The faces of children tell the story

Crisis Ministry photo exhibit replaces the statistics with real-life accounts

By: Kristin Boyd
   In the back corner, there’s a photo of a young boy, maybe 10 or 11 years old, with soft black hair.
   His legs are swung over a concrete ledge, but his tattered sneakers barely reach the ground. His body is hunched over a half-empty carton of fresh strawberries from The Crisis Ministry of Princeton and Trenton’s food pantry.
   On the surface, he just looks like a kid enjoying some juicy fruit on a warm summer day. But push past his chubby cheeks and warm smile, and you’ll see the new face of poverty in Mercer County.
   More than 5,600 children use Crisis Ministry services annually, and 29 of those are pictured in "Celebrating the Children of Crisis Ministry," a photo exhibition that scratches out the statistics and replaces them with real-life stories.
   The black-and-white portraits, taken by Lawrenceville resident Nancy Hodges, are on display through Nov. 29 at Crisis Ministry’s quarters in Princeton’s Nassau Presbyterian Church. The exhibit will also be shown from Dec. 8 through Jan. 3 at Princeton’s Trinity Episcopal Church.
   "We’re trying to put a human face — in fact, a child’s face — on the broad social issues we’re dealing with all the time," says the Rev. Sally Osmer, director of Crisis Ministry, which alleviates hunger and homelessness by providing food, financial assistance and advocacy for low-income Mercer County residents.
   "When we’re talking about poor families," she continues, "we sometimes forget that we’re talking about children who live in this community, who have hope and promise in their lives."
   Of the children who visit Crisis Ministry, nearly half of their parents fall into the "working poor" category, the Rev. Osmer says. They have full-time jobs, but their minimum-wage paychecks aren’t enough to cover the increasing cost of living in New Jersey.
   The result, she says, is children living in homes with no food or water, no heat or electricity.
   Ms. Hodges, a marital and family therapist, sees the poverty firsthand through her volunteer work as a client assistant at Crisis Ministry. Her inspiration for the exhibit, she says, came from watching how children seemed to persevere and dream big despite their situation.
   "Here we are hearing the most sad, heart-wrenching stories of what people need and what they don’t have, and the little kids are off playing happily and joyfully," she says. "As hard and as sad as these stories are, these children show such resilience."
   The exhibit is packed with powerful photos that show poverty through everyday moments: a girl clinging to four library books, a boy biting huge chunks from a hot dog during a ministry-sponsored picnic, and another boy loading folders into his new book bag, one of 300 donated to the ministry this fall.
   "If this (exhibit) does anything, it shows the need in our community," Ms. Hodges says. "The need is increasing, not decreasing. However, when we help families, we are helping these children."
   The exhibit is open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 1:30 to 5 p.m. For information, call Nassau Presbyterian Church at (609) 924-0103. Nassau Church is located at 61 Nassau St., Princeton. Trinity Church is located at 33 Mercer St., Princeton.