Variety-pack Poverty

One night in 5th grade, I slept over at my friend James' house. James was black, and although I had a number of non-white friends in our racially diverse middle school, this was the first time I had ever hung out with a non-white outside of school or a team sport. James was quiet kid but I remember I thought he was pretty funny when he spoke, and was very good at sports.

I don't think I had ever realized, before that night, that all people didn't live as well as my family did. So, when I arrived at their small house in what was most likely housing projects, I remember being wide-eyed and a little startled. A small, two-bedroom apartment housed James, his older sister, and mother. In order to make room for me, a cot was pulled out for me, and the three kids packed in to the small second bedroom. Besides being a little surprised about the size of the house and furnishings, I don't remember anything significant or out of the ordinary happening that night. It wasn't until the next morning that I first realized was poverty was.

James and his sister shared one of the cereal box variety 10-packs that sat on top of the refrigerator. In the morning, I was given a choice of which cereal brand I wanted, picked one, and we all sat down at the table. I remember James' sister first bringing up the fact because there was an extra person in the house, there was now one less box of cereal for their week's rations. She didn't use the term 'rations', but basically I quickly came to realize that the family would not be buying any extra food when they ran out of their usual amount at the end of the week. Then, because I was James' friend, it was he who would logically be the one going hungry one morning. This conversation and realization floored me. To go without food because you were on too strict of a budget to feed a guest! And the fact that the mother must have known there would be a shortage yet still agreed to have me over for the night! I had never experienced poverty like this before and remember that moment extremely well.

Some 20 years later, I frequently think about that sleepover. When budgeting my expenses, or eating all the food on my plate, or sharing what one has no matter how little it may be, I have a vivid picture of the diminishing cereal variety pack in my mind. There are so many people in the world that don't nearly have the luxuries that we do, and the aftereffects of their poverty can be real and horrible. A child goes without breakfast because he had a friend sleep over one night and the family doesn't have enough room in the budget to compensate for the extra box of cereal eaten...