Most of us don’t know what it’s really like to live in poverty. Yet as of the 2024 Census, more than 10 percent of the U.S. population – for example, families of four earning below $31,812 annually – know it well.
I recently participated in a poverty simulation sponsored by the Guadalupe Center in Immokalee and held at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Naples.
I was part of COPE, the Cost of Poverty Experience. We were randomly assigned to families and given roles to play. I was a 6-year-old boy, living with my mother and grandfather. Each 15-minute period represented a week in our lives.
Four periods represented a month, during which we had to pay our rent, pay for health care, buy food, and I had to go to school. We lived on my mother’s part-time job as a nail tech and my grandfather’s Social Security check. Neither went far enough. We were able to buy “affordable” groceries, but not “healthy” ones.
Things took a turn for the worse when my mother’s ex-husband lost his job and failed to pay child support. Things got even worse when my mother was delayed by long lines for bus passes, was late to work twice and was fired. We had to sell our TV to buy food, even with help from the local food pantry. During spring break at school, there were no day camps for me; we just couldn’t afford it.
Making decisions of daily life was stressful and frustrating. It was particularly enlightening to learn that the families we portrayed were based on real-life ones.
Juan Lopez of Immokalee portrayed my mother and found the experience quite personal.
"I personally experienced poverty growing up as a child, but never really kind of understood what my family was going through," Lopez said. "So going through this experience as a parent, and kind of seeing the day-to-day struggles of just trying to keep food on the table and bills paid. I think it was eye opening. I think it just makes me want to continue to be involved with my community.
"It was programs like the Guadalupe Center that helped me be able to get out and get an education and find myself in a career. And I just want to make sure people from my town have the same opportunity."
Lopez still lives in Immokalee and works in the banking industry.
The experience also took Sheri St Marie of Naples back to her own childhood.
"I, unfortunately, grew up in poverty. That was incredibly challenging. My sister and I and my mom, we were for a short period of time in public housing in trailer parks and an apartment complex. My mom still worked, but it was still really challenging."
The Cost of Poverty Experience was realistic, St Marie said.
"I think it's a phenomenal experience, right? For people that don't know what that actually feels like, to be able to have all of those different challenges and decisions and things like that, and not understand why it's not so easy to fix it."
Susan Ugell from Estero, who played my 66-year-old grandfather, was motivated to take action.
"It made us actually feel some of what they are going through. And it made an impact on me to do something in the future, the near future, absolutely."
The Guadalupe Center sponsors the program twice a year. Anyone interested in participating can email Maria Bustamante, director of philanthropy and community engagement, at mbustamante@guadalupecenter.org.
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