Comparing the College Cafeteria to Dinning below the Poverty Line
At the beginning of every school year I have to decide whether to get the $6000 carte blanche meal plan or the next smallest $5900 meal plan because I am required to have one of these two options as an on campus student. It's not a tough decision to go with the carte blanche because it is only $100 more for many more meals. The worst part is writing the check and imaging the money being moved from my account. But for the people of Jubilee Partners, a Christian intentional community in rural Georgia, meals have a much different focus.
The people of Jubilee Partners intentionally live below the poverty line so that they will not have to pay federal taxes, a portion of which goes into the defense fund. This is just one of the many ways that they choose to live differently from the rest of the world. The thirty residents take turns to make the food that is eaten at their communal meals. During my stay I helped three Central American girls prepare an evening meal. As it was an evening meal, we were allowed to make something new rather than just use leftovers. Lunch always consisted of the preceding nights leftovers, fresh salad from the garden, bread, cheese, and peanut butter. If there were no leftovers, as there often were not, we only ate salad, bread, cheese, and peanut butter.
As I looked around the small, simple kitchen, I wondered where were the large stainless steal pots and shiny stove that I was familiar with. The girls instructed me in broken English that I should make bread. With flour-covered arms I mixed and kneaded the dough in an old plastic bowl and smiled as I listened to the excited laughter and rapid Spanish that I could not understand. As Gabby showed me how to roll and form the loaves, I watched as the others make lasagna with synthetic meat from a government surplus. Meat was rare at Jubilee as it was expensive and much of the food they ate came from a food bank. Meat night, which was held once a week, was a special occasion anticipated by many.
Standing in line in the Goshen College cafeteria, I examine the array of food spread before me trying to decide what I want. I had glanced at the menu board as my id was scanned but still am not sure what I am hungry for.
Carver, Raymond. "Cathedral." The Harper Anthology of Fiction. Ed. Sylvan Barnet. New York: HarperCollins, 1991. 1052-1062.
Though not the only country plagued with this issue, some of the United States’ most well-known cities, like Philadelphia, Chicago, and Baltimore, are home to food deserts, which are “characterized by the combination of very few food outlets and high poverty in a given geographic area” (Kato, 2014). Detailed in the Baltimore Sun article, “Baltimore to Give Tax Break to Attract More Grocery Stores”, are the efforts to be rid of food deserts in the western part of the city of Baltimore in Maryland. By implementing a lowered tax incentive for grocery stores, grocers are encouraged to put stores in food deserts, like the Save-A-Lot that was instated in West Baltimore. More grocery stores in such areas is an aid to the elderly and disabled in the community, who have difficulty traveling long distance to get healthy food, and for the community as a whole, which has a large concentration of individuals who are low-income and have trouble paying for high food prices at most grocery stores and a twenty-year life expectancy difference from its wealthy counterpart (Wenger, 2015). This article relates to chapter two of the Tice/Perkins text, specifically the feudalistic views of the poor, namely
Laura McKenna’s article reports on Sara Goldrick-Rab’s research on community college students that struggle with food security. Goldrick-Rab’s survey of ten community colleges nationwide “suggest[s] that more than half of all community-college students struggle with food insecurity” (McKenna). The article explains the two types of food insecurity the research found within the students: poverty before going into college and poverty caused by higher education cost. The study also shows that many of these community college students are not the typical young adults fresh from high school, and that many are individuals with families and jobs and could be part of the factor of food insecurity. McKenna points out how hunger can affect these students’
About six hundred years ago in Europe, the French and the English were fighting for the French throne. Charles VII, the dauphin, was fighting against Henry VI, the King of England (Clin, 3). This war, later known as the Hundred Years’ War, took place during the 15th century. Joan of Arc, a peasant girl from Domrémy, joined the side of the dauphin after voices that she claimed came from saints, instructed her to help (Schmalz). Her influence brought about the end of the siege on Orléans and the coronation of King Charles. Joan was able to rally the French forces and turn the momentum of the entire war around (Clin, 3). Despite being a woman in a time when females were subjugate to males, Joan of Arc was the most influential warrior in the Hundred Years’ War because her leading role in the break of the siege on Orléans, the crowning of the king and her symbolic significance for France were major turning points in the war.
