Time to halt the handout

James Whitford, Executive Director Watered Gardens Gospel Rescue Mission – Published in The Joplin Globe March 4, 2012

After working diligently to connect charitable organizations and churches on-line to better steward distribution of resources, the time had finally come to implement the accountability component, to halt the hand-out and challenge some individuals to take a hand up. With a curriculum in place to inspire the poor to dream of a better future, establish a life-plan and attain measurable goals, I notified the network of Joplin organizations that some of the most

“frequent fliers” would be flagged in the system and need to be in the class before assisted any longer.

Then “Dave” came in my office. He was homeless and had tried to get food from another organization, but the “accountability net” had caught him. He was visibly angry. I explained the class and how it could help. Not interested. I asked if he thought giving him food was really helping him. No response. And then I told him I would allow him to work an hour for a food voucher. He exploded, “Why should I have to work for my food?!” Want an eye-opener? Dave’s question was asked sincerely. He truly didn’t understand “will work for food.” Unfortunately, he chose not to work that day. Sadly, and in very short time, a food stamp card arrived in the mail for him.

More than 2.5 million dollars in food stamps were distributed in Jasper County alone just last month. And so it was the month before that. Unfortunately, as most know, abuse abounds. People in the know have shared with me the details; details about the daycare that charges parents for their kids’ lunches and then purchases food stamps fifty cents on the dollar to increase profit. Details about personal shoppers that fill up the grocery cart with what they need only to let the food stamp card holder check out at the register. Groceries and cash are exchanged just outside the door. Details linking food stamp abuse to increased drug and alcohol use. One time I even stumbled upon a food stamp for pain med trade about to happen.

So I called the food stamp office locally and in Jefferson City. “Our private charity food bank network would like to know who is receiving food stamps.” No way. Confidentiality. “What about a signed release of information?” No way. Confidentiality. “It’s a federal thing” I was told because “It’s federal money.”

The government was never intended to exercise charity. No institution should ever intend to exercise charity. “Institutional charity” is a misnomer. Real charity only occurs person to person where compassion leads to relationship, encouragement, accountability and character-building challenge. The system failed us when it gave food stamps to a man who thought it absurd that he should work for his meal. And of no less importance, it failed Dave. Today, I saw him lying in the woods barely responsive after drinking a bottle of vodka. How did he pay for that?

Broken people or broken system?

James Whitford, Executive Director Watered Gardens Gospel Rescue Mission – Published in The Joplin Globe February 5, 2012

Are the people broken or is the system broken? If you walk into our rescue mission, it may seem the people are broken. But it’s a rescue mission. It just feels that way. And sometimes, it just looks that way. That undone, unkempt and unloved person with a thread worn stocking cap is slumped over a table where some other look-alikes commune over coffee with an unsettling ease as if the man’s condition was merely one of their shadows. But they’ve seen it before. And so have we. Is it the drunk? Is it the meth addict who’s cycled out? No. It’s “Steve.” And yes, he’s broken.

Steve is an addict. He had been through our mission some time ago, was completely clean for several weeks and beamed then with the youth intended for his mid-twenties frame. When he fell “off the wagon,” he had to make a decision: be restored by the community who had relationally invested in his life or return to the help he had sought before. He chose the latter. Days later, after a medical discharge, he showed up with a hazard-labeled bag of six bottles: Risperdal, Klonopin, Lithium, Cymbalta, Buspirone and Zolpidem. In this struggling addict’s hands were anti-psychotics, muscle relaxers, mood stabilizers, anti-depressents, hypnotics and anti-anxiety meds. They were all prescribed on one day by the same psychiatrist. The next day, Steve was unresponsive on a ventilator in ICU from over-dosing.

Unfortunately, problems with medication abuse are not unique. Many times I hear the homeless and poor discuss hope of housing assistance or disability income via mental health or pain-related diagnoses when I know the true need is to be loved and challenged. The system seems detrimentally weighted to incentivize the poor to seek an illness. I know. That’s a hard pill to swallow. Making that pill even larger, the pharmaceutical industry plays its part in the incentivizing process, as well. But there are some who resist. Just a few days ago, a man in our shelter, quite seemingly in his right mind, reported with disappointment, “They said they can’t help me with housing unless I get on medication.” And another, contingently released from jail, “They said I have to take these pills to stay out of jail, but I don’t really think I need them.” I think he’s right. I’m the one who visited him while incarcerated when he was on no medication, clearer, calmer and more responsive than I had ever known him to be.

The next time you see a person on the streets that some kids might label a “zombie” or someone else might mistakenly label a drunk, just consider first that he or she may simply be a broken person that sought help from a broken system.

As I see it from the trenches,

James Whitford