I grew up hearing about children starving in far-away lands – lands I just knew, as a child coming from a working-class household, that I would never see. There were the admonitions to eat everything on my plate because starving children in China would just love to have what I was ignoring on my plate. There were the pictures of starving children in African countries with distended abdomens and rail-thin limbs, hungry children in South American countries who were victims of the never-ending civil wars, pictures of hungry children in the projects of Philadelphia who were victims of racial and social injustice. None of these pictures seemed any more real to me than those I saw in National Geographic - tales that just as likely could have been from the Brothers Grimm.
Several weeks ago, my brother-in-law told me about what the real faces of hunger look like. A 60 Minutes piece aired, and reported that there are over 1,000 homeless children in Seminole county schools. So….. hunger might look like the children who sit next to your child or mine in classrooms or play with them on playgrounds, or who ask if they are going to finish their lunches and ask for whatever remains.
Many of the families are not in shelters, as I thought, where they might lose their dignity, but are at least fed and provided shelter. Because many of the shelters separate families across gender lines, or are full – those who have minimal access to work are living in the cheap motels all around the county – some very close to St Stephen Lutheran Church.
How do we assure that the face of hunger is not the face of our next-door neighbors?
I’m not real sure, but I’m going to investigate. We do know meals were being provided while the children were in school; now that there is a summer break, we have discovered that there are still feeding centers at local schools – Altamonte Springs Elementary is one. Our church has provided some support for the Sharing Center and we are now going to begin to expand that outreach to the school feeding centers to help send food home for weekends. Please consider helping the hungry children right in our community by participating in a drive for foodstuff. Perhaps your child has a classmate who was always asking for extra food, or who you heard was living in a motel, or a car – could you seek him/her out to help? Check out this link and see what else you can do http://cmfmedia.org/web/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/50_Ways.pdf
Could you suggest other ways to help?
Author: Diane Bechtold
Several weeks ago, my brother-in-law told me about what the real faces of hunger look like. A 60 Minutes piece aired, and reported that there are over 1,000 homeless children in Seminole county schools. So….. hunger might look like the children who sit next to your child or mine in classrooms or play with them on playgrounds, or who ask if they are going to finish their lunches and ask for whatever remains.
Many of the families are not in shelters, as I thought, where they might lose their dignity, but are at least fed and provided shelter. Because many of the shelters separate families across gender lines, or are full – those who have minimal access to work are living in the cheap motels all around the county – some very close to St Stephen Lutheran Church.
How do we assure that the face of hunger is not the face of our next-door neighbors?
I’m not real sure, but I’m going to investigate. We do know meals were being provided while the children were in school; now that there is a summer break, we have discovered that there are still feeding centers at local schools – Altamonte Springs Elementary is one. Our church has provided some support for the Sharing Center and we are now going to begin to expand that outreach to the school feeding centers to help send food home for weekends. Please consider helping the hungry children right in our community by participating in a drive for foodstuff. Perhaps your child has a classmate who was always asking for extra food, or who you heard was living in a motel, or a car – could you seek him/her out to help? Check out this link and see what else you can do http://cmfmedia.org/web/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/50_Ways.pdf
Could you suggest other ways to help?
Author: Diane Bechtold
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1 comment:
Diane,
Thank you for your writing and your heart. My prayers are with you and with us as we search for ways to reach out and minister.
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