Philippa Luster and Arraiyan DuBose preparing soup in the kitchen. (Photo: Rasheed Z. Ajamu)

The Crossroads Women’s Center has a particular focus on ending poverty by recognizing unpaid caregiving and advocating for care income, with an emphasis on supporting mothers and family caregivers.

Why? Well… It’s pretty simple.

One of the philosophies of the many interconnected working groups within the space is, “Every Mother is a Working Mother.”

It’s one of the sayings you’ll find posted around the center that helps highlight the hidden labor that mothers and caregivers provide to folks every day, which not only goes unnoticed but also remains unpaid.

“If we look at the work we make worldwide that is not paid, but are also industries where people that does similar jobs are paid, it’s a lot of money,” said Philipa Laster, with Women of Color in the Global Women’s Strike.

Laster is a caretaker of many people, including her adult son, who lives with autism, which affects his ability to care for himself fully. She asks why it is okay for someone else to be paid $20 an hour to care for him, but she can’t receive those funds herself?

One aspect related to the topics of motherhood and poverty is food.

Food, of course, is an essential part of caregiving, but when you aren’t making enough money, food can become your most significant stressor.

And while the center already connects people to social services such as SNAP/EBT, its Crossroads Kitchen Project seeks to meet caregivers and neighbors more directly, thanks to a grant from the Philadelphia Food Justice Initiative.

Two of the main components of this project, but not the only ones, are advocating and sharing. Both manifest as different upcoming gatherings at the center.

Advocating through storytelling

Arraiyan DuBose is a nearby neighbor helping to plan and coordinate an upcoming Saturday event, where the center is inviting mothers and caregivers to share their food stories in a particular manner.

DuBose says they specifically want to know how more money per month could help them feed their families. From there, they’ll begin to connect what they hear from attendees to larger policy conversations about the Expanded Child Tax Credit (CTC) and protecting SNAP/EBT benefits.

Back in 2021, as part of the American Rescue Plan, the federal government temporarily expanded the Child Tax Credit in a couple of ways.

• Increased the benefit to as much as $3,600 per child.
• Created a monthly payment system for families so they could get the benefit sooner, not waiting to file a tax return.
• And opened it up to families with little to no income, who had historically been excluded from the benefit.

Following the expansion, the national child poverty rate reached a record low of 5.2% in 2021. After the credit expired, the rate increased to 12.4% in 2022 and 13.7% in 2023.

Philadelphia’s current rate sits at 20.3%, which is the lowest since 2000, but still significantly higher than the national average. Right now, almost 25% of children under 18 live in poverty in our city.

Currently, SNAP is facing potential benefit cuts and reductions as lawmakers consider cutting $300 billion from SNAP over the next decade. This is the most significant reduction in U.S. history. 

This would inevitably mean more costs for Pa., as new rules could shift 25% of SNAP benefit costs and 75% of administrative costs to the state, resulting in approximately $1 billion in additional expenses for the state each year.

The House’s reconciliation bill, which proposes the above changes, also includes work and reporting rule adjustments, such as extending the work requirement to adults up to age 64, from 54, and parents of school-aged children and older adults, who will face more reporting paperwork.

This bill could potentially impact Pennsylvanians, as up to 401,000 people in Pa. could lose some or all of their SNAP benefits. Currently, families could lose an average of $255.

Approximately 418,000 children also risk losing access to free school meals.

These trends undoubtedly will affect Germantown, which is considered a food desert, defined as low-income zones that lack easy access to fresh produce. Members of the Crossroads Women’s Center and the broader public share this sentiment.

Through the event, they aim to highlight the stark contrasts in experiences between when mothers and families receive support versus when they do not.

DuBose says they hope to “help people see if [mothers] had more money — if they had the CTC — then they could feed their children… they wouldn’t be as food insecure as they are now.”

The Food Stories Project will take place this Saturday, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m., at the center’s headquarters, located at 5011 Wayne Avenue.

