Diners get surprise at Dinner for a Difference

Attendees of Central Missouri Community Action’s first “Dinner for a Difference” event waited for their meals Thursday inside the Millbottom in Jefferson City.

Unknowingly, CMCA supporters — ranging from local government officials, nonprofit organization administration, medical professionals and business leaders — sat at seats with placemats of three different colors. Blue meant a patron was wealthy, and red signified middle class status.

Purple placemats meant living in poverty, like the more than 900,000 Missourians living at or below the federal poverty line.

While CMCA staff served dinner to those with blue and red placemats, purple-placemat participants had to pick up their food from the bar counter. Utensils clinked on the plates of those with blue and red placemats, while people simulating poverty ate from Styrofoam plates using plastic forks and knives. They started eating last.

Their experience was different on purpose, symbolizing how society can treat the poor based on their income level.

Darin Preis, executive director of Central Missouri Community Action, said though the statewide unemployment rate is low — at 4.2 percent, according to the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations — it doesn’t account for those categorized by the U6 unemployment rate. This figure tracks individuals in part-time positions or jobs they are overqualified for.

Last year, Missouri’s U6 unemployment rate was at 9.3 percent. Often times, Preis said, those who fall into this category face the challenge of meeting basic needs.

“The reality of poverty in central Missouri, and across our country, is about instability,” he said. “People are doing well one day and then they aren’t doing so well the next day. A lot of blame gets put on them, but their reality is no less arbitrary than the way you seated yourselves tonight.”

During dessert, every attendee was treated equally. Angela Hirsch, CMCA community services director, said that too was on purpose.

“Whether or not we admit it to ourselves, if you are wealthy, middle class or in poverty, you are treated differently,” she said. “But the fact of the matter is that we are one community, and together as a single community ,we can make an incredible difference in the lives of everyone in our community.”

Growing up in poverty, Lincoln University President Kevin Rome said his community helped give him a sense of hope, which allowed him to look beyond his circumstances. Community-supported agencies like CMCA, Rome said, provided food, coats and Christmas gifts for him, his four siblings and children in families facing similar financial restraints.

After his parents divorced when he was 10, Rome’s family was homeless. He went from living in a two-parent household and going to a private Catholic school to staying with friends and his grandparents. His family settled in the projects, and he was bused to an affluent neighborhood, he said, where he would see what he didn’t have — large homes with working utilities and cars parked in the driveways. Sometimes, they had to save up to pay utility bills and went a while without a car.

Experiencing life outside of poverty, Rome said he knew at a young age he was someday going to get out of poverty. But for the children who were born into poor families, envisioning a life beyond poverty was difficult.

Community support, he said, give those facing the challenges of poverty a chance for something better, and he thanked the organization for addressing the needs in central Missouri.

“What’s most important is love,” Rome said. “That’s what you give — love. Love is the most powerful tool. Love goes beyond color; it goes beyond gender; it goes beyond socio-economic background. … Love inspires. Love endures. Love leads hundreds to give back.”