In the center of this gritty landscape, TASK has been operating since 1982 with a three-fold mission: to serve ample, nutritious meals; to help patrons live lives of self-sufficiency; and to improve quality of life for all who come through its doors.
By Peter Wise
Do we need a new kind of soup kitchen for America?
One in six -- that's how many Americans do not have enough to eat and face the pain and indignity of hunger on a regular basis, according to Feeding America, the national anti-hunger organization. Almost 50 million Americans endure chronic hunger, including more than 15 million hungry children -- an increase of approximately three million from 2008 to 2014. Those who are hungry live in our cities, our suburbs and our rural areas. They are our neighbors.
Increasingly, the hungry are former middle-class Americans unexpectedly thrust into the ranks of the poor by the recent recession. Massive declines in our manufacturing sector due to globalization coupled with ever-increasing productivity have eliminated millions of living-wage jobs in this country.
So, what are we to do with all this apparent misery in America? Let's not forget that we are the nation that pulled ourselves out of the Great Depression and helped rebuild Europe through the Marshall Plan following World War II. We pride ourselves on our ingenuity and our ability to meet challenges head-on.
Surely, we have empathy for our neighbors in need. And we already know what programs and initiatives are needed to reduce poverty: evidence-based solutions such as expanding high-quality preschool, making higher education accessible, providing affordable housing, expanding job training, ensuring living-wage jobs and employing people to rebuild our dangerously aging infrastructure.
We also know which federal programs directly reduce hunger in America, so we should increase funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP -- our nation's most effective anti-hunger program) and expand school-based breakfast, lunch and summer feeding programs for children.
But, as food activist and journalist Mark Winne says in his book "Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty," "the bridge from empathy to the political will necessary to create profound institutional change is a wobbly one." So, given the apparent absence of political will, it is hard to see government addressing chronic hunger in America in any significant way in the foreseeable future.
Therefore, to answer the question asked at the start of my column, I am forced to say yes, we must and should build more nonprofit soup kitchens across our county.
Building more soup kitchens is obviously only treating the symptoms of poverty and critics say it is merely a Band-Aid approach to the problem. In part, I agree, but when you have an open wound that is bleeding, you must stop the bleeding.
Further, I am not suggesting the stereotypical soup kitchen of our grandparent's generation - ladling out soup from large, steaming pots to long lines of unfortunate people. Rather, I envision the creation of a nationwide network of what would be more like community centers, central hubs of services for those living in need.
A good example of this type of service is the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen (TASK) in New Jersey's capital city. Trenton was once a proud and vibrant industrial town, but with the loss of manufacturing, Trenton began its distressing downward slide into hard times. Trenton is now grappling with problems that inner cities face across our nation.
In the center of this gritty landscape, TASK has been operating since 1982 with a three-fold mission: to serve ample, nutritious meals; to help patrons live lives of self-sufficiency; and to improve quality of life for all who come through its doors.
And those doors are open to all, no questions asked. All who come are treated with respect and hospitality. TASK is a very busy place and provided more than 250,000 meals this past year.
Many who come to TASK have been traumatized by their difficult lives and see little hope for a brighter future. So, in addition to meal service, TASK provides case management services as well as a robust all-volunteer adult education program with tutoring in basic math, literacy, computer training and preparation for the high school equivalency test.
The range of quality-of-life programs includes visiting nurse services, mail delivery for those without permanent addresses, birthday celebrations, a well-stocked library of adult and children's books, distribution of hygiene bags, and the list goes on.
Yet another wonderful part of TASK is its creative arts program -- a vibrant mix of poetry and story writing, music, painting and photography -- again an all-volunteer operation. Art shows and musical performances at outside venues are now commonplace, as well as sales of works of art.
TASK is a nonreligious, nonsectarian nonprofit with a large, diverse donor base and it receives less than three percent of its funding from government.
I believe that nonprofit soup kitchens such as TASK, while obviously not the ultimate solution to poverty and hunger in America, are an appropriate response to our current crisis.
Until our society develops the political will to effectively address growing hunger in our country, I encourage others to seriously consider starting central hubs of service all across America to help those in need avoid the pain and indignity of chronic hunger.
Peter Wise is the former executive director of the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen (TASK). The author, along with Irwin Stoolmacher and Martin Tuchman, has written a comprehensive how-to book "Mission Possible: How You Can Start and Operate a Soup Kitchen" (Open Door Publications, 2011). This book is based on the TASK experience and is available as a free download from www.startasoupkitchen.org.
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