Think that poor people are just lazy? That maybe if they would just get something other than fried chicken for dinner they wouldn’t be so fat? Then boy do I have a challenge for you!
For a week:
- You must walk or take public transportation for a week. What? Your town doesn’t have public transportation? HAHA, you lose and must walk EVERYWHERE!
- If you work at an office job, before you go to the grocery store, you must engage in some sort of strenuous physical activity. This is to simulate the minimum wage jobs that the less privileged have. Doesn’t walking to the grocery store and carrying home bags of food seem so much more fun after you’ve been standing all day/run a fast mile!?
- Remember, you can only buy what you can carry. Even if it’s to the bus stop. Factor in time it takes for you to walk/ride the bus home. (Hint: Those frozen chicken breasts will start to go bad! Don’t even get me started on the much cheaper frozen vegetables!)
- Thought about going to the farmer’s market? Sorry suckers. The inner cities don’t have farmers markets. Furthermore, most of them are not allowed to take WIC or food stamps. You’re stuck going to your local grocery store.
- Ideally, this would be done in an inner city setting. If not, remember that you’ll want to go to the grocery store when it’s light outside. Those neighborhoods often have hazards not present in your suburban neighborhood after dark. If you live on the bottom floor, keep in mind you’d probably have to be walking up stairs too with your groceries.
- Did I mention that you’ll have to find childcare for any children you have? It’s that or take your toddler with you on this venture. If you’re carrying a baby you’ll only have one hand to carry groceries with.
Sound fun? Oh, you’re not willing to do this and think that I’m exaggerating? Try googling grocery stores in an inner city neighborhood. Shocked at how far they are? Calculate the time it would take you to get to said grocery store from an average neighborhood using public transportation or walking. Add 10-30 minutes for the bus breaking down and/or you being tired from working all day. Now google convenience stores/mini marts/fast food places nearby. I won’t ruin the surprise for you by telling you how much closer they’ll be.
Are poor people really lazy? Or are they systematically given more numerous and less nutritious food options in their neighborhoods?
(I am not the expert on this, so please feel free to add to this challenge or change parts of it. I’m just trying to get some of these people to put themselves in another person’s shoes.)
I went through a period of extreme poverty when I was about 20 years old. I had taken a decent job and moved out the way a young lady is supposed to. Then suddenly, all the bonuses that made my paycheck a livable wage, were cut. I went from making 1200 a month to 700…with a $495per month rent. I lived in the poorer neighborhoods near Seattle and I will tell you that I almost always got my food from the 7-11.
There were no grocery stores within a ten minute drive of me, considering I had to preserve every bit of gas I could, a 20 minute round trip was out of the question. Public transportation wasn’t even kind of helpful. So I made due with what I could get at the 7-11, what I could find at the drive through and the scraps at the food bank—which I had to rely heavily on.
Do I even need to add that by the end of the year my weight fluctuated about 40lbs in both directions and I ended up in a hospital, which only drove my poverty further into the ground? If it wasn’t for an excellent promotion I got a few weeks afterwards I have no idea how I would have functioned. I was lucky because I was already employed. I can’t even imagine how hard it would have been if employment had been where it is today. It would be utterly devastating.
People who have never had to choose between electricity and food have no idea how demoralizing and terrifying that kind of decision really is. All I have to say is, that pedestal of judgement must be really motherfucking comfortable. Hope you never fall right the fuck off it.
I was going to write about the times in my life I’ve been on the brink of starvation but, surprise! it was too distressing. So I’ll just reblog what “uhuh-she-said” said.
(Source: charlietangofoxtrot)
