It’s the third day of our journey in Huntsville, AL, and
we’ve had a new experience: Manna House.
After another hard-worked morning in the CASA garden, our group is off
to a unique non-profit organization.
Manna House is a food kitchen that provides free produce, canned goods,
sandwiches, and snacks to those in need in local neighborhoods. While anyone is able to benefit from the food
Manna House provides, it is clear that only those in need utilize its services. This is because the food given to Manna House
is entirely by donation, and usually ends up being the expired or unwanted
leftovers from local grocers. In any
case, Team CASA was in for a total 360 perspective change. In the beginning, it
wasn’t so different from the community garden. Still working with food not
people, we separated packaged goods into individual baggies and made
sandwiches. However, the atmosphere was
completely different, and as soon as food distribution began, we could see we
were in for a lesson in American poverty.
Manna House does not open for food distribution until four
in the afternoon most days, and runs until seven at night. However, people begin lining up outside
waiting to get food as early as eleven in the morning or noon. On this particular day, Fran—the amazing
woman who runs Manna House—made an executive decision to open to food
distribution an hour earlier than usual because it was so hot outside the
people waiting to come in were beginning to get sick from the heat. As the people piled into the small factory-like
building, I witnessed something that will forever stay in my memory: people and
children of all ages and sizes, most dressed nicely enough that I would never
guess their economic situation, picking over expired goods and over ripened, or
half-rotten, produce. The most touching
part? They were so appreciative of the selection of food they received.
It was such a grounding experience to see first hand the poverty that takes place right under our noses. I had never even thought about how lucky I am to be able to walk into a grocery store and buy a package of fresh strawberries or a loaf of bread. While I worry about eating healthy, natural foods, there are millions of people, right here in America, who worry about eating at all. And Team CASA got a small dose of that unfortunate population.
One of
the men in the line was wearing an old army uniform. Out of all the
children, women, and men, seeing this one soldier touched me the most. The fact that even in America, the land of privilege
and freedom, a man who served his country could be left in such poverty floored
me.
As I helped serve these people, I got to talking to the man
next to me, who turned out to be a retired engineer for NASA. He told me all
about Huntsville’s prominent involvement with NASA and everything
Space-related. It was really interesting
to find out that in the state of Alabama, Huntsville is one of the best
educated and caring for its community, as well as deeply involved with all
occupations science-related. I asked
several of the volunteers at Manna House why, if Huntsville is so caring and so
highly involved with the sciences, there was such a high number of those in
poverty and homeless. Every reply was
the same: “That’s a good question.”
Over all Manna House turned out to be a totally different
experience from the CASA community garden that Team CASA has become accustomed
too. From the Home-bound to the
Homeless, and from the aging and health-food concerned, to the poverty-stricken
and food-less, it has been an intense learning experience, and we are all sure
that it will only continue from here.
Once again the people have been so appreciative of all of our help, and
that, in the end has been the most rewarding experience of all.
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