(gentle music) - As woman who was living in a domestic violence shelter and not having money because all my money is going towards all my bills.

Plus now all these six hospitals or five hospitals.

So I was given an opportunity from the shelter to go to the food pantry, Food Pantry at the Congregational Church.

I'm not proud.

I've been homeless and hungry a lot in my life off and on, and I would go.

So I drove to the pantry the first time, and it's kind of sad being 58 years old and having to rely on a food pantries because you're broke.

(cars whirring) - Food comes into the state, goes to the Good Shepherd Food Bank, and they distribute according to how many customers are at each distribution site.

Like the Machias Food Pantry's a distribution site.

(whirring) - Anyway, going to the food pantry is a great thing because Hannaford's here in Machias donates a lot of beautiful food, one of the bags just recently had New York strip steaks and I got sweet potatoes and other vegetables.

I'm very much into non-processed foods.

So I had mushrooms, I think portabella mushrooms and vidalia onions and carrots and kale and green beans.

And I made a beautiful meal at the campground where I am living in a borrowed camper on the weekends 'cause I'm still homeless.

Even though I'm at living as a student full time at the University of Maine, when I'm out of there, I am homeless, but I'm never hopeless.

I may be down, but I'm never out.

- Cumulative stress like that, that devaluation actually causes physical stress response.

That it's prolonged over time.

That it leads to stress related disease.

So cardiovascular disease, weight, obesity, we're looking at diabetes and other inflammatory diseases, arthritis, all kinds of, this constellation of stress related disease and metabolic disorder is gonna be much higher among folks who are facing not only just the life stress of poverty being devalued and feeling less than.

(dinging) - Temporary emergency food assistance program, which is kind of a misnomer because it's a chronic situation for most of our customers.

It's not temporary.

- Well, that could be a possibility.

- Could be.

- It's not, I mean, stereotyping and that every case is a little bit different.

- Right.

- But let me just say this.

If you ever sit on a park bench and feed pigeons, all of a sudden you got one or two.

And then the next thing you know, you got 100 of them, there's some people the same way.

Not all, but some.

- [Speaker] Pulling up to the pantry at one o'clock, knowing that if I'm close to the first one in line, I can get.

- [Speaker 2] This, that's the monthly food allotment.

And if you're a family of four, you get an extra box that's on this rack over here.

And if you're a family five or more, you get a box with more stuff.

- No, she's already, oh no she hasn't.

- I have enough food for the whole week and could even stretch it probably even farther.

(whirring) But yeah, and so I look forward to Mondays because it's a treat.

- See you next week.

- Wrap it up mob, wrap it up.

- 'Cause as long as I can see the light of God, I know I'm alive.

(person laughing) - Hot dogs, there's a lot of protein.

There are pasturized eggs, there is pulled pork and there is also chicken fajita stuff.

- Enjoy this.

I love it.

- Yep.

- Most of all, I like the connection with the folks that come.

- Yep.

- They come every week, they really appreciative.

- [Speaker 3] Yep.

- And you feel good about that.

- We have a lot of really great people that come here.

(gentle music) (people chattering) (speaking in foreign language) - But I was really kind of unhappy.

And so I got a download from God in 1979.

Just immediately I knew I was supposed to find children that need the help the most, give them food, clothing, and shelter in a loving home environment.

Third thing was to give them an education and occupational training so they could take care of themselves one day.

And the fourth thing was to do it all for the glory of God.

And so that's it.

(speaking in foreign language) I'm not an expert on malnutrition.

We deal with it as babies come into our emergency care program.

We have two different programs right now and we're starting a third program.

For the last 32 years, I've been doing institutional care.

So started during the war down here in 1989.

And so we have children that orphaned, abandoned, abused children that come into our home and we raise them, we send them off to the universities.

We have a doctor, several nurses, quite a few university graduates.

All of them are doing well.

None of them have abandoned their own children.

So we've been able to break the cycle that goes from generation to generation.

And then we just started two years ago, emergency care for babies.

And so we're actually, our focus is in receiving babies that are recovering from severe and moderate malnutrition.

