Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Catholic
Poverty, Envy and a Poolside Lunch

Poverty, Envy and a Poolside Lunch

Last updated on: July 23, 2019 at 11:59 pm by Mary Pezzulo

Poverty, Envy and a Poolside Lunch 2019-07-23T23:59:53-04:00 Mary Pezzulo

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I used to know a well-to-do woman of the neighborhood, a Catholic stay-at-home mom with several kids. She was always pontificating about something, and that something was usually poor people.

One day, several years ago now, this woman was particularly incensed because she had seen a truck handing out free lunches at the local public pool.

These lunches were part of the government’s school lunch program, which used to bring lunches to parks and other public places in the summer so that children didn’t go without lunch when school was out. She was furious that people who could afford to get into the pool, which she deemed to be a luxury, were being treated to a lunch on the taxpayer’s dime. She was very public about her disdain, and denounced the free lunch program in several different places. I watched a comment thread go on for 100 comments one evening– that’s how angry she was about this one particular government program.

This pool was not luxurious– just a standard blue concrete rectangle next to a smaller concrete wading pool, with some playground equipment and picnic benches. It was the only public pool in town, it was in a public park and the property of the city. At the time, if I recall, the cost of admission to the pool was four dollars for an adult and two for a child for a day. The Parks and Recreation Department also sold pool memberships for a family rate of something like $100– all the adults and children in a household could go swimming as often as they wanted, whenever the pool was open, for a hundred bucks up front for the summer. In a twelve-week summer, that adds up to just under $8.50 a week. In addition, those family memberships were being sold at reduced rates or even just given away, according to a sliding scale, to anyone who brought proof of income to show they were below the poverty line– I had one for free a few summers in a row.

I used that free pass to take Rosie to paddle her feet in the baby pool on hot days. It was a welcome break from our tiny apartment. And while I was at the pool, I watched enormous gaggles of hyperactive children swimming, playing, fighting each other. They defied orders from the tired lifeguards; they splashed Rosie and called me names. Sometimes I watched them run over to the benches and devour a free sandwich with a pint of milk, an apple and a baggie of raw vegetables. I watched them tumble back into the pool. I admit that I was annoyed and wished there was some kind of no-unsupervised-children hour for a quiet swim. But I soon realized why they were there.

During the school year, those children went to the local public school for free and got free school lunches to eat. Afterwards, they went to an after school program until their parents got off work. But during the summer, the schools were closed and many of the after school programs weren’t available. The only thing available was daycare, which is expensive– far too expensive for many families to afford. So some of those parents shelled out between zero and a hundred dollars for a pool membership so that their children who were old enough to swim wouldn’t be home alone completely unattended all day long– instead, they rode their bikes to where there was something to do for fun and grown-ups with first aid training being paid to keep a certain amount of order. The children rode their bikes to the playground until the pool opened; then they stayed at the pool until it closed and rode their bikes home. While they were at the pool, thanks to the free lunch program, they got some bland healthy food once a day.

As taxpayer-funded programs go, this one seemed quite reasonable: bring a truckload of cheap healthy meals to the place where children went to be supervised during the months they weren’t at school, so that they had something nutritious once a day until school started up again. I assume taxpayers footed the bill for the discount pool memberships as well: and again, having a fenced-in area where children can play in clean water on hot days with someone to fish them out and call 911 if they were hurt, is a pretty good use of taxpayer money. I think we could do better still, but it’s something.

All this woman saw were people whom she deemed able to afford a luxury, bilking taxpayers for free sandwiches. She viewed those children as stealing her personal property.

Of course she was accused of lacking charity, by more people than just me. And people tried to explain how the programs worked, so she’d realize her mistake. And she had an answer at the ready. It wasn’t “sorry, I didn’t realize how cheap it was, I thought it was a luxury.” And it wasn’t “I think there’s a better way of achieving the same goals.” It certainly wasn’t “I’ll just make them some sandwiches myself instead of their needing to use tax dollars.” It was, “We are denying the poor the honor of providing for their own children.”

That was what she said. I’ve never forgotten it.

Giving children some free raw broccoli and 2% milk at the pool was wrong because it deprived parents of the “honor” of working to pay for their children’s meals. She believed this, despite the fact that the children were only having lunch at the pool at the first place because their parents were at work, desperately trying to make ends meet, and this was the most fiscally responsible way they had to keep the children supervised and fed so that they could keep working.

