On November 3rd, Christopher Stein ’16 spoke in Upper School Chapel about the hunger plaguing Philadelphia. Stein also spoke in Middle School Chapel on November 4th. Found below is his Chapel Speech. You can find a video recording of Stein here.
Thanks, Mrs. Swanson, for the generous introduction. I also want to thank the Vestry and Reverend Squire for asking me to speak today.
I want to begin by explaining my philosophy regarding the concept of responsibility. To do so, I want to use the example of “the Kitty Genovese Effect.” I learned about it in class, during 9th or 10th grade―though I can’t, for the life of me, remember which class―and it always struck me that it had applications far beyond its intended field of criminology.
In 1964, in a brutal assault lasting half an hour, a 28 year old woman named Kitty Genovese was killed. The murder took place in the courtyard of an apartment complex where no fewer than 38 people listened or watched from their windows. Not one of those 38 eye-witnesses called 911 until after the attack had finished. As a result, Kitty Genovese died.
This tragic event occurred―and events like it continue to occur―because no one will take responsibility. Each person watching this attack from their window thought that someone else would call for help, that someone else would take responsibility, that someone else would show some humanity.
No one took responsibility. And, Kitty Genovese died.
Just as no one took responsibility for saving Kitty Genovese’s life, so too do few people take responsibility for their communities, for their fellow humans, and for our shared future.
In our modern society it is unacceptable to ignore problems of poverty and hunger. Any member of our history department can tell you that one requirement for the formation of a stable civilization is a surplus of food. America has that. It produces more than enough food to feed all its citizens, to help them rise above the subsistence level where a society stagnates. However, food waste in America renders 40% of that produced food worthless.
This is why we have hunger. It is not an issue of meeting production quotas. It is an issue of distribution, of eliminating waste, and of informing the public about the plight of the food insecure in modern America. If the hallmark of a civilization is a surplus of food, then the hallmark of a successful modern society ought to be a population with secure and steady access to that food.
Once―to its credit―the federal government was able to assist those most vulnerable in our communities. Through initiatives including the National School Lunch Program, which gives free or reduced-price meals to children living in food insecure homes, the government has helped to ameliorate the tragedy of childhood hunger. And, through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, more commonly known as food stamps, we have made it possible for people to spend their time and money on other areas―on things that can help lift them out of poverty―things like education and job training.
However, in recent years we have seen drastic cuts made to food stamps. In August of 2014, a bill was passed into law that removed $8.7 billion dollars from the program and reduced almost a million poor families’ benefits by $90 per month. Even more draconian measures have been suggested by Congress for the next budget negotiation, including a $125 billion dollar cut over the next ten years.
For food insecure families who rely upon this program, further funding decreases would be disastrous. The budget proposed for 2016 would remove up to 11 million people from the program in order to reduce costs. It would also represent a $55 per month reduction for every person.
As the federal government fails to adequately address the issue of hunger in America, the funding gap is being met by private charities. However, the patchwork of non-profits currently providing care is insufficient for the massive task entrusted to these charities.
The Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger estimates that each year half a million Philadelphians are forced by their circumstances to make use of a food pantry or soup kitchen. Of these 500,000 people, roughly one third are children. That is a truly unacceptable statistic.
There are approximately 700 food pantries in the Greater Philadelphia Area. Many of these pantries run out of food during stress-periods in the year, including the end of the month when inadequate food stamp benefits have already run out. The winter is also a stress-period for food banks and soup kitchens.
Now that I’ve bombarded you with some statistics about the problem hunger poses in our region, I would like to highlight the community partner who will be the beneficiary of this year’s Can Drive.
The Self-Help and Resource Exchange or SHARE Philadelphia is an umbrella charity that distributes food through a network of over 500 affiliated food pantries. It was founded in 1986 to, as their mission statement puts it, “[serve] a regional network of community organizations engaged in food distribution, education, and advocacy.”
SHARE is unique, however, because it distributes its free or heavily discounted food items to those who participate in two or more hours of community service per week. This requirement amplifies the impact of SHARE by not only helping to address food insecurity but also by providing a means for people to help each other and become involved in their communities.
Some of you will remember that last year SHARE’s Executive Director, Steveana Wynne, spoke in chapel, giving a very personal and moving address on the issue of hunger in Philadelphia. She shared many personal anecdotes regarding food insecurity in our region, and she explained how her faith has shaped her understanding of community service.
Her faith in God inspired her to great acts of compassion. My faith in people inspires me to do what little I can to deal with the issues that threaten to destroy the foundations of our communities and the foundations of the American Dream.
The Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger, which in 2002 became an effective subset of SHARE, reports that children living in food insecurity are 50% more likely than average students to repeat a grade. I invite you to contemplate how easy it would be to learn while perpetually hungry. I would bet most of you don’t enjoy the feeling of sitting through a science lab period and missing your usual Z Block lunch. That feeling―magnified tenfold―is a constant pain and impediment to those students who are food insecure.
This barrier to learning is especially detrimental for the fact that education is so imperative to escape poverty. The negative effects of hunger on a child’s education can be a death knell for that child’s future aspirations. That is why 43% of American children born into the bottom quintile of wealth will never escape it.
Along with these educational repercussions, childhood health is a massive problem. Hunger in the formative years of a person’s life can have far-reaching and disastrous implications. The adverse effects of malnutrition on a person’s brain mean that someone who grew up in a state of food insecurity is twice as likely as the average person to require treatment for mental illness.
That is clearly a vicious cycle. Malnutrition can lead to mental illness, which, in turn, makes it vastly more difficult to hold-down a job. The unemployed find it harder to put food on the table. Since our nation neither prioritizes hunger relief nor mental health-care―another issue entirely―it has become the role of private volunteers and a scattered group of nonprofits to fill the care gap.
Another recourse for the food insecure in our area is the University City Hospitality Coalition or UCHC that Episcopal students volunteer at every Thursday. They serve hot meals five nights per week and provide vital health and legal services to a largely homeless clientele. They do an excellent job of efficiently feeding those who struggle to afford food in West Philadelphia.
The woman who runs UCHC’s meal program is named Lee Ann Draud. She spoke in chapel two years ago to highlight the catastrophic homelessness problem in Philadelphia. She is an old woman―a woman who does an admirable and efficient job―but, nevertheless: an old woman.
It is time for the younger generations to take larger roles in community service in our area. Most food pantries and soup kitchens in Philadelphia are run by elderly men and women. We must help to share the load, to do what we can to make sure that these vital charities have a sustainable future.
You can get involved in the myriad community service opportunities Episcopal offers by signing up on the bulletin board located across from the office or by contacting Mrs. Swanson. Episcopal does an incredible job of prioritizing community service. As an example, EA students make their first volunteering trip to SHARE in the second grade.
Throughout their education, Episcopal students participate in the day of service each year, volunteering at many important programs throughout the Philadelphia area. In my mind, the most vital of these are those that deal with hunger. Hunger can paralyze whole communities, snuff out the potential of children, bring economic blight to an area, and kill.
And, though you may not agree with my politics or my faith, I hope you can agree that food insecurity poses a great danger to our society. We have the ability to be agents of change; we have the ability to become a civilization in which no person goes hungry, in which every child has the opportunity to live up to his or her promise, and in which the government can fulfill its obligations as set forth in our social contract.
If we are granted the rights to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” by our Declaration of Independence, we must be granted the opportunity to live and to prosper. We cannot leave so many to the cold assurance of their limitless liberties―the liberty to starve is what we give when we fail to fulfill the social contract. We must provide the possibility of life without limitations in hunger so that we may ensure the ability to pursue happiness.
Many people disagree with me when I say that most poor people are mere victims of their circumstances. I have been told―by some students here―that “poor people are lazy.” And that, if they would just work harder, they could all have rags-to-riches stories. “My great-grandfather,” they say, “built his fortune from nothing.”
I hate to break the news that should have been broken a long time ago: the American Dream is dead―and if not dead, then so horribly maimed that it bears only a passing resemblance to the beacon of hope that it was in years long past.
What remains is a system in which a child can fail to live up his or her potential because he or she was born into a food insecure family or a family that lives in the wrong neighborhood or a single-parent family or a family with just a shade too much money to qualify for assistance and a great deal too little to make ends meet.
The Can Drive can be our opportunity as a community to come together to fill the gap left in the system, to prevent people from slipping through the social safety net that has become so threadbare in recent years. I challenge you all to donate cans to the collection that we may help to restock SHARE for what is sure to be another trying winter.
Beyond this donation of canned goods, we can donate our time and effort to community service. I delivered my plug earlier about all of the opportunities for volunteerism we have at Episcopal. I want to stress, however, that our help can be incredibly useful. The charities that we volunteer at regularly send follow-up notes after our days of service explaining how efficient, helpful, and hard-working Episcopal students were. I ask you to make an effort to do such work beyond the scope of what is required of you. I ask that you sign up for a service event with one of our community partners and go off campus and into the world. See the problems yourself―and fix them.
I have had an easy life, and, I wager, many of you have had easy lives as well. I mean no offence. What I mean is that, as people blessed with opportunity and privileges of education and food security, we must take responsibility―the responsibility that no one took for Kitty Genovese, the responsibility that only the older generation seems to take for the needy, the responsibility that the government fails to take for those it holds an obligation to. We must take responsibility for ensuring that everyone has an opportunity to succeed.
Thank you.