And then our third program that we're gonna be starting is with nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 year old girls who are pregnant, unfortunately are pregnant, will be offering a home for 15 girls.

We work with an amazing group of people from Harvard and Boston Children's Hospital.

So my experience is more in how these babies ended up with malnutrition and how to help them recuperate from it along with the neurological and emotional stimulation the babies need.

Most cases if babies have malnutrition, they also have neurological development issues too.

And so we work on all those things with the babies.

quite regularly will get babies that maybe weigh or maybe are a year, year and a half old and weigh 10 pounds or nine pounds.

And they're usually moderate, what the doctors down here classify as moderate malnutrition, severe malnutrition we take, but after the hospitals have released them.

(upbeat music) (whirring) (people chattering) (birds chirping) - You know, Maine, especially Washington County being a food desert, we eat more food than we can produce.

Part of the problem with that is under current regulations, to be USDA inspected, to sell meat here by the pound, we would have to have an inspector here full time.

They have to have an office here, everything like that, that would make the cost outweigh the benefit of being able to do it.

If customers can come in and buy locally grown meats buy the pound here and we are a state inspected facility, it would ease a lot of the burden on having to go to a box store and get meat when they're low or when demand is so high, it gives another avenue that people could use to get local food.

- [Speaker 4] Hi, what's up girl?

What do you have for me today?

I built them three new nest boxes and they don't usually use boxes like I just built that, they've had these forever.

And the two, they just lay in this corner.

But I'm getting eggs outta my new boxes.

(upbeat music) - Those apple trees, I've found pictures where the original Thompson family and those trees are there.

So that's another part of being a farmer.

Trees as part of the history of the farm.

(birds chirping) So I work several jobs.

My dad works driving trucks and we've always, any family member here that's been, has always worked another job to help support the farm actually since my great grandparents, farming itself has not been profitable.

So we've had to supplement our income, hoping through adding like a jam and jelly business and, that I can actually eventually have the farm once again supporting itself and making a living, industry.

I mean, a lot has changed over the years, so it's really hard and selling to the processor makes it really difficult because we don't know what we're getting paid until December.

- And Earl does this year round.

He does it in the winter, I do it in the summer.

(water crashing) But he started just doing winters.

He lobster fishes, when he takes his traps off, then he started doing this in the winter.

So last year when COVID struck, lobster fishing was iffy and we decided we should keep the seafood truck going just in case lobster didn't happen.

(whirring) (crackling) I do not believe there's a child or I'm gonna go off track here.

I don't believe there is a child or an elderly person in the state of Maine or the country that should go without food or medical care.

(upbeat music) - We're serving now between 23 and 35 people per night, five nights a week.

But that's our soup kitchen.

We also have a food pantry and food pantry, people are just starting to come out of their houses and starting to come back out to get food.

So if we're giving out anywhere from, oh, probably eight to 12 bags of food three days a week.

(water crashing) - With TREE, I feel like we're bringing a more of a wraparound approach with students, families, teachers, and supporting in the areas that are needed and wanted.

And not just coming in and saying, this is what you're gonna do and dictating that, but more responsive and meeting families and kids and teachers where they're at.

(people laughing) - 64% of kids said yes, I think I belong in school.

Most recently over 90% of the kids were saying, this is a place where I feel like I belong.

- We have a lot of students here at the University of Maine who grew up in poverty.

And so we've got a technological divide in terms of access to resources for those students, as well as kind of the things we normally think about that people in poverty might struggle with in terms of housing and food and security, just kind of those basic needs.

- The Blackberry Exchange is an on campus food pantry and clothing exchange that started about 12 years ago on campus and has grown dramatically in the last few years.

And especially during the pandemic.

Yeah, for our new students coming in, the free and reduced lunch rate at our local schools in the state of Maine is over 50%.

Obviously those students and families don't change from June until August when they get here.

So there are a significant number of students that are coming into our campus, who have dealt with food insecurity in their homes prior to being here.

For our students, we're lucky because our meal plans in the dining halls are all you care to eat.

So if they're living on campus and they have a full meal plan, they don't generally struggle with food insecurity.

