Beggars SHOULD Be Choosers

This week marks a small victory for the Right to Food movement in the DTES or at least the tiny wave of food activism that reverberates within the walls of where I work: we successfully got Food Runner  (the principle link between food donors, the food bank and non-profit organizations) to stop giving us bag loads of day old pastries! Yes, two weeks after we made a bold request, they showed up sans those big clear bags of stale poverty-diet-staples for us to sort.

Hell did not break loose, the apocalypse did not happen (yet), and we did not piss the FR off enough for them to stop delivering the food we actually need. Our clients will not starve as a result of our impudent requests (though it is fucked up that they could without the help of charity.) Nor did any of the other fears that keep organizations from telling donors what they do and do not need materialize--though we were afraid...

Email Revolution:

All it took was a simple email, one manager to another,  politely reiterating the health concerns that prevail among the population we serve and courteously requesting (if it is not too much trouble)  that they please keep those refined sugars and flours AWAY! It's probably a good thing that I didn't write the email, I do have a tendency to get a wee bit militant. Some clients refer to me as the food police--yes I am, so?--and I got in trouble in an interview setting with two managers once when I stated that I rather have clients starve to death than have them eat day old pastries every morning--its true though! Well at least theoretically.

Now my coworker Jess and I no longer have to cringe as we watch clients eating handfuls of donuts and cakes that we were forced to put out on the counter when we ran out of garbage space--a regular occurrence that completely reduced all our efforts to serve the most tasty and nutritious food possible to crumbs. We are still not able to do everything that we would like in the kitchen (the revolution is not funded!), but at least we can help our clients start the day off a little less toxically. 

Wants versus Needs and for Whom?

What we do deal with now though, even more profoundly, is the reality that it is very difficult to create a healthy meal with what tends to get donated and that pastries really filled a void (filler in the fullest sense of the word) where proper funding ought to be. 

We also deal with backlash from some clients who want the sweets, which raises ethical questions around speaking on behalf of individuals who seldom have the opportunity to speak for themselves and who don't have access to choice of any kind including in the basic realm of what to eat for breakfast today? 

It is important to think about the huge discrepancy between workers and the clients we are representing (and to always remember that it is pretty messed up that we are employed to "represent," at least ostensibly). Yes beggars can't be choosers in our society, but that's not just an old cliche, its a pervasive ideology that is self serving.

And it is so easy for me to take on the role of food Nazi when I can satisfy both wants and needs (i.e I can spend some of my paycheck on some tasty craft beer and overindulge with no critical--or pitying-- gazes monitoring and discussing my every move. I can also easily knock back some of my expensive supplements and organic foods the next day to bring the rosiness back to my sallow cheeks. )

Of course it is not me the individual who is robbing people from their right to choose (but maybe me as part of a collective); it is the charitable system itself (donor driven!) which is also a symptom of an inequitable society. Charity does not even allow us to secure basic needs and all the sugar in the world can't coat that truth.

The position I am in allows me two limited choices: to be a highly limited spokesperson (as  utterly problematic as that is) or to say nothing at all and carry on with business as usual.

I pick the lesser of two evils, that is my only choice.