Dedicated: To those who are inspired to help

Introduction

The "412 Food Rescue" is a non-profit organization based out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The organization allows citizens from where ever in the area to volunteer to deliver food to different places around the city that are in need. People might deliver to schools, shelters, community centers, and homes. This gives people an opportunity to contribute to their community by being more involved. Also, allowing them to have the opportunity to be more educated. People witness and are fully immersed in the cause and effect of an urban setting while delivering food.

The concept these pictures illustrate is gentrification. Gentrification can be defined as the process of changing the atmosphere of a neighborhood through dispersing more affluent businesses in the area (Chronopoulos). These pictures was taken along North Homewood Avenue. These two buildings in the pictures face each other from the road. These picture shows the difference that a side of a street can have on an area. One side is a modern building that holds shops, apartments, and a gym. The other side is an old worn down brick building that is boarded up and has graffiti on the side of it.  This shows that gentrification is starting in this neighborhood because when you have a brand new building in the area, A domino effect of new buildings would not be surprising. Eventually, the old buildings around it will get torn down or renovated to keep up with the surrounding area. This allows us to infer from the residents living there that there is a sharp difference in wealth. There are high income people living in the same area as people who do not have a high income. This shows that in the area of people who are on the lower income side, it might be hard to be able to have the funds to supply food for themselves on a consistent basis due to the prices of living going up. Pittsburgh is the 8th most gentrified city, this shows that this thought process does not yield any wrongs (Deto).

Gentrification

School Setting

The concept the picture illustrates is school setting. School setting is especially important in the process of growing up. The quality of school setting is what determines a lot of things in a child's life. School setting can be defined as the access that the school gives the student to learn, nurture, and grow as an individual (Little).  This picture spoke to me because of how it is all gated off. There are double layered gates and they rise up over 15 feet. Gates and fences are used as borders; their job is to keep people out. This just shows that they are trying to keep the school system separate from the outside. They want to keep the community out from within because the potential for problems to arise is likely. While driving around, I notice that most other schools in the area do not have double gates around the schools. Also, fences and gates around schools are known to have a relation with places of low income. This can potentially show that the food availability for some of these residents that go to school there is low. The inference can be made that the residents around the area are not affluent if fences are being put up.

Poverty

Poverty is the concept that best describes the picture to the left. According to Spicker, poverty can be defined as having an inadequate supply of one thing(s). Poverty is usually caused by having a lack of funds due to various factors. The picture to the left shows unkept housing, overgrown plant life, and an unmaintained boat. This just shows that the quality of living is not up to par with societal norms. The reason is that people are living in the housing shown are living in poverty. It seems like they are lacking funds and having to live in deteriorating housing because the ability to move out or provide funds to upkeep them is not there. Along, with people living below the poverty line, food security is done. It is hard for people to have access to plentiful and nutritious food just due to the fact that they do not have the funds to afford that.