Should We Care?
Perhaps you’ve seen posters on campus recently advertising an essay contest. Students are challenged to respond thoughtfully and articulately to the prompt: “Should We Care About the Poor?” As a person of faith my intuitive response is an immediate “Duh?! Of course we should care about the poor!” However, I recognize that people have legitimate reasons to feel differently about this issue, most often having to do with understandings of creating dependency and a lack of self-sufficiency.
Regardless of how each of us might respond, opportunities abound on campus to explore the issue of poverty, especially this week. On Saturday many students attended the Poverty Conference. According to a report in the local paper “The number one cause of hunger is poverty. Randolph College economics professor John Abell urged students to write city council members about their concerns and to join groups such as the Lynchburg Area Food Council, a nonprofit that addresses issues such as food insecurity and access to healthy food in Lynchburg.”
In addition to writing local officials, students will have the opportunity to write federal legislators throughout the week concerning the most pressing issues facing the poor currently. Fact sheets and sample letters will be available for those interested in legislative advocacy.
Some students have been sleeping out in the dell each night this week in an effort to feel more personally the challenges faced by those who go without shelter on a regular basis. Among the “solidarity sleepers” are students who are also fasting from regular meals all week as a way of understanding the struggles of hunger.
Special collections are being taken up to create hygiene kits for those without such daily supplies. Wednesday night a poverty simulation exercise will offer participants the opportunity to role play a day in the life of someone who must rely on government subsidies in order to survive. And on Saturday almost twenty students and staff will travel to Shalom Farm to work in gardens that supply fresh and healthy local produce for food deserts in under-served neighborhoods in Richmond.
As I have shared in the planning and preparation for this week of activities, I have been deeply inspired and encouraged by grassroots efforts of student organizers who do care about the poor and put their beliefs into action. I applaud their hard work and invite others on campus to consider supporting these students through words of thanks and affirmation, participation in the remaining activities and/or offering financial contributions to the solidarity sleepers who are collecting money for local shelters.
May our awareness of the poor transform our hearts and lead us into acts of service. And may acts of service and solidarity lead us into living more simply so that others might simply live.
Peace, Anne