Editorial for Unions

I thought that this edition of Western Friend would be about labor unions. But it’s become about the union of spirit, moving in union, and working together. Largely for me this issue ties into our sense of union with our values. When I was a child a common expression in my family was “Food is Love”. I understood there was great hunger in the world and that people were dying from lack of food. My calling as a child was to feed everyone. A value was born, that food was something people deserved and that food is a way to express love.

The governmental hostage taking of the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps, has been particularly demoralizing to my spirit because of that value. For many years of my 20’s SNAP and Medicaid were a vital part of strategy for survival. For the better part of a decade, I had inconsistent work that didn’t provide enough pay, hours or benefits. I could have claimed to be a war tax resister in those years because I never had any tax liability. However, every week I could go to a farmers’ market that had the double-up program, which meant that I would have twice the buying power with my SNAP dollars. I’d bring my shopping list that I wrote with the help of cookbooks I’d checked out of the library. It wasn’t until the last 5 years that I’ve gone to a grocery store and bought whatever I wanted without my frugality telling me to put something back. Perhaps you’ve never felt free to buy whatever food you wanted, perhaps you always have.

My first consistent work was at People’s Food Coop, a small but incredibly sourced store in Portland, OR. I started there as a part time cashier and often helped people use their SNAP benefits. People’s has a discount program on groceries for SNAP recipients called “Food for All”. The people who have SNAP don’t have a visually describable demographic, except that because of the large balances I often saw, I knew that the majority of the people coming through my line had children. People often ask cashiers for their SNAP balance before making a purchase so they know what they’ll have to pay for with cash or if they’ll at a certain point need to return items. I felt a sense of mastery when I could offer a person with SNAP kind and nonjudgemental care. I had been there and was acutely aware of how quickly I could be back.

Recently a nonprofit coffee shop in Portland said it would be offering free breakfasts to SNAP recipients. They announced this on social media and received multiple requests to donate to this cause. Ultimately, they ended up raising over $200K in a short amount of time It may come as a surprise to you but this breaks my heart. That small nonprofit coffee shop is near my house and doesn’t have the buying power or the ability to impact that many hungry people in our city. That $200K would have made an incalculable difference to the Oregon Food Bank, the People’s “Food for All” program, or any nonprofit with the infrastructure already in place to feed people at large. While this story shows me that people want to give to an immediate need and they’re excited about the idea of helping their neighbors receive food with dignity, it also taught me that a compelling story in a time of crisis can garner attention and resources that would be better focused on quieter and more consistent initiatives.

The Quaker calling, in times of challenge, quietly sows the seeds of peace by turning away from violence and greed. Friends instead turn their focus toward the shared need for safety and connection. Most of the things we value in our day to day lives are the product of peace. Most of the things I value in my life are because of the quiet consistency of other people. People who show up, often women or people of color, often unpaid or underpaid, to keep the world spinning on its axis. Unions are one way to organize our collective power against the mighty. Be it labor unions, the unions of marriage or the union people feel in silence or protest; I hope you find other people who share your values to organize with.

In the work of this magazine and in my life, I spend a great deal of my hours alone. The quiet contemplation and freedom this brings have buoyed me. Solitude has been good practice for moments of life where isolation has been imposed on me, by a pandemic, illness or grief. However, I’ve started to notice that in the past year I’ve reached a limit on how much I can harvest by myself. In my front yard apples rot on the vine. There is a dynamic power in the union of people whose minds and hearts are focused on the same thing. I’m putting out the intention to you to hold in your mind and heart that in the coming years Western Friend will grow to include more paid staff. American individualism says ‘do it for yourself, alone’ – but Friends know the good work of this lifetime must be shared. I need others to organize with. Way opens.