Hunger knows every neighborhood,
Focus: Hope founder Josaitis tells SMC

Just because an aging relative tells you “Everything is fine” on the telephone, don’t assume it is. Go and check the cupboards.

That was the advice offered by Focus: Hope co-founder Eleanor Josaitis, speaking at the Grosse Pointe Senior Men’s Club recently.

“Hunger is still real and a number of seniors that I’m seeing are from Birmingham, Grosse Pointe, Farmington Hills, Bloomfield Township and Ann Arbor, all places you never expected.

“The call I get on a regular basis is ‘please don’t tell my kids I’m having a hard time. If I could have some food I would be OK, but I don’t want to be a burden.’

“Gentlemen, please – everything is not fine. I’ve got about 1,600 seniors who have no means of transportation and I have to deliver the food to them every month. So if you’ve got time to volunteer and you want to do it, please, I would welcome you.”

Josaitis and Focus: Hope co-founder, the late Father William Cunningham, made 32 trips to Washington to testify before House and Senate committees over five years before they won approval of the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, which distributes agricultural surpluses to needy women, children and seniors.

Their key play was when she borrowed an airplane from Ford Motor Co., flew to Washington and picked up the legislative directors of the Michigan Congressional delegation and brought them to Detroit to tour the inner city.

The program serves 43,000 Detroit mothers, children and senior citizens each month and 500,000 nationwide in 39 states.

Located on 44 acres surrounding 1355 Oakman Blvd. in Detroit, Focus: Hope trains people to get off food programs by giving them education, technical training and opportunity.

Josaitis said that when they started the machinist training program they made a serious mistake. “We approved a number of young people coming in with a high school diploma who couldn’t pass 10th grade math. We lowered the standards and did we blow it. We learned a lesson.

“We hired a former command Sergeant Major and you couldn’t run a game on him. He would stand by the gate and say, ‘Two minutes late.’ If you had an attitude problem you were out the door.

“People would say, ‘What’s the problem? You are being cruel, why would you do that? You’re a non-profit organization. Why is there drug testing?’

“We said, what good do we do if we pat them on the shoulder and say. ‘Honey, we understand. The bus didn’t come. The dog bit the cat or whatever the excuse is,’ You don’t want to hire them. What good have we done for anybody?

“That’s what Focus: Hope’s philosophy is: Here’s the opportunity. We’ll give you all the encouragement we can possibly give you, but you’ve got to want it. And it’s really working. We have adopted two schools in our area, started the Hope Village initiative and opened a family learning center where we teach computers and financial skills. We will do anything to bring community together.

'We have a pen-pal program for second graders and we bring in students of every color, nationality and creed you can think of. I overheard one student saying how much they like peanut butter. Another student in the little group said, ‘You like peanut butter? Why, I love peanut butter.”

“I turned my head and walked away and thought, “Why do we make life so complicated, it is all about peanut butter.”

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