After running plates of food and being on my feet waitressing last Friday night, I wasn't in the mood to go out and meet my friends or even be relatively social. Thoughts of my couch, the latest episode of Scandal and sleep motivated me through my last work hour. Once I was cut I quickly slid out of work, made my way home and onto my couch and started Scandal. However , not even Olivia Pope's latest scheme to save the presidency kept me awake.
We all know the scene. 2am I woke up in my living room lit up by the flickering lighting of late night infomercials. I am disorientated yet familiar with the sounds coming from the TV: a Tony Robbins infomercial. I laid back down and closed my eyes hoping Robbins would motivate me to get up and go into my own bed. His talk was about why certain people succeed and why certain people fail. He attributed a person's ability to succeed as a result of their resourcefulness. Robbins described resourcefulness as an ability to create and communicate human emotion to spur action. I went to bed sleepily contemplating his talk.
Come morning time, I thought about his talk in relation to hunger in the Commonwealth. Just within Massachusetts alone there are a wealth of groups and resources working hard to solve hunger and malnutrition. The Walk for Hunger is an excellent example of a community's resourcefulness to raise funds for a to cause close their heart. Other examples of a major few programs and groups are : The Supplemental Nutritional Action Program, the Mass Department of Public Health, the Department of Transitional Assistance, the Department of Housing and Community Development, WIC, the Greater Boston Food Bank, and the Northeast Regional Anti-Hunger group. The list could literally go on for pages-and rightfully so. Proper nutrition is critical to overall health, growth, and development. People who struggle to afford or access nutritious foods often rely on inexpensive and unhealthy food that leads to increased risks of being overweight, obese and a slew of other systemic health issues. And unfortunately, as shown by WGBH's report on Food Assistance Programs and Health, SNAP users often still rely on unhealthy staple items to stretch their budget.
This comes as no surprise to many of us who make similar choices in consideration of our own budgets. Personally, I can't afford to buy fresh produce every day. I can't afford to buy the freshest meat or poultry every day, organic vegetables every week, organically sourced and sustainably farmed coffee beans from Allegro. My dad and I brew Dunkin' Donuts coffee at home in the morning. If I am running late for work and have to buy food while I am at Derby Street Shops in Hingham, I am hitting up the Whole Foods salad bar and putting the lightest vegetables available in my salad. My personal record is $2.93 for a salad (anyone reading this who shops at Whole Foods is impressed). So when I see a woman next to me in line at Whole Foods with an Allegro coffee, coconut water, and a cart full of bags, spending $100 of her own money along with $96.00 on her EBT SNAP card, I feel a tinge of almost disbelief. It's the end of the month. How does this woman still have $96.00 to spend and a sizable remaining balance on her EBT card? I can't even afford to spend $7 on a salad.
My point isn't that we all feel our wallets pinching and that it should be reflected in the budgetary amounts allotted for SNAP users. My point isn't that I am "slumming it" with my Dunkin' coffee or packed lunch-because I am not and don't feel like I am. It's simpler than both of those things. My first point is that the majority of us feel that pinch in our wallets and act with resourcefulness to make ends meet. My second point isn't to draw attention to the fact that we have the resources to end hunger and have yet to do so because we haven't been spurred on by enough emotional appeals or simply put, don't care. The talented people who work at Project Bread and compassionate people who volunteer their free time distributing or donating food could and should contest otherwise. The "people don't care" perspective isn't fresh, positive, or even accurate. My second point is that we ALL viscerally care about one dimension of the food system and thus the food assistance system. If you don't care that people can't afford fresh vegetables on SNAP, that's your prerogative. If the woman in front of you at Whole Foods is spending money from a government funded program on luxuries you can't justify to yourself, you can feel emotions- not because they're necessarily right-but because you're a human being. If you do care about young children who can't access nutritious food by no fault of their own or if you do care that the obesity rate in the United States is out of control, you can't deny that you feel something for an aspect of the food system. If we can channel all of the diverse resources working to solve hunger to appeal to the diverse range of emotions people feel about the food system (besides hunger and compassion), an open dialogue could emerge about policy and legislation many people have minimal understanding of. I know this idea isn't groundbreaking, but there needs to be more innovative emotional appeals to connect aspects of the food system people think are unrelated to spur meaningful discussion and ultimately, action.
