Mark WiedmerEarlier this week, her young sons Gabe and Zach frolicking in a narrow patch of grass outside the Chattanooga Community Kitchen, Tiffany Smith was asked what she thought she might be thankful for this Thanksgiving.
Glancing at the doors to the Maclellan Shelter for Families and those to the Kitchen, the 24-year-old Rhea County native said, “I’m thankful for this place. We were homeless on Sept. 1.”
The homeless aren’t always who you think they are. Smith’s husband, William Reynolds, works two jobs. The couple has been together for 10 years. Gabe is 5 years old going on 6. Zach is 4 about to become 5. But events transpired to put them on the streets in September, leaving them without a roof over their heads for the first time in their lives.
“It was crazy,” Smith said. “We’d take the kids and walk around all day, looking for something to keep them occupied. Then we found a public building we could get into at night with a hallway we could sleep in. I just didn’t want my children sleeping outside at night. We lived like that for three weeks.”
Then they went to the Maclellan shelter, which provided them a safe place to stay, career counseling and hot meals at the Kitchen until they could get their lives back on track.
“I’m going to start nursing school at Chattanooga State in January,” Smith said. “We’ve applied for a Section 8 voucher to help us get housing early next year. This place has helped us so much.”
On a typical day at the Community Kitchen, Smith and her family are among 200 or so folks being served a hot meal at either breakfast, lunch or dinner. That changes today. The Kitchen’s full-time staff and volunteers will feed anywhere from 750 to 1,000 of its “clients” today with a traditional Thanksgiving feast of turkey, dressing, sweet potato casserole, green beans, rolls and various pies.
And unlike most days, when the clients go through a line, cafeteria-style, to get their food, the volunteers will serve them at tables with white tablecloths, as they might be served at a family gathering. It’s one of the best turkey day traditions in all of Chattanooga.
The need for food and money for both the shelter and the Kitchen has never been higher, especially as the weather turns colder.
“We’re a necessity,” said Faith Morgan, who now manages the Kitchen but was a client nine years ago. “The numbers are rising. More people need our help every day.”
Asked what she’s thankful for today, Morgan smiled and said, “I’m thankful I was successful in this program. Now I can give back what I was given.”
We aren’t all given the same gifts. Life is naturally harder for some than others. But there is hope. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, poverty declined across the board in 2015 for the first time in close to a decade, dropping from 48 million Americans living in poverty in 2014 to 43.5 million living at that level in 2015.
But that still means that nearly 14 percent of the population could become homeless at any time, forced to find a hallway in a public building to remain warm and safe at night and a community kitchen to stay fed.
“I was that way nine years ago,” said David Currington, a South Pittsburg native and longtime Community Kitchen employee. “I was on the streets for two weeks. I couldn’t handle it. The first paycheck I got I found a place to stay.”
There is much concern in the country today over where those paychecks will come from in the future now that the White House is set to have a new occupant. Will President-elect Donald Trump truly make America great again for everyone, from the board room to the boarding house? Or are the have-nots about to have even less?
The always thoughtful University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball coach Jim Foster was asked last week what he thought Americans should be thankful for today following the most divisive election in memory.
He was quiet for a moment, then said, “That you’re in a place you can keep grinding and things can change. You maybe want change quicker than you can get it, but if you keep grinding, things can change.”
The same question was asked of UTC men’s coach Matt McCall the following day. Said McCall of his own young men, their futures all in front of them: “I just hope (my players are) thankful for the opportunity to be here, to be a college student and athlete. I hope they won’t waste a single moment or opportunity. Just be thankful to be alive.”
Just be thankful to be alive. It is easy to forget that sometimes. Especially when you don’t have a roof over your head or food in your belly. But if you’re alive and healthy, there’s always hope for change. If you can keep grinding long enough, life can get better.
And as the Kitchen’s Morgan said of the next four years, her faith as strong as her resolve, “God will see us through no matter who’s in office.”
Smith, Reynolds and their two sons will eat their first Community Kitchen Thanksgiving meal today. It will be an experience she never expected to have, but one she’s grateful for after the struggles of the past year.
“My family’s still together,” she said. “Not all shelters allow that. I guess that’s what I’m most thankful for. I’m thankful for my family.”
Because as we’re reminded on this day above all others, it’s so much easier to keep grinding when you’re not grinding alone.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com