Soc. Movements: Tactic 5

Carlos Bazante

Soc. Movements; MW

Tactic 5: Knocking on doors

Tactic 5: Knocking on Doors

Over the period of three days I have been knocking on doors to not only find out about personal perception of food insecurity and hunger but to inform people about our group's, A Helping Hand for the Hungry, topic.  On each of the three days I spent about an hour or slightly more knocking on doors around my neighborhood.  This was an interesting experience because I don't know or even spent time to socialize with my neighbors.  Although the main goal was to "sell" our cause, I found myself informing rather than persuading people about food insecurity and hunger.   Knocking on doors was a challenge.  It made me become comfortable at being uncomfortable.  On the first day I went out knocking on doors I only had one person who seemed interested in our social issue.  The elderly lady had so many questions about the high hunger rate in the San Joaquin Valley.  She even made the connection between education, poverty, and hunger.  I spent at least thirty-five minutes with her conversing about several underlying causes of food insecurity and hunger.  Talking to her on the first day of this tactic event (knocking on doors to sell my social issue) motivated me to continue.  The next day I had a bit more success at reaching more people.  This time I went a few blocks away from my house but still in the same neighborhood community to knock on doors.   This day was different than the first because I talked to people who actually had strong views on the hunger issue.  Many people I talked to had a different explanation to why some people are struggling from hunger while others don't.  Some even raised their voice as if I was selling them inaccurate information to why some are hungry while other are not.  This was a pleasant feeling though.  I was now able to see how some of the people around my neighborhood used an individualistic explanation.  Some said that many people who are hungry are simply lazy and claim that people who are hungry are hungry because they choose to.  Two people considered a structured explanation for hunger when I informed them about the high rise in healthy food products while income remains relatively the same.  Some were shocked when I informed them that benefits of social welfare programs have been steadily decreasing since the mid-1920s.  The third day was not as interesting.  Most people just spoke to me to be polite and didn't care about our group's cause.  I felt like I wasn't as effective as I was supposed to be. I could have maybe made an attempt go on different neighborhoods and possible spread my cause more in the city of Madera.