Whereas in other campuses where they have limited meal swipes or limited dining funds, they do still struggle sometimes with food insecurity towards the end of the semester or the end of the month.

Nationally, about 33% of our students find themselves being food insecure at some point in time in the last 30 days.

- Where we have one in eight adults and one in five children, is not exactly sure where their next meal will be coming from.

You just have no waste because all along the system of growing, processing, consuming and then recycling, there is something that food has a better purpose and the circular food system kind of naturally allows the food to flow in wherever it can be used.

And there's nothing that ever comes out of the system as waste.

(upbeat music) - [Speaker 5] One thing I found, I mean I went 30 years and I was never out on the streets.

And I never really anticipated that it would ever be that way for me.

You know, I mean I always had an apartment or place to live and when I ended up out here, it really made me look at things from a different perspective.

- Through some family loss and relationship loss that hit me hard.

- We haven't stopped with COVID.

Even during the heavy part of the COVID pandemic, we were feeding everybody off the porch and to go boxes but we refuse to stop, it's the same thing now.

I think we're the only soup kitchen in town.

The only soup kitchen in town or in the area that I know of that actually lets people in.

(upbeat music) And we follow guidelines set for us by CDC and by.

So people come in, they're six feet apart, they're sitting three per table.

Well that's the only way we can continue to do it.

'Cause I don't see the point of just giving somebody a sandwich and saying, go home and be happy now.

You can't do it.

(machine whirring) We feed predominantly from here, we're feeding working poor, fixed income.

At the soup kitchen, we're about 50 50, 50% homeless and 50% working poor, Monday through Friday.

We're not competing with anybody.

There's no other soup kitchen in the area than the shelter.

Next week we start what's called the warming center and we'll be open 24/7 for people to come in and have a place to sleep on the floor, get something to eat.

So we'll be providing three meals a day next week.

And that could go from six people up to 25 depending on who wants to come in and stay with us.

(bell dinging) Donations, totally donations.

And that's the way we like to do it.

Our volunteers are all, I mean, we don't have a paid salary.

Nobody gets paid here.

It's all volunteer basis, including myself.

I forgo my salary probably four years ago and just living on SSI, which is fine with me, that way I want people to know that every dollar you donate is going into feeding the people here.

And that's what we like doing.

Whereas Manna has been serving the community for 30.

Manna Incorporated is the feeding program here in this building.

We also have in this building the Storehouse, which is giving away free clothing.

We have sewing classes, art classes, all sorts of different things going on during the week.

So people don't have to just sit at home and they can come in here and be occupied and have something to do.

(gentle music) I see elderly coming in here again, it's just all walks of life, whether you're homeless or whether you have a job and you just can't quite make it.

I tell people, if it comes down to paying for gas or a gallon of milk or a loaf of bread, come here and get the food.

Go pay for your gas and pay for your rent or pay for whatever you have to do.

Manna needs volunteers.

If you have a desire to help your neighbor out or do something to help, we need you to come in and help, which means you take your right hand, take your left hand, pretend you're holding your spoon, and can you put food on your plate?

Then you're more than welcome to come in, help serve.

- I was jumped a week ago and the cops did take care of that one, but I just think that overall, now that some law has been laid down a little bit, hopefully things are better and things are picked up for me.

I don't think that's the case, man.

I just think that the homelessness I do think space.

Where can we build a home?

Where can we build a shelter?

Where can we build an apartment building.

I think that if we can find it, they're willing.

See buildings go up and I know that from what they've said, that that they've rung every bell and every whistle.

Shelter's the issue, housing or apartment building.

Is there a camaraderie within something, is there a relationship you can garner through this experience that would help your business life to help your personal life and then, you know, help your growth financially.

- I didn't make it past sixth grade.

I want my voice heard.

Like I can't lie because I can't remember anything.

So everything I say outta my mouth I want, is the truth.

Well there's mental illness, there's drug addiction, there's, that's unfortunate that anybody would take that defense, does not know anything about life and I just need some more experience because you shouldn't judge.

