One in Six

Feeding America projects that one in six Americans are food insecure and may need assistance from Food Banks this year. That’s an incredible number… one that surely has to be wrong until I think about the increase in the number of people we have been serving in the past couple of years. Then I wonder if one in six is too conservative.
Recently I met a young professional volunteering at the food bank. Looking at him you would never think Mike had ever had a problem in his life. Handsome, confident, married with two beautiful young children. We talked about this and that and then I asked him why he was volunteering at the food bank. He got quiet… and began to tell his story.
 Mike’s parents divorced when he was in grade school. Although child support payments were few and far between, he never realized he was growing up “poor.” Mike told me he knew he had the “best” Mom in the world. She would let him and his brother eat oatmeal at dinner and sometimes popcorn for breakfast.
He didn’t understand that was all they had in their pantry.  He never noticed that his Mom didn't eat the oatmeal or popcorn. Later he would find out that his Mom would go two or three days skipping meals to make sure her children ate. He wished there had been a food bank to help when he was growing up.
One in six is unbelievable until you start talking with your neighbors who have been one of the “ones.”