Roger Wesby

The View from the Soup Kitchen

It's Complicated

My New Normal

Our church's Soup Kitchen used to feed 40 to 80 guests. Lately, we have been averaging 150 – 175. There is an air of desperation that wasn’t there before. White, black, Hispanic, old, young, and entirely too many children come to eat and get groceries at our Food Pantry. Unemployed formerly middleclass professionals sit with the poor, handicapped, addicted, mentally retarded, and illiterate. There’s no recovery in sight for any of these folks.
The Stock Market posted solid gains for 2010 and the Holiday shopping was apparently “back on track” but each time we have a recession, more people from the middle class slide into poverty while fewer and fewer people control more and more of the wealth.
A half a dozen financial institutions that brought the world to the brink of disaster escape prosecution and receive bail outs while Republican senators refuse to grant citizenship to young immigrants who are willing to die for this country. Following the mid-term elections, the new “class of 2011” will drastically cut social programs. Our Food Pantry will receive even less help than it currently gets. The level of desperation will increase.
What happened to JFK’s:”When the tide comes in, all the boats rise?”

309 St. Pauls Ave, Stapleton, Staten Island, NY 10304