Restaurant Meals Program: More than Just Food

The following blog entry was written by Kendra Capece, Micah Fellow from St. Mary’s College who is interning with St. Anthony’s advocacy program this summer.

As St. Anthony’s Advocacy intern, today in the Dining Room I began outreach around a new issue, the Restaurant Meals Program. This service allows people who are homeless, disabled or seniors to use their food stamps (called CalFresh in California) in participating restaurants. (CalFresh benefits are stored on EBT cards, as pictured above.)  This is an incredibly necessary program because as one can imagine, being homeless, living in an single room occupancy hotel with no kitchen or not being physically able to cook presents serious hardships around fulfilling the basic need to eat. There has been talk at the federal level, however, that this program should be cut because of its lack of nutritional value, as many of the participating restaurants serve fast food.  (In my conversations with beneficiaries of the program, it was suggested that the government should be working to expand the program by getting more local, nutritious restaurants on board rather than cutting it. )  In response to the proposed elimination of the Restaurant Meals Program, a group of activists have started work on video testimony of people who use the program and don’t want to see it perish, in the hopes of educating the public and providing policymakers with a face behind the issue.

My job today was to find people who use the Restaurant Meals Program who are willing to commit to being videoed next week. I knew this was going to require a different approach than my previous Dining Room outreach, which had consisted of the much lighter task of passing out flyers for budget hearings and demonstrations. I was sensitive, therefore, to the fact that having a stranger carrying a notepad come ask if you used food stamps wasn’t exactly the most comfortable situation for either of us.

I found myself quickly engaged in deep conversations with people about how they came to use food stamps, why the restaurant program is important to them and their fears if the program ceased to exist. I was also surprised to discover the high number of people that were active food stamp receivers but also frequent Dining Room guests, highlighting the importance of both services for the community.

I heard from a young woman who loves using the Restaurant Meals Program because it allows her and her boyfriend to go for a date night once in a while (even if the date is at Carl’s Junior) because it gives her the privacy, service and luxury of escape that reminds her she’s just like everybody else.

Then there was an older African American man that had the most compelling  eyes and carefully chosen words who asked me if the program is being proposed to be cut because the restaurants don’t want homeless people like him taking up room from other guests.

There also was an elderly Caucasian woman who told me how she gets hungry at night waiting in line for a shelter bed, but using her EBT card at McDonalds allows her to get a hot meal after she’s checked in for a bed.

The stories went on and on and with each one my heart clenched up a little bit more. I didn’t even take a break for three hours straight because for the first time since working at St. Anthony’s, I finally felt like I was understanding poverty in a different way and finding a whole new level of meaning in the work I was doing. I don’t know how else to explain it, except that it hit me like a ton of bricks. Hearing from others the stories of people who one day were big executives and the next day were homeless is one thing, but it’s something very different to hear it first hand, only me and that person. The  equality of all people became much more real to me today; we are all on our own paths in life, experiencing suffering and worthy of the same rights, justices and simple pleasures afforded to us by our common humanity.

It’s moments like these that are why I’ve so enjoyed my time spent interning here at St. Anthony’s this summer. Advocacy is something I would like to make a career of and my time here has certainly afforded me some great lessons.  Advocacy isn’t just about policy-making, demonstrating, educating or community organizing, it’s about the people with their different faces, different stories and different things that make them smile. They are the ones that make you chant a little louder in that protest or provide testimony despite your fear of public speaking and fulfill you with the passion to keep up the good fight, no matter how many times people might say it’s not worth it.