And my third and last point is that Tony Robbins is quite possibly the most motivating person in the entire world. After hearing his infomercial one too many times and having coaches spit his quotes at me throughout my high school and collegiate athletic careers I looked him up. Conveniently, he was featured on an NPR TED Radio hour show a couple of weeks back. So, if you have an extra 12 minutes to kill, I suggest listening to his TED talk about drive and success.
-Samantha Bennett
Come morning time, I thought about his talk in relation to hunger in the Commonwealth. Just within Massachusetts alone there are a wealth of groups and resources working hard to solve hunger and malnutrition. The Walk for Hunger is an excellent example of a community's resourcefulness to raise funds for a to cause close their heart. Other examples of a major few programs and groups are : The Supplemental Nutritional Action Program, the Mass Department of Public Health, the Department of Transitional Assistance, the Department of Housing and Community Development, WIC, the Greater Boston Food Bank, and the Northeast Regional Anti-Hunger group. The list could literally go on for pages-and rightfully so. Proper nutrition is critical to overall health, growth, and development. People who struggle to afford or access nutritious foods often rely on inexpensive and unhealthy food that leads to increased risks of being overweight, obese and a slew of other systemic health issues. And unfortunately, as shown by WGBH's report on Food Assistance Programs and Health, SNAP users often still rely on unhealthy staple items to stretch their budget.
This comes as no surprise to many of us who make similar choices in consideration of our own budgets. Personally, I can't afford to buy fresh produce every day. I can't afford to buy the freshest meat or poultry every day, organic vegetables every week, organically sourced and sustainably farmed coffee beans from Allegro. My dad and I brew Dunkin' Donuts coffee at home in the morning. If I am running late for work and have to buy food while I am at Derby Street Shops in Hingham, I am hitting up the Whole Foods salad bar and putting the lightest vegetables available in my salad. My personal record is $2.93 for a salad (anyone reading this who shops at Whole Foods is impressed). So when I see a woman next to me in line at Whole Foods with an Allegro coffee, coconut water, and a cart full of bags, spending $100 of her own money along with $96.00 on her EBT SNAP card, I feel a tinge of almost disbelief. It's the end of the month. How does this woman still have $96.00 to spend and a sizable remaining balance on her EBT card? I can't even afford to spend $7 on a salad.
My point isn't that we all feel our wallets pinching and that it should be reflected in the budgetary amounts allotted for SNAP users. My point isn't that I am "slumming it" with my Dunkin' coffee or packed lunch-because I am not and don't feel like I am. It's simpler than both of those things. My first point is that the majority of us feel that pinch in our wallets and act with resourcefulness to make ends meet. My second point isn't to draw attention to the fact that we have the resources to end hunger and have yet to do so because we haven't been spurred on by enough emotional appeals or simply put, don't care. The talented people who work at Project Bread and compassionate people who volunteer their free time distributing or donating food could and should contest otherwise. The "people don't care" perspective isn't fresh, positive, or even accurate. My second point is that we ALL viscerally care about one dimension of the food system and thus the food assistance system. If you don't care that people can't afford fresh vegetables on SNAP, that's your prerogative. If the woman in front of you at Whole Foods is spending money from a government funded program on luxuries you can't justify to yourself, you can feel emotions- not because they're necessarily right-but because you're a human being. If you do care about young children who can't access nutritious food by no fault of their own or if you do care that the obesity rate in the United States is out of control, you can't deny that you feel something for an aspect of the food system. If we can channel all of the diverse resources working to solve hunger to appeal to the diverse range of emotions people feel about the food system (besides hunger and compassion), an open dialogue could emerge about policy and legislation many people have minimal understanding of. I know this idea isn't groundbreaking, but there needs to be more innovative emotional appeals to connect aspects of the food system people think are unrelated to spur meaningful discussion and ultimately, action.
And my third and last point is that Tony Robbins is quite possibly the most motivating person in the entire world. After hearing his infomercial one too many times and having coaches spit his quotes at me throughout my high school and collegiate athletic careers I looked him up. Conveniently, he was featured on an NPR TED Radio hour show a couple of weeks back. So, if you have an extra 12 minutes to kill, I suggest listening to his TED talk about drive and success.
-Samantha Bennett