Effort to understand hunger and homelessness reveals the issue is closer than most imagine.

  Students & staff spent a cold night outside        Faces of Homelessness Panel

Who are the homeless? What is the impact of hunger and homelessness on our communities?  Students at Holyoke Community College dedicated the week of November 17-21 to exploring and generating increased awareness of these issues—with surprising results.

As part of the week’s events, the DC-based organization Faces of Homelessness, a speaker’s bureau composed of people who are or have been homeless, came to talk about the reality behind the myths and stereotypes. Because they believe a local perspective is important, they brought people from area shelters to talk about their experience.

Speaker Robert J. Russell described his years of struggle with addiction and homelessness. Grateful to finally be sober, he is currently in transitional housing. “It's not nice. It's an ugly life," he said. “I have no one to blame but myself.”

The speakers’ testimony moved several HCC students to volunteer their own experiences with homelessness. One student’s family had been homeless when he was a child; another had lived in her car when she ran out of money and options.

Among those present were members of the learning community Exploring Inequality: The Causes and Consequences of Hunger and Homelessness.  Taught by professors Lisa Mahon and Mary Orisich, the course uses economics, writing, and service learning to understand the causes and the reality of poverty and homelessness.

In addition to the panel, approximately 20 students spent Tuesday night sleeping outside in tents on the HCC campus, as a way to better understand what homeless people experience. With temperatures in the teens and a wind so strong it catapulted one momentarily unoccupied tent across the road, students spent the night gaining first hand knowledge of how hard it can be when safety nets fail and resources disappear.

The sleep out was part of a larger campaign to collect funds, food, and necessities for Margaret's Pantry and Kate’s Kitchen in Holyoke. By soliciting sponsors for the sleep out, students were able to raise almost $1,200, and through a Clean Out Your Closet and Cabinet drive they collected over 120 blankets, 100 towels, 130 coats, 6 overflowing boxes of toiletries, and, literally, a van full of food. Thanks to all who contributed!

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