Amica's Many Faces of Hunger
Essay Contest
Amica Insurance is proud to announce that the winners of its “Many Faces of Hunger” essay contest are Alexandra Puleo of Smithfield, RI, and John MacLure of Lunenberg, MA.
Puleo and MacLure each will receive VIP treatment at Amica’s Carnevale at WaterFire Providence on Aug. 22, including an opportunity to view WaterFire activities from aboard the elegant Thai River Boat.
But the big winner of the contest is Meals on Wheels of Rhode Island, which receives a $2,000 donation from Amica – $1,000 in the name of each of the winners – to aid in its efforts to provide meals to the elderly and disabled members of our community.
“We’re happy that this contest has helped to raise awareness of the many faces of hunger in our community,” said Patti Genovese, communications project specialist for Amica. “We’re grateful to everyone who took the time to enter the contest. And we’re also glad we’re able to help Meals on Wheels, which is one of many fine organizations struggling to meet the needs of the hungry in our community.”
Winning Essays
A simple act has the power to expose happiness. For some people, its spiritual guidance, for others, it’s a bed to sleep in, and still for some, it’s a meal. The following story recalls a recent volunteer experience that I had with the latter and the lesson that followed.
On an afternoon car ride on the highway, a breeze that resembled a painter’s brush glazed quickly across my face. The car had a distinct bakery smell as I traveled the narrow roads and congested city of Providence. My family and I have been actively involved in transporting unused bread from a local franchise to the Providence Rescue Mission on Cranston Street for four years. Pulling into the open chain link fence driveway, I saw a sea of people from all walks of life waiting outside for a warm meal. Children, families, and gang members gathered on makeshift benches and soda crates while some remained standing as clouds of cigarette smoke filled the stagnant summer air. A man walked by our car with a withered blue backpack, indicating the difficult but familiar life of a person who is homeless and hungry.
Suddenly, this simple act of delivering bread took on new meaning in my life. With each loaf of bread that is divided into slices, a profound realization followed: people are affected. Though I do not know who received a slice of bread, I understand that each loaf unites a group of unique individuals with talents covered by hunger.
As a participant in “The Many Faces of Hunger Contest,” I seek to uncover these talents through provisions of bread. I now realize that food is one of the common characteristics that has the power to unite or separate the human race. Delivering loaves of bread and placing them in the hands of caretakers will ensure the prosperity of this mission, one loaf of bread at a time.
In my youth, I distributed groceries to people in food pantries and soup kitchens in Providence. There I learned that hunger does not discriminate based on age, color, or race. I thought that I knew about hunger, knew its victims, knew its face.
However, over the years I learned that the face of hunger is often invisible. Its victims are not always apparent. I have also learned that the experience of hunger makes one appreciate its absence but leaves an impression that lasts a lifetime.
Robert, a friend of mine from Pawtucket, was one such victim. Robert always seemed happy. He had a permanent smile on his face, a great outlook, and was always full of life. Years after I had known him, I was shocked to learn that when he was growing up, he and his siblings and parents had faced hunger many times in their lives. The son of an alcoholic with four brothers and sisters, Robert and his family never spoke about their plight to anybody - they were too proud to let anybody know. Despite my experience in helping the hungry, the hunger of Robert and his family remained invisible to me all those years.
Years later I met Eva, a family friend in her 30s who recently immigrated to the US. Eva spent most of her life in poverty where she was raised in Bantayan, a small island in the Philippines. Today Eva is blessed to have plenty of food to eat, but her experience of hunger and poverty started from birth and lasted into her 30s.
"Weren't we hungry?" Eva asks us. Hunger was so much a part of her life that when she recounts her experiences growing up there, Eva often speaks to her audience as if hunger is common to everybody's life experience. "Sometimes we went to school barefoot and used plastic shopping bags for school bags. Most of the time when we ate, we ate very little. Most often, we ate just beans and rice."
As a child, Eva and her sisters often went to work for others who were well off in exchange for a bit of food and some clothes. "But they treated us as slaves," explains Eva, adding, "we would work from early morning until 10 pm without a break."
To survive, Eva explains that she and her sisters had to scour the jungle each day in search of wild roots and fruits. With tears in her eyes, Eva tells of one close call with death brought on by hunger.
"Once my sister almost died," chokes Eva. "She had picked yuca root and ate it partially cooked and was poisoned by it." When yuca is not processed properly, a cyanide toxin that occurs naturally in the starchy root can cause illness or even death.
My experiences with those who have suffered hunger have taught me a lot, but mostly, it has shown me how blessed I am to never have suffered from it.
