Every day I get up and go down to the caf and grab breakfast before I head out to class. The cost to my back pocket: $ 0. About noon, I head over to J & H or the Sac and use my card to buy a meal, but it still doesn’t cost me anything (unless you count student loans for the next decade). Then, about 6 every evening, Irby brings over dinner to the caf. Once again, it costs me nothing but the effort to get off my lazy butt and get it.
One of my first Sunday’s at Epiphany, Pastor Eric brought up one of the best points I have heard in my last three years in college. The term “poor college student” is a misnomer. For most students, and all students at MCPC, we are housed and fed. We have two of the most important things in life, and then we have a bonus, “free” wireless. God forbid we not have plentiful and reliable wireless internet access.
Photo Courtesy of Google Images
This weekend, a few students at MCPC had an event for “Hunger and Homelessness Month.” Not having any other plans, and choosing not to do homework, I tagged along on the first event on Friday evening. We were each given $ 2 to buy dinner for ourselves. This was in an effort to represent only having a minimum amount of cash to buy our meal for the day. Some of us ended up in a variety of fast food places. This helped me to realize a few things.
Photo Courtesy of Sarah Baranik
First, there is so very little that you can get for $ 2. Second, what you can get doesn’t normally constitute a real meal. And finally, if you went the way I did and got a fast food meal, the available choices tend to be unhealthy when compared to what I would prefer to eat.
The weekend continued with a screening of the Soloist, 24 hours of prayer, and donations of meals from wealthy Temple Id cards.
I choose not to participate in the donation of meals and what’s more, I was treated to a luxurious dinner at Parc, a Steven Starr restaurant near Rittenhouse Square. The meal was very good; however it could have provided me with a daily McDonalds’ dollar meal through May. It’s quite a juxtaposition.
Photo Courtesy of Visitphilly.com
As I have said before, I don’t think that a huge healthcare plan is the answer. I can’t prove it, but it would seem that making healthy and cost efficient food available to everyone would be a better idea. The benefits of local urban greening programs and farmer’s markets have been proven though. Just something to think about until next week, until then…
LOVE. PHILLY.
Derek


