Chad M. Farrand

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending the Michigan Poverty Summit. It started out early, way too early. I was up at 5am and left Lansing around 6am. I and my friend Amanda rode down with my mom and our family friend, Theresa. We got there at a little after 8:30, registered and walked into the main meeting room in Cobo Hall (Detroit). When we got in, Jennifer Granholm was already speaking. So, we quickly found a table and sat down to listen to her. She was awesome. She laid out some obvious challenges that we face as a state currently, but also pointed out some real positive statistics that I hadn’t heard before. She made a couple of obvious references to Barack Obama, then left to go overseas. Then, shortly after her, we heard Martin Luther King Jr. III. While not as captivating as his father, he made some good points. One that caught me is when he asked why we are still arguing over a “minimum” wage when we should be fighting for a “livable” wage for everyone. We then left and went to our first set of breakout sessions. I had chosen the Faith-Based initiative break out for Amanda and I to attend. We quickly realized that this was going to be a snoozer, and left after about 10 minutes into the talk. With a couple hours to kill, we decided to hop onto the people mover and grab lunch over in Greektown! (one of the best decisions all day!)

We went to my fav. place in Greektown, the “Little Parthenon.” I ordered some saganaki (flaming cheese) which was amazing as always. Then, for my main meal I got a Gyro platter. I could’ve passed out it was so good! We then headed back up, and onto the people mover again to make our way to Cobo. After getting back, we waited to re-connect with my mom before heading into our regional breakout session. We were placed in Region 4, but were told that our county (Ionia) was not going to be a part of this region but rather Region 3…so basically, while they would take our input, they would make “every effort” to get our suggestions over to the other region (which didn’t happen). It was really crowded, and they tried to break us into smaller groups based on topics. We choose the “Children and Poverty” subject. I for one couldn’t hear one word the people were saying because it was so loud from the other groups around us. We then left and decided to make our way home with my mom and Theresa.

On our way, we decided to take Theresa and Amanda to the star deli in Southfield. This is where I go every time I go to see my specialist down there. They are a REAL jewish deli and bakery!! They have the best corned beef, which is what we got. We got back into Lansing around 8, and got home around 9. Still recovering from the weather and all the walking, but I’m glad we went.