Friday, February 19, 2010

There are starving kids in...

Because of my position as e-communications manager here at the South Plains Food Bank, I am always finding new websites that deal with the hunger issue. Many of the organizations deal with hunger on a more global scale.

I have been there. I have served as a volunteer on the mission field in very poor parts of Africa and other countries around the world. I know that there is a need there and I commend those whose hearts are being poured out for people around the world. While I was in South Africa serving, I lost so much weight, because there was just not enough food and when there was - I felt guilty for eating while those I was there to serve had nothing to eat for days. It was difficult.

I came home and experienced culture shock. I had an extremely hard time adjusting to our waste of food and other issues after all that I had seen. On one occasion, my mother had taken myself, my grandmother and another friend of my grandmother's to an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet. I tried to fill my plate without thinking of the children and families I had left behind, who would not eat that day or maybe for two or three days at a time. But as I returned to the table with very little on my plate, I began to cry. Tears streamed down my face and then I could not hold back my sobs. My mother was mortified and leaned over to ask what was wrong. I said, "There are starving children in Africa - and now I know their names!"

I tell you this because our hunger here, in America - and especially in Lubbock and around the South Plains, looks different than hunger you see on the nightly news and when you surf the web. Here we don't usually see children without shoes, in mismatched torn ragged clothes, bellies distended from routinely going days on end without food.

One face of hunger we see is in our own neighborhoods. It is families in nice houses, with nice cars, who attend nice churches, but we don't realize our neighbor has lost his job and she took a pay cut to keep her job. They have traded down their cars, disconnected cable/satellite, and never go out to eat anymore. Everything for them is now a struggle. This face of hunger is actually in my neighborhood. I know this family. We don't think about this face very often, but this economy has brought hunger next door.

So as you cruise out of your subdivision each morning - look around. There are hungry people here - and I bet you know their names.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

"One face of hunger we see is in our own neighborhoods. It is families in nice houses, with nice cars, who attend nice churches, but we don't realize our neighbor has lost his job and she took a pay cut to keep her job. They have traded down their cars, disconnected cable/satellite, and never go out to eat anymore. Everything for them is now a struggle. This face of hunger is actually in my neighborhood. I know this family. We don't think about this face very often, but this economy has brought hunger next door."

I hope you don't mind but I borrowed this paragraph....I work in food banking....when I read it, the imagery was so powerful and it seemed as though you took the words right out of my mouth...I've been following you blog for a couple of months now and it's great. Please e-mail me if you would like
missysue_2000_ca@yahoo.com