Food and free child care are included, as is typical for events at the center. A rummage sale, where people are allowed to browse clothes and fill their bags, sometimes for free and sometimes for a very low price, such as $1, will also be available.

Sharing through rice and beans

For the Women’s Center, it’s not enough to simply advocate for the issue. They must be intentional about how they engage the surrounding community in these efforts and their broader offerings.

It’s why they have a weekly open meal to anyone who comes into the center on Wednesday and Friday afternoons. The center keeps the picks vegetarian, so that everyone can enjoy and maintain a balanced nutritional intake.

Twice a week, various members of the center come together to prepare meals before meetings. Each person takes on a different role, gleefully: Carolyn Hill cuts onions and carrots, DuBose washes the black beans, and Laster gives reminders to measure with the eye and the soul, a Black diasporic tradition of relying on intuition over measurement.

Impromptu decision-making often brings the group back together, such as trying to figure out whether to add scallions to this week’s vegetable soup, which Eric Gjertsen, with the Payday Men’s Network, eventually chops after the group decides yes.

And by keeping their shared meal and mission in mind, the sharing component of the Kitchen project shines. And it takes the form of a rice and beans cook-off.

Why rice and beans? At first glance, the mind may think that it feels almost too simple, even with the vegetarian guidelines in place.

According to the members, that’s kinda the point. It’s a classic case of the phrase, “the simpler, the better.”

“A lot of people around the world use rice and beans because they don’t have many options,” DuBose explained. “And so we’re talking about accessibility.”

It’s because of the simplicity of the meal combination that allows more people to participate without breaking the bank.

The cook-off also dispels myths and lore surrounding rice and beans, which have been commonly associated with low nutritional value due to their connection with low-income people.

Depending on the type of rice and beans, both can offer health benefits and nutritional value to the human body. While they recognize that white rice and canned beans can be high in sugar and sodium, other types, such as brown rice and lentil beans, can provide more fiber, vitamins, protein, and other essential minerals and nutrients.

During the cook-off, participants who enter their recipes will have the opportunity to discuss their ingredient choices, helping to illustrate how what we put into our bodies can affect us, in the best ways.

“What we’re focusing on here is food as medicine,” Laster clarified.

Laster says this is also helpful, particularly in light of references to Germantown being a food desert. She makes the point that even with limited access to fresh and organic options, folks can better understand the raw food and materials they can find around them.

As a multiracial center, the members recognize that, depending on the culture and background, there is excellent potential for a wide range of recipes and ingredients to choose from and engage with.

“So, you know, rice and beans are something you can get pretty easily, and then you can do a lot with them,” DuBose emphasized.

From the community-submitted recipes, the Women’s Center hopes to create a community cookbook to share, so that everyone can have access to these recipes and hopefully prepare the meals in their own homes.

Community members can submit their recipes online using the submission form until July 11. The center is currently working to secure judges for the event, which will take place on Saturday, July 26.

At the event, taking place at the center headquarters, community members are welcome to try the many dishes that are created and served for free. Free child care is also available.

Food in Action

Heading into the future, the center has two other food components it’ll work on gradually for the kitchen project.

The first is growth, which involves making the garden behind the center more accessible to the public. The second is cooking, which would commercialize the kitchen, giving community members more access to use it.

The numerous reasons outlined for both the food stories project and the cook-off demonstrate a creative flair. More importantly, it highlights their desire for community participation from the center’s congregants.

Currently, the center addresses numerous issues, including child care, criminal justice, elder care, pay equity, and other related concerns. However, they understand that to make an impact and connect people to the available resources, they must put in the effort to reach them.

And Carolyn Hill makes the point that the best way to engage the community is through food. It’s “the way to people’s hearts,” she explains.

“If you can get em with food, then you can provide em with other resources and other things that they may not know they need.”

She encourages anyone in who wants to to volunteer at the center and to stay for a healthy lunch anytime they need it.

To learn more about the Crossroads Women’s Center, contact philly@allwomencount.net and call (215) 848-1120.