Last week in a posting called Fifty/Fifty I talked about how difficult it is to meet basic needs when 50 % of the USA population lives in poverty or near poverty. I referred to a phone call with a lady seeking aide from our St. Vincent De Paul Conference. Our conference is short on money yet this woman needed a voucher for beds, a refrigerator and a stove. I was wondering out loud what two of the three I could give her.
When my friend and I arrived we found the woman in an empty house. She had moved north to found herself and her children homeless. Her children were taken from her and she was living in a homeless shelter. She finally had gotten a rental unit but could not get her two children back until she had beds for them to sleep on and a stove and refrigerator to store and cook food. Her two children were now with her sister until she could provide them with the basics. Her sister was near homelessness and she was struggling to get her place in order so she can get her children back and perhaps her sister’s child, if need be. We decided to give her a voucher for beds, refrigerator and stove and just pray we can get the money to fund this project.
A number of people have been trying for years to get the St. Vincent De Paul central office to restructure the ways it determines who will get service. Right now it is based on an outdate parish boundary system that does not even exist for the poorest areas of the city. However, hope came today when a key member of St.Vincent De Paul said he would attend the meeting next week to make our system more effective. I am convinced people would give time and money to the work of St. Vincent De Paul if they were challenged and given a chance.
I got a call today from Will Allen, founder of Growing Power who told me of some new efforts to provide healthy and affordable food for those in need. It was good to hear of this great work to provide good food for those in need.
It should not be such a battle to make such a simple change to serve poor persons more effectively but it is. Those in power in this country have made everything hard to do so we get discouraged and give up trying to make change. But there is no giving up. We may not get the results we hope and work for but we need to do our best.
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