Well, I'm on disability and unable to make any money, I only get seven, $800 a month.

So that's what I live off of.

That's rent right there.

So, you know, it's very difficult.

I used to help out there, but I don't eat much.

Because I see people, I have it bad, but there's always someone worse than you and it makes me feel good.

For anything besides it really makes me feel good.

Not because I want to help them, but I feel good doing it.

No, actually, my parents were alcoholic and abusive.

I was in the basement most of my life.

I didn't make it to sixth grade.

I got outta the basement around 14, 15 years old and I've been on the street ever since.

I work hard, I was on Swans Island, making good money a couple years ago, had a bad accident and I have some severe brain injuries and bodily injuries, so they put me out the game now.

The abuse and lack of education.

But there are people out here that, like I said, there's always someone that has a little worse off than you.

Far as struggles, I have friends that make a lot a year, over 60, over 70,000 a year that struggle with just day to day tasks and so just because money's not involved doesn't mean they're not struggling.

Yeah.

I keep my eyes open in my 52 years, I had to because I was on my own.

- [Speaker 6] A lot of people think that a lot of homeless people out here, be out here for is just our fix.

(gentle music) I know that a lot of people get out here due to family issues.

I was a good mom, I was a stay home mom without my kids.

And I put all my heart and soul into my kids.

I used heroin, I did, I did have a heroin addiction, but never, ever seen me use heroin at all.

We have a tan, we do have a tan.

We have a little bit of heat, city, in the Hope house.

I think you gotta believe in faith and when you're out here, if you don't believe in God, you gotta believe in faith, humbles you when you're out here.

I've never been homeless prior to this.

So you've gotta believe, you gotta follow your fellows.

Homeless peers, definitely.

And you gotta remember that I think there is a path for everybody and it's just your choices that you make 'cause you're gonna have those consequences.

But at the same time, there are good choices and good consequences that come out of your choices.

Good people out here in Bangor and Brewer area, as far as the other people and people help us.

- [Speaker 7] Younger, going down the road with my parents in the vehicle.

If I saw someone digging through a garbage can to get bottles and cans or a freaking granola bar, I would've looked at it and been like, oh, that's awful.

I would never do something like that.

We all need to be humble at times and we all need to have an understanding that the struggle is real and it could happen to anybody.

People that have the same outlook that I have growing up, and I mean, I was always raised that if I have something and somebody needs that and they asked for it, dude, I'd give the shirt off my back to help somebody if I had to.

And as long as they asked for it.

Really understood or realize till I got out here.

How many other people actually have that outlook and approach.

(gentle music) - I'm from South Africa.

But we are originally from Congo, but we grew up in South Africa.

(gentle music) I would say yes because there was a time, like about in 2017, 2016, whereby my dad wasn't working.

And then at home, we only like used to eat like bread.

And the bread, we didn't have like anything, no cheese, no butter.

And then we would have like maybe sugar and water mixed together instead of drinking tea.

We didn't have tea.

We'll be running out of tea.

Sometimes we'll use one tea for like more than five cups.

And there were some people that we used to help, despite us not having food.

From where I'm coming from and how we grew up, we learnt more about sharing compassion and maybe you on your mind, you wouldn't wanted to throw it away.

But that same food can help another person.

And when it's coming from your heart, you do it out of love, you do it out of compassion, so that's what we were taught, no matter how little it is.

That same person will still appreciate what you are given to them.

(gentle music) (upbeat music) - I do believe in helping the poor.

I really do.

- First of all, many things in this country today have become political footballs, hunting, owning firearms.

And I believe the poor have become a political football.

A lot of people don't care about the poor, but we should help the poor.

It's a noble cause, charity is good, but when it becomes a political football and one party goes, poor people vote for me because I'm gonna take money, borrow money and give you, divide a vote.

People can't get together anymore.

Look at Congress, it's the 50 yard line.

It's political football and I don't care what subject it is, donate money to us because we're gonna support your cause.

Now my wife, she works with the food bank in our hometown on White House station.

She works very hard, but it's not political, it's just give people food, my father told me, son, there's one difference between a rich man and a poor man.

