Informed Compassion Is Needed

The wife and I volunteer at an urban food pantry once a week. Our food pantry gives out food, hopefully, to those in need--at least most of the food pantry's recipients are in need. Our pantry gets its food from food banks and other sources. And one thing that is most noticeable is that there are too many times that the food most needed by those who come to us is not the food that is donated us. That doesn't mean that we don't appreciate the other food that was donated. It simply means that what those who donate to us were willing or able to share does not best match the nutritional needs of those who come to us.

Of course the above problem dissipates during the holidays. Why? It is because so much food is donated that there is plenty of the most nutritional food available to us fully stocked on our shelves. But during the non-holiday season, that isn't always the case.

The above scenario reminds me of a part of a journal entry written by the late activist Rachel Corrie about the homeless when she was 12 years old (click here for the source).

Bring on their hungry smiles.
We battle them with loose change,
Trying to send them back out of our minds.  

She continues that part of her journal entry by saying how we care about the vulnerable as long as we can keep our distance from them. And that is how it is with deliberately ignorant compassion. When our compassion is uninformed due to neglect or laziness, that compassion is usually more self-serving than exists to help others. Ignorant compassion is our way of having our cake and eating it too. For it allows us to both avoid guilt for not helping others and escape contact with those who receive the bounty of our charity.

If we are really going to help those in need during both the holiday and the regular seasons, don't just give. Educate yourself first. Investigate the needs of those you plan to help so that you can give what best serves them rather than what only serves you. Even if that investigation means coming in contact with the people you plan to help, please investigate. For those in need not only need our donations, they need for us to be truly interested and invested in them.