Every day Denver day laborers wait on street corners or in day-labor centers, hoping that even in this troubled economy someone will give them a job for a day or longer.
Often, these laborers go for long hours without food as they wait and hope. Student volunteers at DU are working to solve this problem at PB&J Night, where, as the initials imply, there is a lot of peanut-butter-and-jelly-sandwich making. The group makes sack lunches every Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Nelson Hall private dining room and distributes them the following morning at El Centro Humanitario day-labor center in downtown Denver.
The majority of the supplies are paid for by the group’s sponsor, Foundation Campus Ministry. Students also supply some of the peanut butter and jelly through a donation box in the Nelson lobby. There is usually also an apple or fruit leather added to the lunch. Sodexho has been donating leftover individually-wrapped pastries, cookies, brownies and bagels from campus dining locations to go in the lunches as well.
At last week’s event the group was able to make 77 lunches. They fed all the workers at El Centro for day.
Iliff School of Theology student Ryan Canaday started PB&J Night last fall. He sees the effort as a way for students to engage in social action.
Canaday and friends recruit students eating dinner in Nelson dining hall to make lunches.
Recently, students have responded with great enthusiasm to PB&J night. Last Tuesday’s event had help from Nelson and JMAC residents as well as members of Delta Zeta sorority. There was also entertainment by student a cappella group Idiosingcrasies.
Canaday says it is critical that students get involved in organizations raising awareness about social justice.
“The students see a need, and they see a way to get it done,” Canaday said. “They have a real vision for bringing justice in the world.”
Sophomore Sarah Droege got involved with the organization in early January when Canaday asked her to make a lunch. Now she shops for most of the organization’s ingredients and helps distribute the lunches at El Centro.
Passing out the lunches and talking with the workers has changed Droege’s notions about wealth and poverty.
“It definitely puts things in perspective. It’s humbling,” Droege said.
Canaday chose El Centro to work with because its members represent some of the most marginalized groups in Denver. Many of the workers are Latino and some are homeless.
He also wanted to show students the truth about day laborers at El Centro.
Workers arrive at 6 a.m. and stay until 1 p.m., waiting for employers to come by looking for help. Those who are not picked up for a job can attend classes in computer training, construction skills and English.
When an employer comes looking for workers, those with the right skills for the job are selected through a lottery system.
Workers who are drunk, on drugs or who start fights are not allowed in El Centro.
“These aren’t just lazy people, they’re trying to work,” Canaday said.
Canaday soon hopes to start a PB&J Night in Centennial Halls. He also wants to expand to providing lunches for other day-labor and women’s centers. “The goal is to keep feeding hungry mouths,” said Canaday.
One El Centro’s most important programs is its free legal aid clinic. Professors from the Sturm College of Law provide legal advice and counsel to workers every Monday and Wednesday night.
Professor Demetra Koelling, who specializes in employment and labor law, is one of the lawyers providing counsel to the workers.
In the two years she has worked at El Centro, Koelling has represented about 25 clients and recovered approximately $25,000.
Quite often, employers will withhold some or all of a temporary employee’s pay, telling the worker he will be paid in full at the end of the job.
“These people have hope, so they get strung along,” Koelling said.
Legal counseling and other programs offered encourage workers to be proactive in standing up for themselves and understanding they have the right to be treated with dignity, said Anne Dunlap, development and outreach director at El Centro.
This is especially important in the current economic state, where employers are increasingly taking advantage of workers, she said.
Elias, 20, from El Paso, Texas, said work has been scarce in the last few months. Though looking for work every day, he was only hired for four or five days in January.
Michael, 52, originally from Kenya, was working for a company that recently went out of business. Referred to El Centro by a friend, he is now participating in the computer, financial and construction help programs.
Michael and Elias agreed that the sack lunches are a great help.
In the last few months, with work scarce, hunger has become much worse at El Centro, Dunlap said.
“Now there’s no work, and they’re hungry. They’re just hungry,” she said.
“Some days we don’t have breakfast, and if you are going out on a job, you have the lunch to take with you, and that helps a lot,” said Elias.
“Sometimes you come at 6 [a.m.] and you don’t have time to fix food at home,” said Michael. “Food is essential.”