A rich man makes a dollar and spends 90 cents and saves a dime.

A poor man makes a dollar and spends a dollar.

(dinging) - There's my error, I put 25.

- See, there could be an error in the voting.

Wait a minute, I demand.

- Yeah, I was public, what you call poor growing up.

- [Speaker 8] He's moved on up now.

- He's moved on now, when I was, I do believe in helping the poor, I really do.

- Those school with kids that were hard for food and I know it's a bad thing.

(whirring) - Well that's pretty awesome.

I mean, I was born and raised in this community, been away for a long time.

Having been able to manage here the last couple of years, to hear stories like that or to have people come up to me and talk to me about it, it warranted my heart.

It's great to be part of a company that supports and encourages that community support from that to other areas as well.

So, no, that feels pretty good.

And I talk to a couple other people that pick up and a lot of times they can tell me stories of different people that they've interacted with or situations that they've gone through where they can help people out.

So it is definitely a high point in my job to hear things like that.

- Say about five years ago, man, I had a good job.

I worked for a company called Team Official, Fire Optic Company.

I was making 1300 bucks a week, fine.

One day I kind of got it in my head that it wasn't what I wanna do in my life.

I was stuck in monogamy of just same thing, repetition every day for money for nothing.

And I decide to leave that all the high.

Actually right now I don't have a real job.

What I do is I do peace work.

I create jewelry, I do like at the house I live at, room and board pretty much.

I don't get paid.

I just live and I work out and help out communities along my way.

When you can learn to survive and just take care of one another without the need for money, you kind of get a lot happier.

(water flowing) I knew when I got here, I knew it was gonna be really cold.

I was kind of, I had my bibs and stuff like that.

I did not have a jacket.

So eventually did kit me down one.

I did use survival skills.

I built, like I cut down a bunch of like old tree stuff, Took the fur, the green off it and layered it where it actually made shielding on it on the sides and everything and took a tarp and then put more shielding on top of it.

So I actually have a shelter.

It's built from about, it's about from that pick table to the wall probably, why, I got a place to live now.

So I don't stay in it no more, but I can do it.

I've lived out in the woods for months that time before by myself.

I know how to cook, find food out in the wilderness.

I know how to clean animals, I know how to make traps.

I know how to find edible plants.

(water flowing) All right, there's a great quote from a song.

Some of the poorest people in the world are the richest because you may have money, you may have, stocks in something and oh, you got a house to go back to if you need to.

But how much of your life did you waste?

How much time did you spend doing something you hate to get to that position?

(upbeat music) Like it's not worth it in the end.

You can't take nothing with you when you go.

So don't keep your treasures here on earth.

When I was younger my teacher asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up.

I told her, I wanted be a bum with pocket full of diamonds.

And what I meant by that was not money, it was experiences.

I did not wanna leave this world until I'd seen it all, went out there, met people and just lived.

And not the way people do, the way they used to.

(cars whirring) - Like he says the parents.

- Absolutely.

- It's not about the parents, it's about the kids.

I mean it's about the kids and something like this to quickly grab it, I'm gonna grab this, bring it home to my kids and go back to work.

I think it helps the community.

I wish more people wouldn't be so insecure about using it because a lot of people are insecure about using it, being labeled or whatever.

Or they're working one or two jobs.

Or like for instance, some women are in these situations, it's domestic violence issue.

Or I know a woman, her partner passed, she lives with three little kids.

I mean, did she ask for that?

No.

So she's struggling to raise these little kids and whatever she gets from, I don't know, is it SSI or something?

It doesn't help.

So I mean it's just little things like that.

Like we don't understand about individuals.

If we just accepted everybody, this one needs us for help, give it to them, that's fine.

Well this one needs help, give it to them.

That's fine, don't judge, don't talk about them.

- People are becoming lazy.

- [Speaker] Okay.

- They'd rather sit home and draw unemployment rather than work, they don't wanna work.

- 'Cause I know what it feels like.

I know what it feels like for someone to talk about me or to judge me, I mean because I present like this, this is all thrift store clothes, but I'ma.

