The Stewpot Celebrates 50 Years with Release of ‘Thy Neighbor’

The Stewpot, a First Presbyterian Church of Dallas organization that provides social services and programming for Dallasites experiencing homelessness and poverty, is celebrating its 50th anniversary next month.

To celebrate, one of the running programs of the mission, the Writers’ Workshop, recently compiled work from some of the attendees and artists of The Stewpot Art Program into a book titled Thy Neighbor: Stories of Struggle, Strength, and Shared Humanity which is available to those who support The Stewpot with a donation of $30 or more.

Oak Cliff’s William ‘Bill’ McKenzie and North Dallas’s Poppy Sundeen are two of the three editors of the book, but have worked with the workshop for years.

Bill McKenzie (left) during a Writers’ Workshop. Photo courtesy of The Stewpot.

McKenzie is a contributing columnist for The Dallas Morning News and the senior editorial advisor for the George Bush Institute. Sundeen is a now-retired writer with over 45 years of experience in advertising and marketing.

Sundeen learned about the program after someone asked if she would like to buy a copy of The STREEZINE.  After reading the copy, she began donating to The Stewpot and started volunteering six years ago, using her background as a writer to publish articles for The STREETZine.

McKenzie joined The Stewpot as a member of First Presbyterian since 1993, often working as a volunteer serving meals. He began brainstorming about how to get more involved in The Stewpot around 2019 or 2020, starting the weekly workshop soon after.

About the time he was getting involved as a volunteer with The Stewpot, McKenzie learned that the previous editor of The STREETZine, a street paper published since 2003 by The Stewpot, had recently passed away about the time he was getting involved as a volunteer with The Stewpot. With a background in writing himself, this sparked what is today’s weekly writing workshop.

At first, The STREETZine and Writers’ Workshop did not meet together, but now they work in tandem, McKenzie said. 

“It is a value for people to be able to have a voice to tell their story, and in some cases, that’s kind of cathartic,” Sundeen said.

Poppy Sundeen (right) during a Writers’ Workshop. Photo courtesy of The Stewpot.

The two projects have developed several opportunities for the community to tell their stories, such as working with the Dallas Media Collaborative and publishing pieces in The Dallas Morning News. The STREETZine continues to distribute a monthly paper around the city and through the International Network of Street Papers, along with online blog posts.

The editors were inspired by a book they read about different people who were homeless, mostly in Canada, and then at one moment the light went off that The Stewpot needed a book, he said.

“We just kept brainstorming it and pitched the idea to The Stewpot leadership and started exploring. If we’re going to do this, how do we get it published? And one thing led to another,” McKenzie said.

Thy Neighbor is a compilation of essays done during the Writers’ Workshops, featuring the works of nine writers alongside artwork done by Stewpot artists. McKenzie said the book highlights the complexities of life and “the image of God in all of us.” Through three chapters, the book follows the experiences of being unhoused, searching for a home and what it means to love thy neighbor.

Sundeen came up with the name for the book based on an experience with an unhoused neighbor who shared that to him First Presbyterian truly practices what they preach.

“He specifically said that, you know, he felt like they were following the biblical edict to love thy neighbor,” she said.

The work the writers put into their craft at The Stewpot and for Thy Neighbor has impressed McKenzie during the year-long process.

“I was struck by their honesty and their willingness to share their stories,” he said. “I don’t recall anybody saying, ‘I really don’t want to do this.’ And with all of our writings, nobody has to do it. They do get paid when they are published in the street scene upon publication, we paid for the book, and so on, but nobody had to do it.”

Sundeen echoed that sentiment, saying that the subjects of the group are willing to share their stories despite the hard topics and vulnerabilities that come with it, building a strong connection for everyone involved in the workshops. Every Friday morning is spent not only sharing their writing, but their everyday experiences both good and bad.

The book highlights to readers that people experiencing homelessness are no different than anybody else, McKenzie said.

“I want people to read the book and realize that everyone who is unhoused or has gone through this experience has had a unique story. I want people to stop stereotyping unhoused people,” Sundeen said. “I want them to see the individuality there and the value of the people who are our neighbors at The Stewpot.”