I Have A Dream

For a couple of years now, I've been thinking about how to ground people in community through hard times (because I always knew hard times were coming.)

One of the ideas I have is to have weekly community pot lucks. My idea is that people who are actually hungry and hurting for nutritious food would bring whatever they could afford (paper napkins, say, or trivets) in exchange for getting to sit down with other people who aren't as bad off as they are.

I see a lot of benefits to this. The first is, people who are struggling aren't stigmatized by having to go to a soup kitchen. Plus, poor people (especially ones who aren't used to being unemployed or underemployed) are usually depressed. This kind of human contact gives them something to look forward to every week.

For the people who do still have enough to eat, it's a good way to share without offending someone's dignity. (Plus, you know, good karma!) And let's face it, all but the most disciplined of us waste food. So this would be a good way to make maximum use of resources - and it's a gentle reminder that there but for the grace of God go you or I.

The thing is, this is the kind of project that's usually done through a church or other existing community group - the groups to which I don't belong because I'm not really a joiner.

Anyone have any ideas about how to make this work?

Comments

[wendy82551]

My father was a bus driver who used to occasionally drive chartered trips for the local VA Hospital. Every year he'd invite one of the veterans to our house for Thanksgiving dinner--someone who didn't have any family. For us kids, it was a little odd, having a stranger at dinner all the time, but it was nice.

The problem is that we don't seem to have those "communities" any more. I live in a condo and barely know a half dozen people by name. We do obviously have poor people in the suburbs, but we're all so isolated that we don't know what's going on for one another.

In short, I have no real answer to your question, even though it's a good one. Sorry.

[RightWingMarine]

I like this idea a lot more than continued food stamps or welfare payments. Let people take care of themselves and each other, we don't need the government coming in and throwing our tax dollars around.