An Eye Opening Experience

The following is a repost of a blog from Jan. 24. 2010:

I've got to be honest. I was not at all prepared for what I experienced last Wednesday when I took part in the poverty simulation at First Presbyterian Church in Albemarle. After first arriving, I and everyone else who were participating were divided into groups of varying sizes. Each group was given a folder containing all the information we would need for the simulation, but there was one catch. We couldn't open it yet. It wasn’t until everyone had been assigned to a group and Laura Marett, who was directing the simulation, gave the go ahead that we were able to open the folders. Each folder contained an information sheet that explained that the group we were assigned to would be our family unit for the remainder of the simulation. And each family unit was a varied as possible. Some were single parent families with school age children, while others were families with both parents. There was even a single person family that consisted of an elderly woman living on social security. The common denominator in the entire program, though, was that each family was living at or below the poverty level. The goal of the simulation was for each family to live through a month and experience paying bills, buying food and clothing, and taking care of other expenses based on the low income the family made. In my family group, there were five of us; a father- that was me, Ben Boling; a mother, Betty Boling; and three children. All three children were school age, though the oldest, a girl, was eight months pregnant. Betty worked 40 hours a week making $9 an hour while Ben was laid off and his unemployment had run out. The family had $200 in savings but they had more money going out than what was coming in. Once everyone was given a role and understood their situations, the simulation began. The family had to survive one month, but take it one week at a time. Each week lasted 15 minutes, and the goal was to get everything accomplished for that week within those 15 minutes. In our family, since Betty had a job, she went to work, while Ben (that's me) had to run around "town" paying bills and trying to find another source of income. The first trip I made was to the pawn shop to try to get money for a t.v. and a stereo that were not essential items. Next, I went to the Department of Social Services to try to get food stamps, but it was the second week into the month before we were able to buy food for the family. Since we owed about $500 to the bank, Betty decided to cash her pay check at the check cashing location instead of the bank, but she was ripped off when the cashier short changed her by about $20. To help try to make ends meet, we withdrew our entire savings, but still barely squeaked by. It was the third week of the simulation before we could pay our rent and we were facing eviction. When all was said and done, though, we were able to pay all the bills, but we were left with only $100 to our name. We were only able to get food two of the four weeks, and the children were not able to pay for some of their school supplies. If the simulation were to have kept going, Ben would have had to find a job because the $100 that was left over would not have been able to stretch past another week. Each family unit, though, faced many of the same struggles that mine did, but it was interesting to see how many of the groups pulled together to make their situation work. I don’t think there was a single family that was “evicted” from their home, though there were many, like my family, who waited until the last minute to pay the rent. One of the biggest things I took from the program, though, was that, though this was fictional to my personal situation, there are many out there who do face similar scenarios. And to them, it’s not a game. To them, they have to fight from paycheck to paycheck just to make ends meet. I don’t know how I, personally, would be able to handle it if I were placed in that kind of real situation, and it makes me want to try to do more to help others that do face it on an every day basis.