Pictured above: The crew that organized the mattresses
Last weekend I took a group to Minneapolis, MN to participate in an Urban Immersion Service Retreat. Urban Immersion uses interactive exercises to educate groups about poverty and the struggles people face daily. We examined reasons as to why people are in poverty and the injustices in our community, nation, and the world.
On Saturday we went to serve as volunteers for Bridging Inc., a non-profit organization that collects donated furniture and gives it to those in need. They are networked with social services and have families sent to them for a once in a lifetime shopping spree. Families go through the warehouse and select couches, tables, mattresses, basic electronics, and other household furniture. As volunteers we helped organize their donations in the warehouse. Most of the time was spend organizing mattresses by size. This was easy work until we got to the King size beds which were extremely hard to handle. Some moments I felt like I was in a squishy compactor as one mattress would fall and squish me between another one. Also, I had not gotten much sleep the night before so I was tempted to knock a mattress over and take a nap. The work we did was fun and we bonded as a group.
On Saturday night we played through a scenario to understand the tough decisions struggling families must make. We were told we were a family of five with two working parents a little above the poverty line. We had $3000 for the month to use on housing, healthcare, daycare, food, clothes, household expenses, and entertainment costs. There were also cards we had to select that would give us unforeseen expenses or opportunities that could have positive or negative consequences. We had to sacrifice healthcare, take bad childcare (which was still expensive), use public transportation. But we still ended up -$40 after the month. We had to deal with a child getting the flu, which caused a parent to lose their job because of time taken off to care for the child. Our power went out for too long and all of our food spoiled. What we came to understand was that many families struggle to survive month-to-month and experienced the tough decisions these families must make.
Our final day was spent examining what we had learned and seeing how we can help make a difference and bring about change in our community. As a group we are going to hold each other accountable to do what we can to educate others and enact proper change in our community to help those in need.
Taking a Nap Break!
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