Macpherson Sq. kitchen
On our local NPR station one of the bits of local DC news being reported is that the kitchen at the MacPherson Sq. Occupy encampment has been shut down due to an upsurge in rats in the area.
Now, I don't know how much this is a bullying tactic by some government agency (local or fed., it's DC, it could be either) and how much of it is true.
I do know that up until just before Thanksgiving (when real life took over and I had to focus on getting through the holidays rather than help out) dealing with the kitchen was pretty much a thankless task done by a tiny few with little help from the people that were actually living in the camp.
I don't know what it was like on the days I didn't go down but I regularly arrived in the mornings to piles of dirty dishes left over from the previous nights' meals and mid-night snackies. It wasn't unusual to have a guy come in and want to leave their dishes to be washed rather than offer to help me wash up or do it themselves. At least once, when I explained which bins had which water and where towels were for drying, a guy just sort of blinked at me. (Hard to know if he was still waking up or trying to fathom why I wouldn't wash his freaking dishes.) He did wash his own dish and did it without grumbling but he washed **just** his dish and no others, though the piles of dirty dishes were massive.
The times (between 4-6 over Oct. and Nov.) I went and washed dishes only one adult camper, who happened to be male, ever helped me with the dishes. The other primary helper was another woman who commuted in to help with the protest. Plus, my daughter and a couple of the tiny kids of a protester helped some. It's really telling when an under 6 (possibly as young as 4) year old is more help than adult men.
The guy who was running the kitchen was doing the best he could but he got microscopic amounts of help. All the times I was there he was working on getting stuff organized and trying to keep on top of things but I could tell he was exhausted and overworked.
I picked doing dishes because it was something fairly easy that was needed and wouldn't step on anyone's toes. I know how it bugs me when people go messing in my kitchen; I didn't want to do that to anyone else.
I hope the kitchen is able to re-open but I'm not holding out much hope, honestly. I know how hard it is too keep an outdoor kitchen used for feeding 20 or less with the help of the vast majority of the those I'm feeding. Trying to feed 20+ times that number with less than 2% of the camp helping (I once asked the guy who seemed to be in charge of the kitchen at Macpherson Sq. and it was guessed that 500+ meals were served a day; I also noticed that the regular helpers that were campers were 5 or fewer, but I could've been missing those that helped with supper.) would be impossible without serious affecting multiple aspects of one's health.
Now, I don't know how much this is a bullying tactic by some government agency (local or fed., it's DC, it could be either) and how much of it is true.
I do know that up until just before Thanksgiving (when real life took over and I had to focus on getting through the holidays rather than help out) dealing with the kitchen was pretty much a thankless task done by a tiny few with little help from the people that were actually living in the camp.
I don't know what it was like on the days I didn't go down but I regularly arrived in the mornings to piles of dirty dishes left over from the previous nights' meals and mid-night snackies. It wasn't unusual to have a guy come in and want to leave their dishes to be washed rather than offer to help me wash up or do it themselves. At least once, when I explained which bins had which water and where towels were for drying, a guy just sort of blinked at me. (Hard to know if he was still waking up or trying to fathom why I wouldn't wash his freaking dishes.) He did wash his own dish and did it without grumbling but he washed **just** his dish and no others, though the piles of dirty dishes were massive.
The times (between 4-6 over Oct. and Nov.) I went and washed dishes only one adult camper, who happened to be male, ever helped me with the dishes. The other primary helper was another woman who commuted in to help with the protest. Plus, my daughter and a couple of the tiny kids of a protester helped some. It's really telling when an under 6 (possibly as young as 4) year old is more help than adult men.
The guy who was running the kitchen was doing the best he could but he got microscopic amounts of help. All the times I was there he was working on getting stuff organized and trying to keep on top of things but I could tell he was exhausted and overworked.
I picked doing dishes because it was something fairly easy that was needed and wouldn't step on anyone's toes. I know how it bugs me when people go messing in my kitchen; I didn't want to do that to anyone else.
I hope the kitchen is able to re-open but I'm not holding out much hope, honestly. I know how hard it is too keep an outdoor kitchen used for feeding 20 or less with the help of the vast majority of the those I'm feeding. Trying to feed 20+ times that number with less than 2% of the camp helping (I once asked the guy who seemed to be in charge of the kitchen at Macpherson Sq. and it was guessed that 500+ meals were served a day; I also noticed that the regular helpers that were campers were 5 or fewer, but I could've been missing those that helped with supper.) would be impossible without serious affecting multiple aspects of one's health.