GOSHEN — How can you give thanks when you don’t have a job and you’re barely scraping by?
Ed Swartley, executive director of The Window in Goshen, a soup kitchen and food pantry that serves the poor and homeless, suspects his clients don’t give the matter too much consideration. Thanksgiving is just one of 365 days in the year.
“They’re just thinking how can I get through the next day?” he said. “Where can I get help to get out of this situation?”
You might be surprised, though.
No question, things could be better, said Jerry Tyson, cradling a styrofoam cup of coffee at The Window, which offers doughnuts each morning to the needy. But the out-of-work factory worker — who plans to double up on the eats today, visiting a couple churches offering Thanksgiving Day meals — isn’t one to mope.
“I’m still sucking air,” said The Window regular. “I’m just thankful to be alive.”
Having roughed it in a tent in the woods of Goshen last year when things really got bad, he’s also thankful he’s got an apartment and an understanding landlord who cuts him slack at times. Moreover, the feds just extended unemployment benefits, which means he’ll have some money coming in for at least another four or five months, if he doesn’t land a job first.
“It’s depressing, but ain’t no sense killing yourself over,” he said.
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Treva Reed, sitting with Elizabeth Ritchhart in The Window dining room, knows there are a lot of woeful tales out there. The 81-year-old retiree, who last worked as a greeter at Walmart before leaving the job market, hears them all the time.
“A lot of people here are kind of sad because there’s no work and they don’t like to ask for things,” said Reed, who visits The Window each morning to see friends and break up the routine. “They just keep praying to God all the time. Give us a job.”
It makes her thankful for what she’s got — her family, a home that’s paid for, a monthly Social Security check and friends.
“I’m lucky because I own my own home,” she said. “I’ve got it made.”
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Jesse Sims, an out-of-work forklift operator, is sitting by himself, eating a chocolate-frosted cake donut and sipping a coffee. As is his routine each morning, he’ll go for a long walk after The Window, maybe a couple miles, and then return home.
“God is first in my life and that’s what I give thanks for,” he said.
Yes, looking for work in this economy is no picnic. Sims got so frustrated with the seeming futility of it all — submitting applications only to get the cold shoulder — that he’s temporarily put the job search on hold. That it’s getting to be that time of year when factories here, already operating with skeleton crews, typically scale production back doesn’t help any.
He isn’t throwing in the towel, though. His Christian faith makes sure of that.
“It’s not hopeless. It’s not at all hopeless,” he said. “It’s only hopeless when you give up.”