Project: Columbia - Food Bank (1)

Here are some excerpts from an interview with Peggy Kirkpatrick, executive director of the Central Missouri Food Bank. We had a chance to talk about the Food Bank and what it does to help combat poverty, what poverty looks like in Columbia, and what the faith community can do to help.

Andy: Tell me a bit about the Food Bank. How did it start?
Peggy: The food bank started in 1981. It was started by an interesting group of people: the community action agency here in town, a social work class at social work class at Columbia College, and areas churches. The whole purpose of food banking is to keep good, edible food out of the landfill, and take it from the growers, producers, manufacturers, etc. and get it to the people who need it. We started in October of 1981 and distributed about 18,000 pounds of food. To use a business analogy, a food bank is like a wholesaler. We bring in food form all over the US, warehouse it in this building, and then redistribute it out to 145 relief agencies in 32 counties. That is our service area. The retailers in this equation are food pantries, shelters for the homeless and the abused, senior programs, rehab centers, etc. We are the only food bank in the state and only one of five in the country that gives our food away for free.

A: How did you get involved?
P: Before I came to the food bank I was a computer programmer and analyst at the University of Missouri – not even close to what I do now. Now, if you know anything about the University, where you work and where you park your car are never close together, and I had about a 2 block walk to get to my building. My path took me down alleys behind fraternity houses, where I would see homeless people in the dumpsters. I thought they were digging for cans to redeem for money to use it for whatever drunks and bums use money for. As I walked by I would pacify my conscience by saying “at least they are doing something for the environment.” One day I walked by the dumpster, being fairly nosy and being fairly self-righteous, and I saw a homeless guy eating the garbage in the dumpster, not getting the cans. I grew up in Columbia and that is the last thing in the world I expected to see. It absolutely horrified me, but not enough to change the way I went to work or to be determined to do something about it – it just horrified me. My very first thought was “it is the government’s job to do something about this. They need to be feeding these people,” or “It’s the city’s job. They shouldn’t let homeless people in the dumpsters.” It never occurred to me that as a Christian it was part of my responsibility. For seven and a half years I looked at that, I looked away, and I kept walking. One day walking by looking at the same sight I said probably the sorriest prayer anyone has ever said, “God, this is wrong. You need to do something about this or send somebody to do something about this.” I always tell people “be careful when you pray that prayer” because that somebody just might be you. The next thought that came into my mind was “What about you, Peggy, why don’t you do something. You’re somebody.” Two months later I was at the Food Bank.
I didn’t want to come here, but I have been here 16 years. People don’t expect you to preach the gospel by what you do every day in a secular organization – which is an unfortunate statement – but I have had more opportunities for that here than I ever would have had in a church.

(On the types of poverty in Columbia)
P: There’s really two types of poverty. There is generational poverty and there is situational poverty Generational poverty is the people for whom hunger is just symptom of the problem. They usually have been in poverty for 3 or 4 generations. They have educational issues. They have abuse issues. Usually bad parenting and role models. They don’t know how to handle their finances. It is just a lot of stuff and food is just one of their problems. They need a lot of help to get out of poverty.
Then the situational poverty folks are the ones who have the basic life skills, it’s only that a situation has caused them to be in need at this point in their lives. For example, the plant they worked at closed, they are stricken with illness, even a divorce can cause someone to be in poverty. You get that situation resolved and they are back on their feet, they are back to being productive citizens. What we are seeing today is a huge increase in situational poverty.