MUSCATINE, Iowa — Walking in the virtual shoes of a person who is enduring economic hardship became a real experience Thursday night for nearly 75 Muscatine-area residents.

I was part of the group that gathered at Muscatine High School to participate in a poverty simulation based on an Iowa State University Extension program. It calls for people to split into smaller groups and become parts of “families” dealing with poverty.

The families began the evening with food stamps and family investment program checks from the Department of Human Services to pay bills and buy food for one month. My family and many others quickly learned that wasn’t enough.

The event was hosted by Muscatine’s Culture of Poverty Group, a United Way of Muscatine Let’s Talk group.

Bob Owen, the Iowa State University Extension education director for Muscatine and Cedar counties, directed the simulation.

A few ground rules

Owen opened the evening with a reminder that a troubled economy could signal the beginning of more people living in poverty.

He then explained some of the rules for the evening. Participants were asked to take on the roles of the family members described for their small groups. Those roles included parents, teenagers, young children and toddlers.

The role-playing families were asked to figure out how to pay a month’s worth of living expenses on set incomes.

Fighting for a break

In my family, I was 4-year-old Larry Lewis. I lived with my 3-year-old brother and our single mom.  We navigated a maze of tables, which represented the agencies and businesses we needed to access.

Volunteers at the tables represented social workers, a grocery store clerk, food pantry director, instant-loan service and a banker.

The instant-cash lady took 15 percent of our DHS check right off the top as a fee for cashing it.

We didn’t feel like we had much choice. Each of us needed a $1 bus pass to get to each stop and the instant cash office was also the only place to buy more.

We tried to pawn some of our things, but found we could only get a percentage of the actual worth.

Our bills seemed insurmountable as we tried to pay our $275 utility bill on our $250-a-month apartment. Our apartment windows were broken and our landlord wouldn’t fix them and we decided some of our heat was going right out the window.

It wasn’t long before the  the simulation began to feel real as the situations we faced led to frustration.

Some of us played small children and teens who were becoming bored, hungry and uncooperative.

In my role as a 4-year-old,  I decided to steal some lollipops from the grocery store as my family waited in line.

Other “children,” began  wandering away from their parents and arguing with siblings. Teenagers were ending up in jail.

Later in the evening,  I took on the role of mom, which had been played by Diane Olson, a dental hygienist in Muscatine, and tried to get all my bills paid as my “children,” complained about being hungry.

Some cold, hard facts

Throughout the evening, Owen quoted statistics on poverty.

n 4,191 of the approximately 40,000 residents in Muscatine

County received Medicare or some form of medical assistance and  2,686 families received food assistance  in January.

n 2,250 of the Muscatine Community School District’s 5,500 students are eligible for free and reduced lunches.

After the simulation, we talked about the evening.

Olson, a member of my “family,” said she didn’t realize there were so many people in need in Muscatine. “We just don’t see it,” she said sadly.

Another participant, Judy Yates, Muscatine Domestic Violence Shelter coordinator, said people told her the simulation was difficult, but she found that hard to believe until she tried it Thursday night.

“They do a really good job of making it realistic,” she said.