Joy—And Need—At Operation Breakthrough

On the wall of the Operation Breakthrough center in downtown Kansas City are these lyrics, popularized after the election. "Rosa sat, so Martin could march and Barack could run—so our children could fly," a line that expresses the hope which Obama's election represents for these children who live in grinding poverty. Founded by two nuns, Operation Breakthrough began as a day-care center 38 years ago; today it is a full-service facility, serving meals, fixing teeth, teaching kids how to read, providing a stable environment for over 600 children, something their parents, typically single moms, struggle to do but sometimes fall short in the face of overwhelming odds.

On Election Day, the center extended its hours, serving kids dinner so their moms could vote. Just about everybody did. There were grandmothers crying who had never voted before. Like so many Americans, these women hope Obama's election signals better times ahead. A new USA Today/Gallup poll found expectations for Obama in the stratosphere with 65 percent saying the country will be better off in four years, and big majorities believing he will improve education and the environment, reduce unemployment, bring the troops home from Iraq, expand health-care coverage, create an economic recovery and keep America safe from terrorism.

It's also true that eight in 10 say Obama will improve conditions for minorities and the poor. Sister Berta, one of the founders of Operation Breakthrough, certainly hopes so—but she's a realist. She lives with the heartache of lives diminished by poverty. She knows how hard it is to pay the rent when the fast-food restaurant or the hotel where you're making beds cuts back your hours. Showing me around the brightly colored rooms of the center, now an accredited early childhood learning facility, she lamented the fact that the kind of ingrained poverty she deals with on a daily basis is mostly invisible to middle-class America. She conducts bus tours for white-collar executives through the poorer parts of the city so they can see a father and his two children living under the bridge, families camped out in abandoned buildings, living at rest stops. "We're in a mess," she says. The tours are part of her effort to get people to meet a poor person and see … themselves. It's easy to judge when you've never meet people in a different economic class, she says.

Fiercely protective of her moms, Sister Berta says how wrong it is for society to condemn them as lazy. "No matter how hard they try, they can't get ahead." Many are in the grip of addiction, and all the state offers is a 21-day recovery program. "It hard to change your lifestyle—otherwise I'd jog and be skinny," she says. Either way, their children shouldn't pay the price, which is why the center provides so many services and has a waiting list of over 700 needy children, more than it can possibly accommodate. When Sister Berta and Sister Corita first opened their doors, the minimum wage was $1.20 an hour and all people really needed was day care. They may not have had a car, or a television, or even a phone, but they had the basics—they had food. Today, these single parents, mostly African American, need everything. The center recently launched a Back Pack program, sending food home with the kids for the weekend. Many live in homeless and battered-women's shelters. The sisters stopped teaching the kids their home address years ago because they move around so often.

When Michelle Obama visited Kansas City in July, Sister Berta was invited to be on a panel of women with the future First Lady, talking about the stresses and strains in their lives. She hesitated at first, fearful of jeopardizing her nonprofit status, but was assured that since Michelle was not the candidate, there was no problem talking with her. Michelle wrote about the encounter on her blog, noting how one of the five women on the panel was heartsick because she couldn't afford adequate day care for her special-needs child. And after the discussion concluded, Sister Berta quietly offered the woman a spot for her son at her center for just $10 a week. "It almost seemed like a miracle," Michelle wrote, using the example of two people who didn't know each other, coming together to cooperate, as a metaphor for why her husband was running for president.

Among the causes that Michelle Obama has cited to define her role in the White House is the difficult balance between work and family. Susan Stanton, a volunteer at the center and a member of the board, says she hopes the future First Lady doesn't just mean people like herself—dual career professionals—and that she will embrace a much broader definition that includes women like the ones Operation Breakthrough serves. For now, the joy brought by Election Day is enough. But soon, winter will set in and so many children will still need, so much help. And Americans could do so much—if they really see the people in need.

© 2008