The Best-Dressed Man at FOCUS

Abstract

“This is Chester, the best-dressed man at FOCUS.” I was introduced to Chester on my first day volunteering at FOCUS Pittsburgh by Miss Cheryl, who is second-in-command at FOCUS. FOCUS is located in a two-story duplex in the Hill District of Pittsburgh. The Hill is mainly populated by low-income black families, and the crime rate is high. The median income is less than $15,000 (Damewood 2011). In 1950, the city of Pittsburgh displaced 1,239 black families and 312 white families to build the Mellon Arena in the heart of the Hill (Bauder 2014). The neighborhood still has not recovered from this economic loss and is only now beginning to see the rewards promised in exchange, like the Shop ’N Save that just opened on Centre Avenue. Before the Shop ’N Save, the Hill District was a food desert, a poor, urban area lacking quality fresh, whole food.