Denver - Homelessness and Poverty

ASBLOG Wednesday/Thursday - Ellen/Kevin/Dawn


Today's blog is written from the perspective of three of our participants, who each took part in the three activities we did on Wednesday/Thursdsay. On Wednesday, half of our group went to Open Door to play with preschoolers and then completed a Community Scavenger Hunt to teach us about what it is like to be homeless in Denver. The other half went to SAME Café to help make and serve lunch there. On Thursday, the two groups swapped. Here is a glimpse of what each of these activities was like:

Kevin – Open Door Daycare

You can take the teacher out of CoMo...

These last two days have seen us shift from some pretty grueling physical labor to more involved, technical (if you can call corralling 17 preschoolers technical) work, and I would be lying if I said my body didn't enjoy the break. At the same time, there's not much that's quite as exhausting as running a small café or attempting to entertain an enthusiastic bunch of 5-year-olds.

Yesterday half of our group headed over to the Open Door building at around 9:30 AM to help out their daycare program with the influx of kids on spring break.  Normally they would have somewhere in the range of 7 or 8 kids ranging from 4 to 6 years old.  However, due to the off-days of break, a lot of kids needed a lot of attention.  For the first several hours of our day, us 5 hapless college students tried to combat the hyperactivity and eccentricity surrounding us by joining in songs (one of which I think told the kids not to throw their sisters in someone else's backyard, but I might be making that up), reading to the children, and (of course) overseeing their centers. I personally spent the better part of an hour convincing two kids that yes, they could play trains together without destroying each others' tracks with dinosaurs. I had minimal success.

After the Poverty Simulation/Scavenger Hunt (which you'll read about shortly via Dawn), we headed back over to the daycare for a few more hours with the kids. We started by helping wake the kids from their nap time (MISTAKE) and putting on their shoes.  After a quick snack, we read a bit more to them and then followed them out to the playground where some of us played hide-and-seek and some us tried to accentuate the finer points of how to swing.  Finally, back inside, we joined the kids on their carpet for story time (which we enjoyed probably a little too much for our relative age) and said goodbye.

Matthew in a dog suit

"Mom?" "Hello?" "Okay bye!"

Now, I'm an education major – I have at least some experience with this age group. But at the same time, I'm student teaching 9^th graders, which means I was terrified of these little munchkins. Much to my surprise and relief, Open Door runs one heck of a daycare. The children were all incredibly well-behaved and respectful, and loved interacting with us as much as we did with them. 

Enyu and Xander playing with action figures

Joe and chilluns with Mr. Potato Head

Fun side story: that night we tried to make grilled cheese, but our pans had other ideas. After one of the pieces of bread momentarily caught fire and sent smoke billowing through the main level, we got a friendly visit from some Denver firefighters (house rules – we couldn't turn off the alarm and it connects straight to the fire station). Fortunately they had a decent sense of humor about it and let us take a quick picture for our scavenger hunt with them in full fire fighting gear and with at least one or two of our members wielding their axes. 

Firefighters to the rescue

Ellen – SAME Café

SAME Café storefront

While half of the group was corralling kids around the playground, the other half of us headed uptown to work at a restaurant called The SAME Café – "SAME" is an acronym for "So All May Eat." It's a great organization ran by a young married couple, Libby and Brad. The two started SAME Café six years ago when they noticed a unique need in Denver for a service that helped those who were homeless or financially struggling. The duo had been volunteering at soup kitchens and food pantries, and they felt that the entire process of accepting free meals and food was great for those who really needed it. However, it was also a process that forced many young mothers, college students or veterans to relinquish their pride. It wasn't necessarily the best answer for those who needed a one-time meal or just a break from their weekly meal plan. Brad and Libby felt that people deserved to eat a meal in a dignified way--a meal that they could order, eat in a restaurant setting, and pay for (via work) just like everyone else.

Enyu rolling pizza dough

The SAME Café is intended to reach a new target within the umbrella of poverty. Libby and Brad hope to help college students who are scrimping by on limited income or a mother who caught a tough break that month with a medical bill or car repair bill. However, everyone is welcome. When you walk into The SAME Café, it all appears like a normal restaurant except a glaring omission – there's no cash register. In its place is a small wooden donation box filled with bills – everything from pennies to $50 bills. A small posting above the counter states that instead of menu prices, The SAME Café accepts donations as the price of your meal – whatever you feel is appropriate. If you are unable to make a financial donation, the Café requests that you offer one hour of your time in place of a hearty, organic, gourmet meal.

"Gourmet" is certainly not an understatement. When I volunteered, the meal of choice was Southwestern pizza, apple and lentil salad, mushroom soup and potato salad. The menu gives the customer a couple of different options to choose from, but not a full-size menu. We all agreed that our meals were top-notch. We could tell that is was healthy and thoughtfully prepared.

