By Amelia Alverson, Executive Vice President for University Development and Alumni Relations
One of the most pressing issues of our time is the ever-widening gap of income inequality. Most of us have read about the truly staggering statistics, including the fact that the three richest individuals in the United States – Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and Jeff Bezos – collectively hold more wealth than the bottom 50% of the nation’s population.
For me, this is even closer to home, as I support the Shoreline Soup Kitchens and Pantries. An organization that began in 1989 and today serves more than 1 million meals a year in southwestern Connecticut. Connecticut is second only to New York in leading the country in income inequality. The average income of Connecticut’s wealthiest 1 percent is nearly 43 times what the bottom 99 percent take home. In the midst of such extraordinary wealth, I am deeply moved by the fact that so many of my neighbors are living at or below the poverty line.
While a soup kitchen does not directly impact the root cause of this extreme inequality, it certainly makes a difference in the lives of the families being served. This is summarized best by one of the Founders who in the earliest days mandated that everyone eat together, including the volunteers who serve the meals. In her words, “When you eat, everybody eats, so there is no difference between those giving and those being served. Otherwise, you’re taking the pride away from the people when you don’t sit and eat with them.”
