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CASTALIA — There were nearly 83,000 Erie County household visits to pantries supported by Second Harvest Food Bank from July 2024 to June 2025. To get a better understanding of living in poverty, Townsend Community School staff participated in a simulation event with the help of the food bank and the school's principal, Katie Harkelroad. "We really thought it was important that all of our staff had this experience," Harkelroad said. "We wanted to provide that to them." A month of simulated poverty The simulation, set in a fictional location called Realville, was a great opportunity for the Townsend staff to participate in because of the demographics the school serves in its non-traditional educational setting, according to Harkelroad. The school specializes in dropout prevention and credit recovery, and she said this population comes to the staff with barriers and obstacles to overcome. "We strive to go above and beyond, to wrap our arms around the whole child and meet more than their academic needs," Harkelroad said. The staff lived through a "month" of poverty. Every 15 minutes became a new week with a five-minute weekend in between. During the week, they had to complete everyday tasks like buying groceries, going to work and paying bills by visiting booths stationed around the room. The staff was given a new identity and divided into families with different circumstances and numbers of members. For example, one of the staff members was a single mother with multiple kids, played by other staff members. To move around the room, the staff had to think about transportation, the same way a person would in real life. If they had a transportation card, they could move to a new task — but, if not, they could not complete a necessary chore to help them progress in their responsibilities. Early in the simulation, some staff members were hit with a stroke of bad luck. For example, while someone was in line at the bank booth, a teenage neighbor played by a colleague broke into their "house" and stole their belongings. The neighbor was caught and taken to the jail booth, but it still took three out of the four weeks for the belongings to get returned. Not a game Kimberly Hazelgrove, an advocacy manager from the food bank, said it was important to remember this was a simulation, not a game, with props and fake money. The program was created using real statistics and situations. "We know that hunger is only one of many challenges neighbors face across our region," Hazelgrove said. "The (simulation) offers realistic scenarios that reveal the deeper complex systems and everyday barriers families must navigate just to survive and is a valuable tool to helping community leaders, members and organizations fully understand poverty, especially if they have never experienced it themselves." With this simulation, the food bank hopes its participants gain an understanding and perspective on poverty, according to Hazelgrove. She said the simulation aims to expand participants' knowledge of resources, build empathy and challenge assumptions and stereotypes. It's a great way of displaying how people are affected by government policies and how community members interact with public assistance programs. "By navigating real-world scenarios based on current rules, eligibility criteria and resource limitations, participants experience how policy influences everything from public benefit timelines and transportation access to childcare availability and employment stability," Hazelgrove said. "The simulation highlights how even well-intended policies can create gaps or barriers — and encourages participants to consider how changes in policy, funding and program design could better support families working to achieve stability."