TAHLEQUAH DAILY PRESS — How would you define poverty?

Is it having no food or shelter? Not having money to purchase another pack of cigarettes? Is it not having a savings account? Or not having the money to purchase a new coat, even if an old coat is available?

A group of local residents decided to face poverty head-on through a three-day program aimed at understanding just what poverty is, and helping to stamp it out.

“We’re a little troubled,” Cookson Hills Community Action Foundation Executive Director Cleon Harrell said of the results so far.

Harrell and CHCAF Program Coordinator Karen Horn sat on a park bench along Town Branch Creek Thursday morning, reflecting on the past 24 hours. They wore the same clothes they had the previous day when they set out on the Walk in My Shoes Project – clothes that were slightly wrinkled from the overnight stay in the back of a large truck.

Harrell, Horn, Mark Graham and a local volunteer had hit the streets of Tahlequah Wednesday morning with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

“The project will help each of us have a better understanding of what poverty actually is, on a short-term basis,” said Harrell.

The only way to reduce poverty, he said, is to understand what it really means to live in poverty.

The idea was put in motion after an individual spoke to CHCAF staff, saying he or she had sought help and not received it. The three CHCAF staff members and one volunteer decided to test the community – from the individual person on the street, up to churches, businesses and organizations – by soliciting help, including food and shelter.

“Every place we’ve gone, they won’t look at you, talk to you,” Horn said Thursday morning, following an entire Wednesday of walking and looking. “They don’t acknowledge you.”

The four split up into two teams of two, a man and a woman in each pair.

“We sat in front of one church yesterday for two hours, waving at people,” said Harrell. “There was no acknowledgment to us.”

Harrell and Horn said the second pair – a community volunteer and CHCAF employee Graham – visited a number of churches Wednesday.

“Nothing,” said Harrell. “At the churches, nobody says anything. No one knows what’s out there. These churches didn’t know where they could send someone [to seek help].”

Harrell and Horn found a sacked meal at one local organization.

“But they serve only two days a week,” said Harrell. “Maybe after this experience, we [CHCAF] can talk about doing it the other three days.”

One man purchased some drinking water for Harrell and Horn, they said.

“But they [the public] are leery of us – they don’t trust us,” said Harrell.

Meeting someone’s need for food is only temporary help, said Harrell.

“If people are homeless, we’ve learned they need more than food,” he said. “Food is an immediate need. We need to help more.”

One local service agency provided a loaf of bread, they said. When it came to shelter, a couple of organizations offered to house either the man or the woman, but not both. The name of a local social worker was provided as a possible shelter contact.

“On the street, [the lack of responses] doesn’t surprise me,” said Horn. “Because I realize I do that, too. I don’t look at people. But the agencies? We need to make eye contact, to acknowledge the person, to look at them.”

The four continued their project Thursday night, and will continue today. After finishing up Saturday morning, each participant will make a separate report of the three-day, three-night journey in hopes of making any necessary changes, both at CHCAF and within the community.

“It’s an experience,” said Harrell. “We’ve walked so much we blistered our feet [Wednesday]. I bet we walked 10 miles.”

And while the four know there are good people around here, and have experienced a few willing to help out when possible, they’re also saddened by what truths they’ve experienced first-hand.

“The attitudes of people need some changes,” said Harrell.