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Will Work for Food

Posted at 4:39 PM on May 27, 2008 by Autumn Long

Back in April, while vacationing in Florida, I read a lot of signs held by panhandlers. (If I were homeless, I'd move to Florida, too.) "Will work for food" is the classic black-marker-and-cardboard-sign phrase that never fails to pluck my heartstrings. As far back as I can remember, whenever I saw someone holding up a sign with that phrase written on it, whether they were standing along an interstate beltway exchange or slumped against the wall of a building on a city street, my mind would race to think of some task in which I might be able to employ that person. I wanted to take that person home and feed them. I have never actually done that.

There is more to this seemingly simple, pleading phrase than meets the eye. What is it about the concept of working for food that touches my heart so deeply? Perhaps it's the fact that all of us, ultimately, are working for food. The majority of us receive a paycheck that we exchange for food at a grocery store, but, really, the panhandlers are just cutting to the chase. That sign declaring "will work for food" implies an intense level of
desperation, a life balancing on the edge of a blade, and the real possibility of ruin. But as a gardener and farmer, I freely choose to work for food. In fact, I enjoy working for food. I'm much happier working for food -- tilling, digging, hoeing, mulching, planting, weeding, harvesting, cooking, canning -- than sitting at a desk and earning an hourly wage. I do both. But I'd like to see more people working for food.