunate enough to have nice meals every night could waltz into these food kitchens for a free meal and use our money elsewhere. Considering we don't spend much time in food kitchens, I'm sure there are some people, but probably not many, who take advantage of the free service.
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