Gainesville, Florida: Where Politics Keep the Hungry From Being Fed

Here in the home of the University of Florida Gators, city leaders are putting alligator teeth on tiny St. Francis House (SFH), imposing arbitrary limits on how many meals they serve at their soup kitchen. If you're number 131, you're SOL.

Ed, the volunteer maitre d' de jour, deftly and respectfully recorded names of all who made the trek to Monday's soup kitchen that serves a midday meal seven days a week. Numbers were down because it's the beginning of the month, but he got concerned about hitting the limit as folks kept trickling in -- the aged, the disabled, and the less visibly disabled among the growing numbers of down-and-outers.

Eunice extolled the food and atmosphere of SFH's operation, saying "food is great," and gave me pointers to avoid being turned away. "Be in line by 10:30." Her limited budget, a disability check, doesn't last throughout the month. The biggest draw -- the people -- volunteers and soup kitchen patrons.

Gary also raved about the food, but emphasized the people as the best aspect of SFH. He's been coming here since he was about 14, and in those 15+ years his only complaint is he'd like someone to help him and others find work so they'd have enough to support themselves.

Arjuna values the quality of the food, but most important to him, "the people are kind." People, people, people ... obviously soup kitchen diners still have their humanity intact.

Sniffing around for clues to the St. Francis House conundrum, I drove around the neighborhood, walked around the block, and talked briefly with the busy Kent Vann, SFH Executive Director. In addition to being buffeted by record cold temps, he's being tsunami-ed by bureaucratic BS requirements in order to keep SFH open and available for the thousands of people in the community that need a helping hand.

Vann recognizes the politics. And he's jumping through time consuming hoops, knowing this approval process to remove the limits could take months, meaning meeting after meeting. But SFH doesn't want to lose their license to operate. The benevolent city leaders allow him to exceed their arbitrary limit of 130 meals three times a year: Thanksgiving, Christmas and a date of his choosing (which needs their blessing). Over 300 folks enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner, a combination of socialization and end-of-the-month respite for those whose meager disability checks don't quite stretch 30 days.

Hate to tell the city commissioners, but public opinion seems to tilt in favor of this community service continuing.

But the tide nationally, as well as in Gator-land, seems to be turning against compassionate efforts. ABC News recently covered the Gainesville issue and similar conflicts across this great land. And the report "A Place At the Table" chronicles the epidemic of anti-poor people activities nationwide.

According to a local news story, Gainesville City Commissioner Jeanna Mastrodicasa dredged up the textbook opposition -- patrons at local businesses resent the appearances of the homeless SFH patrons. Her dilemma, and supposedly the issue behind putting the squeeze on SFH, is safety -- that of the cash-bearing customers.

"One of the issues we've got is, how do you balance the vibrancy of a business community with the very important need of keeping individuals fed and safe?" Mastrodicasa told ABCNews.com. "We've had a lot of really difficult challenges with this," she said. "And it isn't that the city is trying to be heartless, we really do want to help facilitate."

But is that the issue? Or do well-monied developers have their eyes on the chunk of property in a soon-to-be-developed neighborhood on the edge of downtown? The city is pushing for a one-stop center far from the downtown area, a multi-million dollar endeavor that hasn't broken ground yet, that would be in direct competition with SFH. With the city's pressures, beleaguered Kent sighs.

"The city commission has the power to temporarily approve a text change"  that would immediately put all to rest, according to Vann, who's dreading the prospect of being dragged through Gator-infested red tape swamps. He's been hauled on the carpet because of off-site issues -- guys whizzing inappropriately downtown, litter, etc. And perhaps he's right, drunk college students could be at least partially responsible, but who would think a man sitting in a building on the edge of town should be monitoring actions of his peeps far away from his facility?

Ed, who's had the unfortunate task of turning away folks after the magic 130 number, likens the commissioners to Ebeneezer Scrooge. He's being kind. But that's the nature of folks around here. My time at this place was filled with nothing but kindness, a lost trait, I'm afraid.

Seems to me it's a simple case of money vs. the poor, a classic David vs. Goliath scenario. Except this time the eyes of the nation are going to be watching, and the muscle of the Change.org community is going to rain down upon them.

Photo credit: Diane Nilan