You can look nice and go to the thrift store, but people say, oh look, she presents well.

So she's not poor or she doesn't need this program.

You know, I'd go to thrift store and get nice clothes to make myself feel better.

They use the thrift store.

I've been trying for weeks to get them to use the thrift store.

They went yesterday and they got bags and bags of clothes, $2 a bag like, and they called me right up, we did this today and it made me feel so good.

But there's that judgment, they're like, oh, we're not gonna tell anybody we got clothes from there.

For me personally, I think it's because I was a foster child and I was abused, I was neglected.

So you can go with two roads, you can either, woe is me.

You can have empathy and compassion for everybody.

And I chose empathy and compassion.

- It's about simply being able to provide a home for them.

(gentle music) At one point I was a single mother and I was living off the state by necessity.

I had to use food stamps and whatever state aid I could get just so I could raise my children.

And I was living off, I think it was about a total of six to $700 a month.

And I had to take care of rent and I had to take care of the regular bills.

We didn't have anything extra.

But because of how I was raised, my kids never felt it.

Not once.

From my family, my mom raised seven kids, my dad worked, I barely ever saw him.

And we never went without.

And I saw my mom scrape her fingers to the bone and not from a job, but she had to raise us.

But I was just raised that way.

I was raised to be responsible for the children that you bring into the world.

They don't get a choice and they're my responsibility.

So nobody else's.

So I just made sure that I did what I could.

- When people working down here owning businesses can't get employees because people are sitting home getting unemployment, obviously they don't wanna work.

- If that meant cleaning houses for my family members just to get a little extra so I can provide a birthday party, yeah, I did it.

- And the problem is, the world is not actually a meritocracy.

And sometimes we work really hard and it doesn't work out.

So the belief in meritocracy is just this idea that if you work hard, you'll get ahead.

And it's a cultural belief in America that legitimizes the differences in status between people.

(upbeat music) - If that meant I didn't have time to clean the house because I was working shift work, but they never went without, I went without.

I mean even now I go without, like this outfit I'm wearing right now is a hand me down.

Most of my clothes are hand me downs.

My kids are not, mine are.

And I'm okay with that.

I make it work.

- Obviously they don't wanna work.

And then people like us who are retired, who don't even get a COLA a year, we're part of the main state retirement system.

Retired teachers, I think we've gotten one, maybe two COLAs over the last 10 years.

There's something not right with that when I have to go back to work just to enjoy my retirement.

- Poor, my father's poor.

I came from a broken home of course, separate.

But I mean from cans to you know, newspapers to just working on the farms, just trying to make pennies.

Now I have medical issues and it's hard for me to find a certain job that I don't hurt myself even more.

But I don't have any training 'cause I don't have enough money and then I don't know, I'm doing ends, making ends just a few dollars here and there.

Some carpentry work, some masonry work, nothing full time.

A lot of times that's all we have to do is rent, like a rent center because we can't afford to go out, our rent is expensive around here and doesn't go down anymore, and price of gas is going up.

So that is, I just, I get out of bed and put one foot on the ground and keep going I guess.

I mean every day's a new day and there's new challenges and I just, one day at a time there, because I've worked hard in my whole life and I've had a lot of different jobs, but I've always been labor, I've always worked in my hands.

I have two plates in my neck now, I'm only 40.

- I don't get 401k.

So I have noticed my brother is 15 years younger than I am and I've noticed there is a big difference, the generation can be a little laid back and doesn't go out and get the work they need.

But there are people out there that, they work hard and they just, they get that bad rap, even though they're trying.

And that's the thing too, you got stipulations, like I have medical issues, some people with felons, people don't give them a chance, even though they wanna work, they don't give them a chance.

Family and kids, you don't want to tell your kid you can't have that toy or you can't, just can't do it today.

You know, and it just, it gets harder.

- I've worked my whole life.

Never been unemployed for the railroad.

It's steady.

I mean when COVID come, a lot of companies laid off and you draw unemployment.

I got a 10% cut in pay.

And was expected to work more, so.

(clicking) - Oh, I'm not making anything on this job here.

