by Scott Baker
There’s no doubt that a stigma exists for those who need to seek emergency food assistance, whether that’s in the form of visiting a food pantry or accessing a government program. We often hear from people who won’t take advantage of the existing safety net because they’re too embarrassed or proud or they misunderstand that nature of the help that’s available.
Why is that?
Much of it can be traced to the way we talk about hunger, and more specifically, the way we talk about those who need help. Just look at our rhetoric when it comes to government assistance programs like SNAP (the government’s name for food stamps).
When you hear about food stamps, you probably hear about the billions of dollars that are spent on the program or the millions of dollars lost through fraud and abuse. What you rarely hear about is the perspective of people needing the help. You don’t hear about the single senior citizen we heard from the other day who is expected to live on $42 of SNAP benefits per month. You also don’t hear that the SNAP program has a fraud rate of about 1%. While not perfect, many other government programs envy such a high efficiency rate.
Oftentimes, when we talk about people accessing programs, we are all guilty of having a set of stereotypes. We assume things about their work ethic or family history. We think they should be doing more to help themselves. Some of us even believe that those folks are happy to be there!
We can assure you they are not. We have yet to meet anyone who is proud to be at the food pantry. Rarely is it a cause for celebration. They’re often appreciative that the help is available, but they aren’t somehow secretly reveling in the fact that they need to rely on others to help provide their family with a basic necessity like food.
Never have we met someone who applies for food stamps and then goes out and brags about it to their friends and neighbors. If you search long enough, you might find an exception, but those people don’t come close to representing the majority.
No, seeking emergency food assistance is not a cause for celebration. It is often a step of last resort. When you look at the faces of those who are standing in line for food assistance, you’re more likely to see stress or despair than elation or pride. The best you can hope to see is appreciation.
That’s why it is so important to volunteer when you can. Volunteer at a food bank or food pantry. Besides the obvious benefit of helping get food to those who need it the most, you may also receive an unexpected education. You’ll start to see the faces behind the stats and rhetoric. You’ll see that we’re talking about real people. You may also see that they’re not that different from you and me.
Once you see the faces of hunger, you can’t help but look at the issue differently. And as more people begin to know and understand the people behind the numbers, the way we talk about hunger will change. As that happens, the stigmas associated with seeking hunger relief will disappear and those who truly need help will be able to get it without shame. Isn’t that a result we all want?