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Let’s talk about some things rich and middle class people don’t understand about being poor enough to need food assistance. https://twitter.com/arthurdelaneyhp/status/983680210070638592
1. Food items are one of the most inexpensive “luxuries” people can access. When you have to tell yourself and your family no to almost everything that isn’t a bare necessity, saying yes to a cupcake can feel like a victory.
2. Raw and basic food staples require access to equipment and utilities. If your power or water has been temporarily shut off or you’re living in shared housing, making beans and rice is not as easy as it sounds.
3. Cooking things from scratch that is palatable often requires skills not everyone was lucky enough to grow up with. I went to college with people that didn’t know how to scramble eggs.
4. Cooking and preparing meals is labor. No one is more time starved than the working poor who often shuffle public transportation schedules around multiple jobs and childcare. Not everyone has the time and energy to cook from scratch.
5. People that don’t have food security feel constant stress about food for themselves and their families. Not allowing them to choose foods that feel familiar and comfortable keeps that stress always churning.
6. There is absolutely a time and place to help people improve their diets and create boundaries between food and emotion and/or discourage bad habits, but shaming those with food insecurity just trying to get their weekly groceries isn’t that time or place. Ever.
I learned most of this from listening to others who have dealt with food insecurity and those that offer help that includes full dignity. You can learn it to if you listen to those that actually need help instead of people with philosophical positions.
