During my first week as a Columbus Fellow with the Broad Street Food Pantry, I have, of course, learned more than I expected from the entire summer. Thus far, I’ve learned enough about the inner-workings of the food pantry to field client and volunteer questions with about 80% confidence and 90% accuracy. I’ve learned how to successfully navigate Broad Street traffic as well as the sprawling Broad Street Presbyterian church. But, my most impactful lesson by far has been a peek into how frustrating, distressing, and exhausting it is to be poor.

As I continue to seek out information about the challenges of living in poverty, I am simultaneously shocked, overwhelmed, enraged, and impassioned. I am already noting endless evidence of poverty’s cyclical nature and its unjust relationships to race, location, gender, disability etc. I recently came across a staggering interview from Harvard economist Sendhil Mullainathan in which he attempts to relate the debilitating effects of poverty on one’s mental state. Mullainathan explains that the toll of stress and malnutrition inherent to lower socio-economic status causes peak mental functioning to mirror standard functioning after losing a full night’s sleep. “Picture yourself after an all-nighter,” Mullainathan says. “Being poor is like that every day.” Wow. As a recent college graduate, I can vividly recall a few of my own all-nighters. My biggest task was slugging down some coffee afterward to make it through a one hour class before I could go home and nap. Imagine having to then go to (or search for) an under-paying job, care for and feed a family, maintain personal physical and mental well-being, and still remember to budget and pay the bills on time.  Just thinking about it makes me stressed!

When I tell friends and family about my summer job, I am mostly met with genuine support, but I cannot believe that I still have to answer the occasional “Well, aren’t a lot of those people just taking advantage of the system?” question. Throughout my first week, it becomes increasingly clearer that most of “these people” are doing their best in a system that takes advantage of their disadvantages. Furthermore, oppressing factors of poverty like strained mental health, limited access to healthy food and medical resources, lower-quality education, and biases in our judicial system keep people virtually chained to a lower socio-economic status. I am so fortunate to work with a pantry that aims to give people a sense of agency in at least their food selection.

The Broad Street Food Pantry works to offer a range of grocery choices for clients to “shop” through, but accessing and storing fresh, nutritious food remains a challenge. That’s where I come in. This summer, I hope to connect with other Columbus resources and develop programming of our own to enable clients to supplement the food they get here with fresher food and information on how to prepare food in healthy, tasty ways. Better nutrition and varied diet will mean more energy, stronger focus, and healthier bodies for our clients. It may be a small change, but it’s a change that can help lead to the self-sufficient, higher-quality lives that everyone deserves. Wish us all luck as we work together to form a healthier Columbus community!