New Face of the Poor

(This Op-ed piece ran in the Seattle Times newspaper and website editorial section Tuesday, September 25, 2012. We are running this article on the St. Vincent de Paul of Seattle|King county website with the permission of Sam Sperry, guest columnist who wrote this article for the Seattle Times. Mr. Sperry is a St. Vincent de…

By Alchemy Malcom (Editor’s note: Alchemy Malcom is a high school student. During the summer of 2012 she volunteered two days a week at the St. Vincent de Paul South Seattle Food Bank. We asked her to give us some feedback about her experience. She was kind enough to write the essay that follows. We…

It’s true. You do get so much enrichment from giving. Millions of people and thousands of organizations have these “giving return” experiences. At St. Vincent de Paul, giving to others and receiving positive enrichment from those experiences are fundamental parts of our mission and our work. We recently had a wonderful “receiving experience” with a…

By Thomas Wagner, SVdP Staff An unfortunate aspect of our country’s narrative about poverty is that we often use the term “the poor” as a noun rather than as an adjective. The difference is dramatic. Usage as a noun signifies more permanence while use as an adjective connotes a more temporary condition. Unfortunately, many of…

By Jim McFarland, SVdP Staff Recently in the Rant & Rave section of the Seattle Times, a person publicly thanked us saying, “to the staff and patrons of the St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store, who I know are not exactly well-heeled, for finding and returning my wallet intact and restoring my faith in human…

By SVdP Staff All of our 1,100 neighborhood volunteers, the staff, and the Board of Directors of St. Vincent de Paul of Seattle|King County want to publicly thank and applaud the Employees Community Fund of Boeing Puget Sound (ECF) for awarding us a generous $40,000 grant for improving access at our Fourth Avenue South Seattle…