I thought about that episode today, as I went to that same pool with Rosie– we paid full price to get in, for the record, with money I earned working here at Patheos. The pool no longer gives away free or discounted memberships, though they have lowered the price overall. It’s a dollar per person on Tuesdays. And there is no longer a free lunch program in the summers. Some local people have picked up that slack, running summer day camps out of neighborhood Protestant churches and the like, with a free simple breakfast and lunch provided. One such daycare was taking a group of children to the pool today. Rosie played and fought with them in the water; then they went back to their camp for more activities.

I’m not saying it’s evil to suggest that local churches should run day cares, instead of taxes paying for discount pool memberships and cheap lunches. If that works, and if you’re willing to contribute to making it work in your community, that could be a solution. As long as children are getting enough healthy food to eat and safe places to play, there are any number of right answers as to how we could best provide them. Squabbling about that isn’t wrong.

But pontificating from your place of privilege that help should be taken away because it’s simply bad to help people– that is wrong. Arguing that poor people don’t have enough obstacles and we should “honor” them by making it harder, is wrong. Yanking away support without providing an alternative because the sight of a free lunch makes you envious, is immoral. It’s a sin. Doing it all as an ostentatious Catholic is a scandal.

We’re supposed to be thinking about ways to help one another carry our crosses, not despising people for needing help.

So much in our world would be better if we could just stick with that.

(image via Pixabay)

Franciscan University of Steubenville

human dignity

Public face of Catholicism

parks and recreation department

Previous Post

July 20, 2019

The Purgatory Time of Year

Next Post

July 24, 2019 A Lesson for Lunch: What do School Lunch Debts Teach our Children?

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abortion Abuse Advent America American Christianity angel angels Annunciation Appalachia apparition apparition chaser apparition chasers apparition culture art art review babies baby baby Jesus Bad Lip Reading bad statue contest bath beauty Bible story blog blogkeeping blood book review Brandon Sanderson breastfeeding bus Catholic catholic conspiracy alarmism Catholic Oppositional Disorder Charismatic Renewal Charlie the Cat chastity Christ Christian idenitity Christianity and Judaism Chronic Illness clean clothing COD piece comedy compassion conscience conspiracy theory conversion cop-on-black violence Crucifixion cry of the poor culture Daesh Daily Saints death death penalty devotional diaconate diaper diapers dirty disability Donald Trump Dorothy Day dream drugs Eastern Catholicism Eastern Christianity education election election update Elsewhere on Patheos empathy environment Fear feminism film review fish flashback fluffy buns food Franciscan University of Steubenville Friendship Room fun Gabriel gardening gospel hair-splitting Heaven hell heresy Hillary Clinton history Holly the Witch Holy Spirit holy war Homeschooling homosexuality horror human dignity humor Icon idol immigrants infection inter-religious dialogue Interpretation of Scripture Islam Jesus Jihad Joseph joy laity and lay vocations lamb dinner laundry lent lgbtq literature love manners Mary Medicine and Science Meditation mercy mess milk misogyny Missouri monasticism monster motherhood mourn with those mourn movies movis music mystery nature neurodiversity New Pro-Life Movement news nonsense nostalgia O antiphons obituary objectification Ohio Valley Ordinary Time ordination Ordo Amoris parable paradox Passover peanut butter personal beliefs pets philosophy Planet Charismatic poetry politics polls poop Pope Francis Pope Leo power in the Church prayer prayer request prayers preferential option for non-violence president presidential election priest primary private revelation pro-life prophecy Public face of Catholicism Pure Flix Q and A race racism random rape rape. sexuality reader's request Reckoners refugee religious trauma ressurrection Right to life Saints saints and celebrations same-sex same-sex marriage satire scandal secular feasts seder Seven Joys Seven Last Words sex sexual ethics sexuality silencing six months skid row slavery social justice Speculative fiction spiritual abuse spoon stain story suffering suffrage suffragette Sunday Gospel temple Tenebrae Responsories Terror the exorcist The Friendship Room The New Pro-Life Movement Things I Learned on the Internet tin cup traffic true story tv review Uncategorized USCCB vice and temptation violence Virtue virtue and vice war Way of the Cross whimsy whole life women's ordination work of mercy Year A

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What does "meek" mean in the Beatitudes?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Angry and harsh Funny Very rich Gentle and humble