I can distinctly recall spending many early mornings with my mother as a very young child. Endlessly engraved in my memory is aroma of coffee and sprinting down the stairs to my basement to collect my mothers’ uniform from the dryer. And then with a kiss laid upon my forehead, she would drop my siblings and I off at my grandparents’ home to begin her ten, sometimes twelve hour shifts as an ultrasound technologist. Then just as I can vividly recount my mother’s morning routine, I still can picture the evenings I spent with my mother to the same caliber. Simply put, my mother is a wonderful cook. And thus, each evening she would prepare a different meal. And while the meals always varied, her superior cooking skills never faltered. Despite her hectic work schedule, never once did I witness my mother skip cooking dinner for myself, my four elder brothers, or my father.
Toly, D. (2005). "What's in the Package?" Rethinking Grab-and-Go Lunches. Journal of Nutrition Education & Behavior, 37S113-S114.
In both “Hungry” and “On Being Educated,” Joy Castro uses “academic” prose through her use of emotional, descriptive, and explanatory words and sentences. It is through her experience and lense that she is able to connect such little things to such major historical occurrences and creations. When telling a story, Castro does not leave it at one short explanation, but she furthers the conversation. Instead of simply stating that when she moved in with her birth father she ate lots of food and bought lots of clothes, Castro chooses to say that she was “devouring tuna, wheat bread, peanut butter, putting on weight, putting on the clothes [her father and his wife] bought for [her] in bulk at the outlet store, since [she’d] run away with nothing”
According to Dolgoff and Feldstein (2003), “the needs and goals of the Food Stamp Program are to alleviate hunger and malnutrition by enabling low-income households to buy a nutritious adequate diet” (p. 132). The program also improved the market for local merchants to produce food for eligible low-income households and other agencies such as the School Lunch Program which safeguard the health and wel...
Joan of Arc -Joan of Arc was a peasant girl living in Medieval France. She believed that God had chosen her to lead France to victory against England because she had visions, she was soon captured by Anglo Burgundian forces and tried for witchcraft and heresy and burned at the stake.
The mission of the agency is to “provide for the needs of hungry people by gathering and sharing quality food with dignity, compassion, and education”. Volunteers were there to restock the shelves and bag the food for the clients. The staff duties consisted of interviewing clients and making sure the facility ran smoothly. Harvest Hope serves a diverse population residing within Lexington, West Columbia, and Cayce.
Hunger is an issue that is becoming more and more prevalent in cities across the United States. In a survey released last year by the United States Conference of Mayors’ Task Force on Hunger and Homelessness, it was reported that requests for emergency food assistance rose in 21 out of the 25 major cities that were surveyed. Among those seeking emergency food, 51 percent were in families and 37 percent were employed. (United States Conference of Mayors’ Task Force). These findings alone suggest a changing visibility of hunger where many previously middle class families are become dependent on food aid. This change would thus need to be addressed by institutions and interventions, that focus on the issue of hunger. However, in the same report it was found that “In 95 percent of the cities surveyed, food pantries cut the amount of food each person received and soup kitchens reduced meal sizes. In almost all the cities, pantries capped people's monthly visits as well.”(United States Conference of Mayors’ Task Force). While food pantries struggle to handle the increased demand as budgets are being cut, it may be necessary to approach this issue of hunger differently.
She was a peasant girl living in medieval France born in 1412 who by the age of 13 had begun to hear voices which she believed had been sent by God to give her a mission of overwhelming importance. She was being told to save France by expelling its enemies, and to install Charles as its rightful King. Joan convinced the prince at the time to allow her to lead a French army to the besieged city of Orleans, where they achieved a momentous victory over the English. After that Joan of Arc was captured by Anglo-Burgundian forces where she was tried for witchcraft and heresy and burned at the stake at the age of nineteen.
Joan of Arc was an amazing girl with lots of courage and lots of bravery. She fought in what seemed to be an everlasting war with more bravery than most of the men of her time. She never gave up and she never surrendered to the enemy. Her life was one filled with hard fought battles and risky adventures. She risked everything to do what God summoned her to do. Her story is one that proves that Joan of Arc, over all others, is truly the best heroine of all times.
Freud, Sigmund, and James Strachey. An Outline of Psychoanalysis. New York: W. W. Norton, 1949. Print.
Joan of Arc, also known as Jeanette d’Arc, was born in Domremy, France in the year 1412. So long ago that the things she succeeded in were incredible. She was a typical rebellious peasant until she ran away to join the army. Disguised as a man, the French Army suspiciously allowed her to command the army. Joan led a series of strategic victories that were used more than centuries later. Once the English got hold of Joan, they burnt her to stake of crimes such as dressing as a non legal man. Then, she was only 19 years old. Nearly 500 years later, Joan was then canonized as a saint.