Food Nazis

490 Outreach has partnered with a local church in a food distribution ministry, and so for that reason I found myself at an orientation gave by Central Illinois Foodbank yesterday.

Now the folks at Central Illinois Foodbank are great, and I love their whole philosophy on how to give out the food.  That is, with dignity, kindness and the assumption that these are adults who just need a spot of help, not serfs to be lorded over and made to feel bad.

I wondered who would want to do it the bad way, but yesterday showed who.  I won't name them, but a group applying to distribute food had apparently already been giving out food in another town, and were upset about how Central Illinois Foodbank didn't want IDs asked for or checked.

"But what about people who come twice for food?" was their concern.  "We need to check their ID to make sure they aren't coming back twice a month!"  To which it was answered that then maybe that meant that the person who did that was still hungry.  I nodded my head.  Made sense to me.

"But, we have some who get twice as much, and then they sell it!"

I couldn't let that one go.  I piped up, "Are you saying that you've had people ask for free food, and then sell such food on the black market?"

The two of them both nodded their heads and doubling down said, "Yes!"

The host of the meeting wisely dismissed this with referring to percentages and indicating that 99% would not so don't worry if 1% do, but me, I knew that it was bogus.  There is no 1% selling charity food bags on the "black market", that's not actually a thing.

Rather, the two women complaining at the thought of some getting more food were being Food Nazis.  

And I know that breed well.

First off, though, let me clear something up.  There is no black market for food in Central Illinois. That's not a thing.  But yes, there is a thing where someone will sell their LINK card, so if someone has $100 and wants about $200 worth of food, they can buy - or at least "rent" - the card.  

The LINK owner gets cash (50 cents on the dollar) and the purchaser can then acquire twice as much food.  There are bad reasons for this, like the LINK person wanting drugs, and there are good reasons for this, like the LINK person having more pressing bills to pay.

But see, here's the thing.  Food itself is not sold that way.  You can find a guy on a street corner or a bar who will sell you anything from Crack to Xanax, but no  one is going about saying, "Pssss.  Got some 'taters here.  A dub'll get you four bags worth, and we talkin' prime Idaho spuds!  You never had so good!"

Nor is there a market for jars of creamy peanut butter, cans of generic spaghetti sauce or packets of Top Ramen.  You know, the stuff you're likely to see gave out for free.  Because - and here's what those two Food Nazi ladies were missing - it is actually gave out for free, so why would someone buy it when they can just stroll by and have it for free?

I call them Food Nazis, because you see their breed a variety of places where food is gave out.  I saw another one just the other day at St. John's Breadline where a girl who could not have been more than 15 asked for a cup of soup.

Some see this face and think, "His avarice needs to be curbed!"
Others are human beings with souls.

The temporary aid worker, in theory volunteering there out of love of Christ and others, gave out a cup of soup. The girl, being a healthy and growing kid, looked at it, looked up, and while I was waiting for her to say, "Please sir, may I have some more?" instead just said, "Could I have two cups, please?"

"Only one per person.", but in saying that, it was not said with regret, but with clear satisfaction at getting to say "no".  The sure sign of a Food Nazi.  I looked at the girl sadly.  I looked at the implacable face of the aid worker, who had the eagerly expectant expression that says, "Please argue with me, so I can exert my authority even more."

I looked at the clock, ten till four.  Which meant that the soup - still four gallons of it - was going to be thrown out, as the serving day ends at four there.

I looked at him again, and said, "I'd like a cup of soup, too."  He was furious, as he could spot my type as surely as I could spot his.  But he gave it and made a big deal of saying, "Here is YOUR soup." This was to intimidate me into following the rules.  How little then he knew me after all!

"Thanks", I said, and gave it to the girl.  True, protocol in such matters is for both supplicants to go to the tables first and then give over the extra portion discretely.  But I'm not there for the food so much as the getting to meet potential clients.  He wanted to say something, but the woman who works there all the time and knows me just nudged him and shook her head.  She knew the deal.  She was there for her heart loving others and not wanting them in pain.

He was there to pretend he was a good person while lording it over folks he feels safe in looking down at.  

The Food Nazi is the spiritual brother of the Shelter Kings that I have wrote of before.  Those who having some modest amount of authority at a shelter, halfway house or sober living home try to make the others dance to their tune, waving their tiny wand of authority about as if it were a jeweled scepter of a Biblical Potentate of the Old Testament.

Both the Shelter King and the Food Nazi have in common several things.  

One, their authority is derived, that is, they are playing God with the shelter or food that other kinder souls have donated and entrusted to them to administrate.  

Two, like the Pharisees of old, they are in it to look good.  

Three, that "looking good" is the icing, the cake is the "pushing others down so they seem higher in comparison".

Like a Shelter King will give out petty orders just because he knows that the others will follow them for fear of having to spend a night outside in the winter, so a Food Nazi will attempt to make others dance for food that was meant for them, and meant freely, with no dancing.

I've seen a Food Nazi lady - another temp aid worker at the Breadline - threaten a roomful of grown adults and some children with taking the cart of food back if they didn't "shut up and sit down".  Then she surveyed each and every table with her gaze that would have done Mussolini proud making sure everyone was - like well trained doggies - sitting and watching attentively for the command to eat the biscuit on their nose.

She - seeing that her authority was reigning supreme in that 500 square foot realm of Springfield, Illinois - gave a curt nod of Royal permission and walked off, smugly pleased that only now could the hungry surge up and crowd about the cart for frozen bags of soup to take home, and some fresh zucchini.

These are the things I see as I sit at my table three times a week.  These are the things I experienced when down and out myself.

A rather mean spirited Russian philosopher once described social workers in America as "those double parasites who live off of the blood of the rich and the sores of the poor."  And if such aid workers as I call the Shelter Kings and Food Nazis were the only type, she'd have been right to characterize them all that way.

Fortunately, those who are mainly in charge, like those at the Central Illinois Foodbank, and many other various aid agencies, the goal is to help, not to hurt.  And I swore when I had nothing that one day I'd have a shelter "run right" with dignity, and no dancing.  

I did not anticipate back then that I'd be able to go even further one day, and have an actual food distribution ministry.  But I can guarantee you that it will be run the way the kind hearted people at the Central Illinois Foodbank want it run.

With dignity, and no dancing.  And I'm proud to be a member of the Seventh-day Adventist church that supports this program so whole-heartedly!