This is a crisis
Please help at your local food bank, pantry, soup kitchen, or buy food for a neighbor. Do something.
For quite some time, I had been seriously considering giving up writing altogether, but I refuse to. If my writing is not perfect, I sincerely don’t give a f**k.
There are more important things going on. I saw a very disturbing video over the weekend about people losing their SNAP benefits, plus government workers working for free and the long lines showing people being turned away due to the lack of food. Absolutely unacceptable this is happening, especially in a “wealthy” nation, but here we are.
At the yoga studio I currently belong to, I recently started attending a weekly Satsang, which is talking about stuff off the mat. The theme has been acceptance, judgment, and compassion. While we were talking about compassion, I finally had my turn to speak, and I flat out said, “Where I am from, this is going to be ‘real talk.’ This is going to probably upset some people here, but I am 100% unapologetic for what I am going to say. If anyone has some compassion as they claim, then we need to seriously consider what is happening with people in this country about to go hungry and this is absolutely unacceptable, especially for it to happen here. People need to get up and do something, whether it’s volunteering at a food bank or helping people in your neighborhood out. Please let your networks know. Show compassion through action.”
The room was quiet and people were acknowledging what I was saying. But there were a couple of them who were uncomfortable, but I did not care. This is a perfect example of needing to speak up and getting people to reflect on what compassion really is. I was rough sounding. Hey, I am from Oakland, CA, and I meant everything I said. Not doing it with people getting their feelings hurt. The yoga instructor said I should post Food Bank resources in our group chat, and she seemed glad I spoke up. She said to me “I am a karmic yogi.” Well with that, I told her after the session I was fired up over this video I saw, and I had to say something. No point in sitting around and complaining and not doing anything, which she agreed. I shared resources in the chat and got a few likes, but whatever. That’s beside the point. I got the message out.
Last month, I volunteered at a local food bank and signed up for more shifts. I also heard about another food bank network which I just returned from this morning working a shift of sorting food to be distributed to the community. After the sorting and packaging was done, the volunteer leader showed up numbers, we packed over 2100 boxes of food to be distributed county-wide, which will be 2500 meals for people this week. He also shared more shifts that are being added due to the shutdown, so I plan to sign up for more shifts. I do want to check out the pantry, so I can meet clients and talk to them.
There is this assumption that homeless people are the only ones hungry. That is false — during our orientation he showed a slide of the populations served:
Children
Single Parents
Senior Citizens
Veterans
Neighbors
Sadly, government workers are also added to the list. Anyone could go hungry, and that should terrify everyone. So if you are in a position to help people out, please do so in your local community.
Resource:
Thank you for speaking up, LuaSol. That took courage and it was 100% the right thing to do. I don't understand why someone would feel uncomfortable with what you said. If someone is hungry, how about we feed them? That sounds what a Christian might say anyway.