How much is your time worth? A minimum of $10/hour, perhaps double or triple that; $30 per hour means $60,000 per annum -- not a bad living in Bloomington. Perhaps you believe the income you generate in your work is more than the value you could generate as a volunteer for a good cause. Based on today’s experience of some local citizens, most of you would be wrong.
Seven people contributing twelve hours of volunteer time on a Sunday afternoon in a single Bloomington neighborhood generated 350 pounds of food donations and $250. That’s about $950 of value, based on a reasonable estimate of the cost of food, so equivalent to almost $80 per hour!
This is the first direct action for a new community group called Volunteers for Change. Mostly volunteer veterans from Barack Obama’s campaign for the Presidency, the group has not waited for his inauguration let alone any re-election campaign to get back into action. Dedicated to the ideal of “being the change you seek,” watching as more and more local families fall into needy circumstances, and knowing they have developed some skills in community organizing, they simply started calling each other and connecting by email. The message shared? “We need to get back to work – now!”
The food and money being collected is contributed to the Hoosier Hills Food Bank. Hoosier Hills supplies food to 99 agency programs in six counties surrounding Bloomington. Last month, for only the 2nd time in their 26 year history, they distributed over 2 million pounds of food in a calendar year. This year's economic turmoil has produced a higher level of demand, and at several times during the year, the shelves were empty of canned goods. The agencies that went away empty-handed were therefore unable to feed an increasing number of people at community kitchens and food pantries.
During door-to-door canvassing on Senator Obama’s behalf, many volunteers had become acquainted with the everyday challenges local citizens face. They have seen both the face of despair during these difficult economic times and the face of hope. Their group’s goal is to transform despair to hope by engaging people in the political process at the point in which they are living their lives. Many may have thought the system has passed them by or abandoned them and as a result simply will not work to help solve their needs.
But that sense of hope needs to be transferred into results. During the holiday season, families come together and often share special meals. But for those who have little, the holidays can simply increase a sense of failure, want, and despair. The agencies that can assist families with a little extra food, or serve some extra hot meals directly to them, make a critical contribution to keeping hope alive. As a group, Volunteers for Change knows the goodwill that exists in our wider community. Together they have knocked on thousands of doors and talked to thousands of people all over Southern Indiana. They believe this as a direct result of President-elect Obama’s call to help solve the problems of everyday Americans.
Given the recent publicity on the challenges of the needy, they quickly agreed to focus on a “Campaign for Food.” Using published data, they targetted a neighborhood that voted overwhelmingly for Senator Obama during the general election. It was their hope that those who had had their doors knocked on during that campaign might once again be receptive. They hoped those who lived there had heard the same call. No one was sure, though, quite how this would play out --- till the first doors were knocked.
Students raised from their beds in the early afternoon predominantly went straight to their pantries to find a box or can to contribute. Families asked their children to help carry bigger contributions to the door. The well-off who had already contributed to similar causes through their church or workplace went back to their wallets, checkbooks, and food supplies to give again. Many asked the volunteers to come back again next week for more.
Many people who answered their door instantly recognized the Obama campaign symbols incorporated into the Volunteers for Change badges pinned to the coats of the stranger at their door (some also recognized the faces of the volunteer!), and gave a friendly welcome. A few inquired how they too could join in. But this was no merely partisan celebration. Hardy political campaigners are not dissuaded by potentially unfriendly turf, and they seemed to take extra pleasure in walking to the door of a few houses that still proudly declared their loyalty to Senator McCain. Sometimes a wry smile was shared at the door; but cloth bags were still filled with cans and food and offers of future donations were made with the same degree of responsiveness. The cause is greater than any red-blue politics.
So what happens next? Plenty. Volunteers for Change has been recognized by the still active Barack Obama campaign website, and can use its outreach capabilities. The USA Today noticed its posting there, and sent a photographer to record the Bloomington group’s first meeting as part of its feature on how “Obama volunteers plan to stay in touch.” Recognizing the alternative social networking within the younger community, a Facebook page was started and within three days had fifty IU students as “friends.” Plans are afoot for a website, a phone line, and drop off points for future donations.
And more door-to-door canvassing: Thanksgiving weekend, on both Saturday and Sunday, no less. With more volunteers, more neighborhoods, and more donations, they can make more “Change” for those who need it. The Volunteers for Change target is 10,000 pounds of food and $50,000 of financial donations to Hoosier Hills Food Bank by the time our nation’s forty-fourth President is sworn in on January 20th. These seem like heady goals, yet from a group that helped “turn Indiana blue” for the first time in more than four decades of Presidential elections, perhaps anything is possible.