Kevin pulling off the apron

Liz cooling pizzas

Our duties ranged from chopping vegetables, washing dishes, mopping floors, organizing the pantry, and restocking the flour bins. The entire café runs like a well-oiled machine, and the full-time employees deeply and equally care about the social cause and the quality of the food. Almost all ingredients are organic or bought locally from farmers whom Brad and Libby have personally met. SAME Café even owns a personal garden a couple of blocks away. There are four waste receptacles inside – compost, stock, recycling, and general waste. Environmental friendliness and social responsibility are clearly priorities.

French onion soup, balsamic greens,
apple bleu cheese pizza,
and southwestern pizza

The entire experience was very fulfilling, and the program is inspiring. With such a large group, we were able to tackle a few projects that Brad and Libby were not able to get around to on their normal schedule, like tending to the storage and pantry space. Without a steady flow of volunteers, the SAME Café could simply not exist, at least not at the capacity that it currently operates. It is also evident that the city of Denver wants The SAME Café to succeed as well. Many of the customers were well-dressed businessmen who made hefty donations in return for their lunch. Others, however, we recognized from Open Door's free EAT meal on Sunday night. We were all very honored that we were able to help the cause and contribute to such a successful and promising organization. Libby informed us that the café is run 75% off donations and 25% off of government grants, which is a strong indicator that the community is supportive of the cause and willing to help the poor, struggling and homeless population in this city.

Joe the dishmaster

Michelle pureeing broccoli for soup

Community Scavenger Hunt - Dawn

A copy of our scavenger hunt

After a morning of playing gleefully with preschoolers, we were given a Community Scavenger Hunt by Jessica, our Open Door coordinator, to simulate living in poverty in the area. The stipulations were no cell phones (except for emergencies), no driving, and we had to try and suppress ingrained middle-class behavior (like buying a bottle of water whenever you're thirsty). The questions on the scavenger hunt covered a variety of things, from how to divide a budget for a single-income, one parent family of four to what resources there are for day to day life of transportation, bills, and housing.

Among our tasks: find something useful in a dumpster, ask a stranger for a quarter, and collect 35 aluminum cans.

My group, with Sam and Chima, headed straight to the heart of downtown Denver, going down major roads. We tackled a task early on, rummaging through a dumpster with the help of a women who thought we were crazy to find some functional placemats. Chima asked a man for a quarter, only to be soundly denied, then ignored. We failed to find any aluminum cans for recycling, despite the task to find 35.

Looking in the dumpster for cans
for "something useful"

And then I met Lady.

In an attempt to get some questions answered about potential resources, I walked up to the first person with a sign we saw and started asking questions. It became apparent she would answer almost none of them (she didn't know many resources available to help those living in poverty or on the streets), but that didn't stop the conversation. We talked about everything she wanted to share.

Her history living homeless. The struggle of getting into church shelters and maintaining her freedom. Getting out of the homeless cycle. Her one-bedroom living situation. The joy of a television. Sunglasses.

The capitol building:
one of our stops in the quest
for information

Seriously, no limits. Here was a woman who was out of a cycle that has entrapped an estimated 3,000 Denver residents, and she was proud to be asking for change on the street corner to make ends meet between disability and social security checks. Her sign read, in sparkle marker, "It's not begging. It's capitalism at its finest." (with perfect grammar, might I add). When someone tried to tell her she couldn't beg there, she flipped her sign over to show them that, while happily telling them to take their whining elsewhere. It's inspiring to see a woman living with hardships I can't even imagine still showing her spunk for all to see.

From there out, we talked with 7 other homeless or impoverished individuals, one of whom described his backpack and bedroll as "my apartment." We saw a list of every homeless shelter in Denver, with the limitations for who's allowed in, from a man who ran through that list to find his bed for the night. We talked to a woman who was just lost her job and wouldn't be able to afford her next rent, on the threshold of moving from poverty to homeless.

Churches offer a lot of resources
for people who are homeless
in Denver

And that was just my group of 3. Every other group experienced distinctly different stories with a similar trend: being homeless is unimaginable difficult, terrifying to imagine as our future, and a very real problem. However, it is a problem with a conceivable solution in the places that we've worked this week. These are places that allow for growth, giving people job experience and training to help them later, a meal in exchange for actual labor and a sense of purpose, and affordable daycare to allow for parents to make that job that pays the bills.

I am, by no means, implying that my two hours on the streets have given me some deep insight into living, surviving below the poverty line, but it has solidified the conviction that our group is doing serious good for the present and the future. We're helping out with building a future for someone who was struggling, and that makes every ounce of exhaustion worth it.