Rev. Shannon Spencer is the founder and director of the Asheville Poverty Initiative and moonlights as a prison chaplain at the Swannanoa Correctional Facility for Women. In rapidly gentrifying Asheville, NC, API seeks to address poverty by facilitating opportunities where the voices and experiences of “the poor” are heard and valued. While society makes various attempts to meet the immediate needs of those impacted, these basic services rarely succeed in changing the unjust systems that cause so many to go without in the first place. API aims to challenge stereotypes and decrease the fear that stems from an “us” and “them” philosophy. API offers free lunch five days a week at a community cafe in west Asheville called 12 Baskets, which uses 100% rescued prepared food. This cafe is a container for connection, where all are welcome and reminded of their worth and purpose in this world. In our conversation, Shannon shares the compassion that drives her mission, and we talk transformation over transaction, abundance over hoarding culture, and dismantling systemic poverty at a relational level. You can find Shannon at www.ashevillepovertyinitiative.org. More podcasts at www.maurajames.com and wherever podcasts are found. [“The Broken Side of People Everywhere” - The Dead Tongues]