Puma Press: April 2001 Campus News

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	courtesy of Holly Pennington
	Holly Pennington embraces, from left, her goddaughter Tiffany, 10, her son J.D., 7, and daughter Charlee, 10. Pennington and her children were homeless in Î98.
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March 2001 was designated Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Month by PVCCÌs Student Leadership Council (SLC). Under the direction of Megan Amphlett, SLC Senator, activities were planned to bring attention to worldwide conditions of the hungry and homeless.

Activities included feeding the poor, fasting and sleeping outside for a night with very minimal provisions.

"The purpose of the homeless and hunger experience is for students to actually see poverty and then experience a glimpse of what it feels like to be hungry, cold and homeless," says Amphlett. "School knowledge is not enough."

According to recent statistics put out by Oxfam America, a non-profit organization that seeks to find solutions to world poverty, hunger and social injustice; hunger plagues an estimated 793 million people around the world, including 31 million in the U.S. Hunger also kills.

The Arizona Department of Economic Security (DES) estimates that 20,500 people are homeless on any given day and 60, 000 Arizonans are homeless for at least one day during the year.

The Andr» House of Arizona, a nonprofit organization, which offers services to the poor and homeless, in a public information letter, reports that the causes for homelessness range from eroding work opportunities and lack of affordable housing to family or medical crises.

To help raise awareness of global hunger and poverty, SLC kicked off their activities for Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Month by chalking up PVCCÌs courtyard sidewalks with worldwide statistics on hunger, poverty, global resources, education and health care. Then, on March 27 SLC members headed down to the Andr» House of Hospitality to prepare and serve food to the poor.

"My experience with the Andre House was an eye opener," says SLC Treasurer Jamie Ream. "I got to see firsthand how poverty affects my city."

In support of Oxfam AmericaÌs "Fast for a World Harvest Campaign" to raise funds for the development and disaster relief projects worldwide, SLC promoted a 24-hour fast beginning the eve of March 27. To support the studentsÌ cause in fasting, sponsors pledged money for each hour fasted. Students gathered pledges for over $500 to be sent to Oxfam America this month.

Steve Jansick, SLC Treasurer says, "Going the day without food did not seem too hard because I kept busy. As the night past, the difficulty grew.Ó

Student participant Thomas Scala says, "I began to sympathize with those who starve every day. I realized how greedy we are as a society, consuming not what we need but what we want."

On the following day, the participating students, while still fasting, stayed the night outside in the PVCC courtyard with only the clothes on their backs, cardboard-based beds and a few blankets. With temperatures dipping down into the 40Ìs during the night, most of the students huddled together while a few retreated to the outside bathroom to seek shelter from the cold.

"I thought the hours between 1 a.m. were the most authentic portion of the experience," says SLC Chairperson Shelley Buchholz. "Aside from the fact we had full stomachs by that point (the fast ended at 12 a.m.), it was very difficult to keep warm."

Buchholz says she felt lucky to have friends near to with whom to share body warmth and a piece of cardboard.

Not so lucky, is 31-year-old Holly Pennington, who spent the summer of 1998 on the streets with her children in Phoenix. Pennington in her youth was a four-year track letterman at Apollo High School and editor in chief for her school paper while maintaining a 3.79 grade point average. Then in 1992, she moved on to receive an AA degree in graphic design from the Al Collins Graphic and Design School. Despite her successes, six years later in 1998, Pennington ended up homeless along with her children Charlee, then 8, and J.D., 5, for a period of two-and-a-half months. Served with an eviction notice from her apartment manager, no job and a relationship with her boyfriend that was both physically and emotionally abusive, Pennington was forced to live on the streets of Southeast Phoenix. Of this time in her life Pennington says, "It can happen to anybody no matter who you are."

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	Photo credits
	Students slept in cardboard boxes, in a fundraiser for the homeless.
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Surviving in the extreme heat of the day and attaining safe shelter in the nights was exhausting, she says.

"I kept the children cool during the days by taking them for dips at the nearby apartment pools," she says. "They also went through the sprinkler systems at the park."

To get away from the dayÌs extreme heat, Pennington took the kids to the nearby bowling alley and also to the Losolinos Senior Center (20th St. and Indian School) "At the bowling alley Charlee and J.D. pretended that they were playing on the arcade machines. This gave us a place to get out of the sun," says Pennington. "Another place was the senior center, which my son called Îthe puzzle place.Ì There I could use the phone (to try find a shelter) while the senior citizens played cards and did puzzles with my kids."

"When the children and I slept outside, I kept the ants from crawling on them by putting plastic on the ground, then put blankets on top," she says. "For pillows, we used our clothes."

For protection, Pennington slept with a knife under her "pillow." One night, while sleeping behind a building at 28th St. and Indian School, a man sexually assaulted her.

"I was wakened by feeling a manÌs hands entering my body," she says. Because the man was in drunk stupor, Pennington was able to get away.

Because of PenningtonÌs diligent persistence in calling shelters day in and day out, she was able to find an opening first at a shelter for domestic violence for a week, then later at the United Methodist Outreach MinistryÛUMOM. It was there that she was able to make a transitional move back into the working world and to find government-subsidized housing. For the past two years Pennington has been working three part time jobs, as a waitress, a production assistant and bookkeeper. Both her children attend public school, participate in an after school program called Pact and receive counseling.