Standing in Line to Help

This is Jack. He can stack. Which his grandmom thinks is very talented. Jack has ten grandparents- three full sets of grandparents and four great's. And all in the same town and all of us standing in line and taking a number to spend time with Stackin' Jack. And of course we see to it(along with his parents) that Jack has everything he needs and many other things he doesn't even know he wants.

Today I met with three women to discuss a new program for the South Plains Food Bank in partnership with the Junior League of Lubbock. It will be called Food 2 Kids and it will be about providing backpacks of non-perishable, healthy, easy to eat, no-cooking-needed foods. These backpacks will go home on the weekends and holidays with kids who are referred to us by school counselors, principals and teachers. No labels on the backpacks, just pick them up at school and bring them back to be filled again the following weekend.

Food 2 Kids is for children without the luxury of folks waiting their turn to provide them with food, clothes, and other necessities of life. Some have loving families, same as ours, some live in ways most of us can't imagine.

I am glad to have another way to give help to kids. As mentioned in a recent call to our offices by a school counselor, some kids are trying to take care of their families rather than the other way around. She told of three little girls saving half of their food from school lunches to take home to an out of work mom and a sick grandmother. That's not the right order of things, but it is what we hear and see in our community every day. Our kids need to stay kids not elementary-age caregivers.

They need people standing in line to help them and give them what they need.