But you know what, it's family.

She has a job, she needs to go to work.

(machine whirring) Because you know how hard you work for it and you've been there.

People that have not been there and don't know what it is to struggle or have hit rock bottom because of addiction or just being, rough times.

They just don't realize.

They don't realize that, there's days that you don't want to get out of bed 'cause you don't want to look at that bill that comes in the mail or you don't wanna hear that message on your answer machine.

And I think, I think everybody should, at least one time in their life, work hard for something.

Get their hands dirty, my father's very disciplined and I worked hard from a young age.

You spend money to make money I guess.

And sometimes you don't have that money to spend, but you find ways to make that money.

- I do believe in helping the poor, I really do.

(whirring) - It's the parent's fault, not the kids fault, but there's a lot that could be done.

I'm all for giving to the poor and everything.

And I think they give too much money to the rich.

- People are becoming lazy.

- I feel like if they think that we're, everybody's just lazy, I feel that then maybe once you come down to the lower class for a while and try to make it with what you got, with that $300 paycheck every two weeks, 'cause a lot of these pay checks get paid biweekly now.

So I mean yeah, if they think they have, that we're all lazy, come on down, you know, I'll show them.

That's all I gotta say.

- We depended on the government, running us down to the reservation, blocks of cheese and butter and stuff like that.

Yeah, we've been in property before when I was younger.

Absolutely.

We used to have a business hanging steel.

I had business for quite a long time.

So for a person to say something like that is wrong, unless they've been in that situation.

(gentle music) If you're aware of it or if you're heard or talked to anybody about it.

But on the reservation, when I came back from Pennsylvania, of course I'm homegrown around here, but when I came home, I went to the Catholic church and I seen all these little shoes on the steps and around the area and then it said 215 and I had no idea what this meant.

(gentle music) Well anyways, under these schools and stuff, they had found little children who were and they're up to 5,000 kids now.

And it's still going.

Yes, I did.

I used to go to Beaches.

Well when I was here on the reservation living, I was with my parents, but we had nuns or teachers, which I thought were kind of mean.

I do something wrong and I'm getting a ruler about breaking my knuckles, so.

We were stripped over our names and (Bleep), so yeah.

- They kinda like show you respect when you do it.

Like they'll announce your name and they'll say the someday.

And that usually helps them like meet more people.

- Because that's how the psyche works.

You can just be what looks like sort of just playing with something.

But you know, your choice of object and when you choose it and where you place it in relation to another piece can bring you somewhere that you cognitively weren't aware of.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

- It all runs hand in hand, I mean, (Bleep) like that's going on and you're depressed, you don't wanna do nothing.

It's being crushed in front of you.

You ain't thinking that 'cause you're like, what about today?

(gentle music) When it comes to schooling, we had good food and a lot of us didn't have good food.

You know what I mean, we worried about supper.

I dropped out in elementary, not elementary, but junior high in the sixth, seventh grade.

And that was on my own own sense, but I did good.

- There's literally not a kid in this school that I see that's not comfortable here.

- I went to the home and so the foster parent was just like, I can't believe that there is a teacher actually in my home, working with my child.

Because the reason that I was there is I wanted to let that child know that there was still a connection, that I still loved that child.

And the next day the child came in and it was fine because that child knew that our relationship hadn't been cut and severed.

They're all welcome here.

I'm gonna open my box right here.

(people gasping) I'm gonna show you some.

- Why's there cake?

- I mean any sort of item.

If a student kind of shows a need for something or I think it might further their therapeutic experience, then I just get it.

- Trauma informed or trauma sensitive schools are schools that understand that tough things that happen to us, especially when we children, can impact how we learn and how we behave.

And we can't be expected to just walk into a school and leave all that tough stuff behind.

So it's looking at students through the lens of being trauma informed and saying, what is it that might have happened and how can we really support the student and tailor our response to put that student in a frame of mind that they feel safe and a sense of belonging so that learning can happen.

- I never even thought about my future when I was younger.

(gentle music) - For us, we wanted to take the next steps towards building our own business.

Being in charge of what we're doing.

