Amma Boamah-Appiah ’25
“The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they aren’t true, but they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story”- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
When one goes into vulnerable spaces that they are not privy to, it is easy to see the narrative that the media portrays or that your eyes only allow you to see. It takes immersion and the removal of self to get an accurate depiction of the multidimensional story that should be told. Today, we went to Our Daily Bread, which is a soup kitchen. We were designated groups and I chose to be a server for the purpose of being a newscaster. What do I mean by newscaster? I mean someone who is in the field, someone who observes and takes in information directly from the source in order to retell the story. First experience that I had in Our Daily Bread: there was a lady who came in and sat at my table. She was crying and seemed in a lot of distress, and as the empath that I am, I was not able to just sit down and watch her being distressed. I went up to her and asked her if she wanted a certain type of food and if she was okay. I went to get her food and I asked if she wanted me to pray for her and she obliged. As I was praying for her, I realized that I have so much to be grateful for.
The second instance I connected with was a man that Pace and I ended up talking to. His name was James and he turned 62 in June. He enlisted right after high school in order to get away from the crime and gun violence in Baltimore. As a veteran he was talking to us about what he thought the issues within the community were – the mindless killings and violence of the younger generation. He talked about how the young kids were always doing dumb things killing each other and hurting each other over the smallest of things and even committing petty crimes that had no business being committed.
While we were at the synagogue I said something that represented my whole entire experience, and that was, “we need to understand that food insecurity doesn’t look one way – there’s that danger of a single story. There are people there that are working class that came with their uniforms, those who are dealing with mental illnesses, and those who don’t even look like what a stereotypical hungry person would.” This encompassed a lot of the group’s experience in which we were able to see the extent of food insecurity within an inner city. It doesn’t only affect what we think are vulnerable populations but even those who have jobs and go to work every day.
Later in the day we went to Beth El synagogue, in which we took a beautiful tour of the synagogue. It is part of the progressive Conservative sect of Judaism, with female rabbis, the acceptance of queer and non-binary identities, and many more. In the conversation that we had with the clergy who led us on the tour, we learned about the multiple different programs that the synagogue has to help with food insecurity. They want to instill in children that food doesn’t just appear by teaching the children how to grow in their garden. a new word I learned was kavanah, which means to have the right intentions. I think kavanah was the perfect description of today.