I started at my job this summer, so I’m excited for the holiday season in a new place . Some of my more festive coworkers have already organized both Secret Santa and a holiday potluck. I was a big believer in workplace holiday spirit, until I heard about the tradition of an Ohio WalMart. The Cleveland store asks staff to donate not to a potluck or a dinner — but canned foods to other employees in need this season. To many people, a practice like this one might seem shocking, but let’s not pretend we haven’t all heard the horror stories about the working conditions of the country’s largest retailer. Working a minimum wage job hardly leaves an employee enough money for a lavish holiday celebration, especially if they are supporting a family.
One study reports that more than twenty-eight percent of individuals experiencing homelessness do work — but a paycheck isn’t always a ticket out of the shelter. This number might seem small, until we consider that many factors that lead to homelessness also prevent an individual from working — disabilities, mental illness, domestic violence. Many who can work, do work, but as WalMart demonstrates, the income doesn’t always cover every expense, especially around the holiday season.
While every WalMart employee has their own budget and their own expenses, it is worth noting that the donation boxes are placed in staff locker rooms, not the corporate lounge. The company is asking its employees who are slightly more financially stable to steady their coworkers. This is heartwarming in a community-building, lean-on-me kind of way, but it is far from a sustainable way to put food on the table.
Except that maybe it is.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports that the middle class give and donate more frequently and more generously as related to their income than more wealthy individuals. States with lower household incomes — Utah and Mississippi — gave more than twice as much of their annual income away than more wealthy northern states. This might not make much financial sense, but — as WalMart and many other groups that target lower income individuals realize — those who understand poverty are the most likely to offer help to get through it.
If only that generosity and knowledge could trickle up. Maybe the best way to make this a happy holiday is for the canned goods — or even fresh food — to come from those with the means to provide lasting, sustainable services to hardworking individuals experiencing poverty and homelessness.
Wonderful writing, as usual, Jasmine. This post truly targets those who need to hear it. I just hope some of them read it.
Happy Thanksgiving to you, and thank you for all the good work you do.
Love,
Angela
Dear Jasmine:
What if all the Jesus stories were thought of as realistic lessons to adopt? What if everyone tried a little harder to believe that Jesus had some good ideas?
I’d like to walk with Jesus from Rhode Island to Washington.
The big question is, “Should I wait for someone else to provide the porta-potties, or, should I affiliate with those who also think that a physical march to Washington would help– and who believe, in addition, that they could get such an event together?
That’s the question, isn’t it? Should I wait, or have I learned well enough to think it out in cooperation with others?
A thing worth doing might be to get millions of people, gentle people of all beliefs, into the process of feeding, watering, and porta-pottie-ing their fellow human beings so well that a multi-million person march to Washington could take place, as a pilgrimage of love and concern for our republic.
It would be a huge project, causing the need for constellations of actions to bring people together, increasingly, in cooperation.
Maybe a healthier way forward would appear, suddenly more humane and more realistic because a small piece of it had already been achieved.
Were you there in those days?
Yes.
A march to break through.
A March to Change Hearts??
just ideas from me to you, Jasmine
Christmas 2013 Arnie