It began to feel very draining to go into situations where you're there, you're working at a place 24/7, but you're not the owner.

And so you're trying your best to help somebody else build their business and you're trying to give them the advice that you would wish to hear.

And they're not listening and they're not taking it and they're still not there.

And so I think both of us were sort of interested in seeing where our own ideas took us.

Well I mean one of my greatest passions is eating.

And I think the nicest thing you can do for somebody else is cook for them.

I know that's sort of a cheesy thing to say, but I want to give people the kinds of food that I would want to be eating.

And I feel like that's a treasure, that's a gift when you're in an area that has few and far between both like in commute and what exists.

We just saw an opportunity here that we felt like we might be able to fill.

And so this sort of space opened and this was the iteration that we chose to proceed with and I think right now, it's working quite well.

- No, actually, my parents were alcoholic and abusive.

I was in the basement most of my life.

I didn't go to sixth grade, I didn't make it to sixth grade.

- So I am an LCSW, which is a licensed clinical social worker and a registered play therapist.

So with the TREE program, I am here two days a week at the Millbridge Elementary School and I provide trauma treatment to individual students as well as consultation for teachers and staff.

- I got outta the basement around 14, 15 years old and I've been on the street ever since.

I work hard.

I was on Swans Island making good money a couple years ago, had a bad accident.

- I think we meet every need that a child has, from the family components to basic needs, to mental health needs, to physical needs, if they're hungry.

So we kind of actually, we quite pride ourselves that we are looking out for the all needs of a student, not just their academic needs.

- And I have some severe brain injuries and a bodily injuries, so they put me out of the game now.

- But to actually have a trail that exists so that they have a little bit more exploration potential and also making the stump circle so they can sit up off the ground and automatically sit in a circle, gives them a chance to learn how to build things.

It gives them a chance to work with each other and create this space that will exist for Millbridge Elementary School for a long time.

- It's nice to know that there's a lot that older people also care about the environment and not so much about themselves.

'Cause lately it's been kind of a tough time around the world, so.

(banging) - [Ellen] My life's work is to ensure that all students get the best education.

That's another piece of what TREE is doing.

Modeling best practices.

The kind of collaboration that TREE has built with its community, with the university community, with parents, with educators, is really something to be quite proud of.

- Some people have more access to education, cool houses, vacations, right, money than others.

And we justify that here by this belief that it's because they worked hard and they deserve what they have.

- Learning your ABCs or one, two, threes.

You really have to have a relationship with parents to make it work.

- I know as a parent, it is my job, but I know I have support out there.

I'm not just sitting there wondering what the heck to do by myself.

- What we don't often think about is the toll that just being devalued because you grew up poor.

That, you are somehow less than, that you didn't try as hard, you're not working as hard.

If you did, you would have the things you need.

And so there's a lot of culture of blaming people who are devalued in our society for their own position, right?

So it's your fault that you haven't achieved and that, that takes a tremendous toll.

- And we made this little picnic table that was supposed to be like, you could hang out with a bunch of your friends or new people and that was really fun.

- Us having the power to kind of do the things that are needed feels really good.

- I think the other thing that it's a reflection of is comfort, that they're able to be comfortable in a learning environment, it's home.

- I'm a emotional mess when it comes to kids.

I love them, I love them to death.

Appropriate measures of love and instruction and care and guidance.

(speaking in foreign language) The most important thing is their passion, their emotion.

How they care about what they're doing, their work ethic and how they treat other people, yeah.

- The focus on student voice, The focus on understanding, that we all come with tough things and that we may need a different approach or different supports to be at our best.

I think that all students see that.

Again, TREE is for everyone.

- If I could get a program here to help these kids, to help the families know that it doesn't matter if you're poor, it doesn't matter if you're a person of color, We believe in you and you have a chance.

That's what TREE is, it says you have a chance.

It removes those barriers.

And that's why I'm wholeheartedly saying, I support this program because I was supported and now I wanna support these children and families here, absolutely, yeah.

- [Speaker] They get that bad rap, even though they're trying.

(people chattering) (gentle music)