With only three official weeks of classes left in the semester, I am very aware of the impact that Alternative Spring Break has had on me throughout the semester and here now at the end. I fully appreciate the lessons that I have learned, and I am so appreciative that I was able to experience those lessons firsthand during our trip to Washington, D.C. I definitely feel that the course for ASB prepared me intellectually for the trip to D.C., but I think that some things need to be physically experienced in order to gain the full emotional knowledge intended. Intellectually, the course was able to prepare me for the facts and figures of the trip. For example, I learned about the sheer numbers of people that experience homelessness and food insecurity in both the greater metro area of D.C. and Wichita, but I only fully acknowledged those numbers when we were actually there.
One thing I think that our class didn’t prepare me for was the amount of child homelessness in Washington, D.C. YSOP began the program by stating that the average age for a person that is homeless in Washington, D.C. is eight years old. That stunned me, honestly, and I wasn’t prepared for that. In my own (admittedly limited) experience, I have only encountered adults experiencing homelessness. From learning this figure, I also learned that gentrification is a huge problem in the D.C. metro area. My first service site was Martha’s Table, and our community service coordinator at Martha’s Table told us that the original location for the organization was once located in what was considered a “rough” part of Washington, D.C. Now, Martha’s Table is surrounded by organic food markets, drugstores, swanky apartment buildings, and even clothing stores and restaurants. Martha’s Table’s target population was, in turn, pushed out of the area as the businesses and apartments moved in, increasing the cost of living, which prevented those that could have benefitted from Martha’s Table’s services from gaining easy access to it. This process made me think about the population of people that are homeless in Wichita, specifically in Downtown Wichita. I have noticed that more and more restaurants and retail stores have moved into Downtown Wichita, as well as apartment complexes and condominiums. This gentrification makes me wonder if Wichita as a city has a plan for the eventual complete takeover of the Downtown Wichita area. This was one of the many things that I recognized in Washington, D.C. that I could apply back to Wichita, but some of the issues surrounding hunger and homelessness were location-specific to Washington, D.C. For instance, Ward 6 in Washington, D.C. is the ward that most people are familiar with: it’s where the National Mall is located, with all the monuments and museums. Wards 7 and 8 are the wards that suffer the most from poverty and food insecurity, mostly as a result of the full gentrification and tourism that run rampant in Ward 6. Ward 7 and 8 are also food deserts, where there are very few full-service grocery stores available, making the food insecurity problem even worse. These facts and realizations made me more aware of my privilege.
Our course taught me about the many ways that my privilege influences me in my everyday life: things that I had genuinely taken for granted were laid bare before me during class and throughout the trip. One specific example that hit me hard was the literacy rate as it relates to hunger and homelessness. I love reading, and I pride myself on my ability to write well, but I had never connected that ability and love with my privilege. Volunteering with Reading Partners at Drew Elementary allowed me to understand my privilege more, and with that knowledge, I will be able to move forward as a more informed service-provider.
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