Hope for today

I have been on mission trips all over the world.

Often I explain to people that I have been to more countries in the world than states in the United States.

I have been to Malawi in Africa.

I have seen world hunger.

I have been to Mission Arlington.

I have seen inner city hunger and poverty.

I have lived in Lubbock all my life, but really didn’t know the need here until I started working at the South Plains Food Bank.

A few weeks ago in a staff meeting our Kids Cafe Executive Chef, Tammy Hester, explained that many of her sites would be closing for Christmas. Tammy and her staff cook and deliver hot, nutritious meals to 21 sites throughout Lubbock and a few surrounding counties Monday thru Friday as part of our Kids Cafe program.

For some of these kids – this after school meal is the only evening meal they will receive. It is the only thing standing between them and going to bed hungry.

Tammy explained in our staff meeting that she was worried about the kids at one site in particular. She told us they were feeding about 40 kids every day and that she already worried about they managed on the weekends, but really didn’t know how some of them would make it through Christmas without their Cafe being open.

The image of those kids stayed with several of our staff through the holidays. When we returned to work on Tuesday we talked about them and wondered how they were doing.

I posted a vague update on my Facebook page – I knew of children right here in Lubbock who are skipping meals because hunger doesn’t take a vacation.

I confess – I was shocked when an IM popped up questioning where these children are and what can be done to help them. I knew the lady on the other end of the IM from college. But we really hadn’t stayed in close contact – just kept up through Facebook really. But I knew she would do something for the kids – she had always been one to make things happen on our college campus!

Recently, Tammy and her staff have started making snack packs for a few rural sites where children there needed extra meals on the weekends. Tammy explained that if we could find someone to cover the cost of a ‘snack pack,’ which provides 4 meals and two snacks to children at the low cost of $3.47 a pack – then we could use that stuff, make up snack packs, and deliver them to the children at the site.

After explaining this to my college friend through various phone calls, emails, and Facebook messages she sprung into action. Within hours she and a few other friends had gathered the money to cover 46 snack packs.

Those ladies and their children came in today and assembled the packs and delivered them to the site.

Tonight there are 46 children in Lubbock who will go to bed with full tummies – they will go to bed knowing that someone values them and cares for them – they will go to bed with hope.

A holiday hug...

One of our staff reported that he got into a hug while he was passing out a food box. I’ve heard of people getting into a fight, but never getting into a hug. It’s a risk we take every day at the South Plains Food Bank I guess. In fact... I got into a hug today. It is humbling.

People come to us burdened with lost jobs, illness, or other crises that keep them from putting food on the table for themselves and their children.  Because of your generous support, we can provide food for people. It eases the burden for a moment. It gives them hope. They want to hug someone. And since you weren’t here, they hugged me instead. I was glad to receive it on your behalf.

A wonderful woman who stopped by for a food box last week sent me a sweet note. She wrote about leaving the food bank with tears in her eyes… “not from shame for asking for help, but because I saw the love of God  in you and your staff…” Like I said, this can be a humbling place to work.

Your gifts to the South Plains Food Bank make such a difference in the families we serve every day. 1 in 5 people on the South Plains will be fed through you and the agencies we serve this year.  It’s hard to believe, but it’s true. I hope your holidays are filled with hugs and joy.

Rachelle Grimmer

I can’t stop thinking about it.

It happened more than a week ago.

A mother walked in a Texas welfare office and after a seven hour standoff shot her two children then shot and killed herself.

Rachelle Grimmer was 38 years-old.

I’m 38 years-old.

Her daughter – Ramie, 12, died of gunshot wounds a few days later on Wednesday, December 7 – Pearl Harbor Day. Her son – Timothy, 10, was removed from life support and died on Thursday, December 8.

The shooting happened Monday, December 5 – on my birthday.

I have thought, pondered, contemplated, and cried about this for more than a week.

I have been haunted.

As a former journalist I have listened and read reports by journalists covering this event.

I want to ‘make sense’ of this tragedy.

Not possible, I know.

I have heard and read hints of mental illness.

That might make me feel better on some level if I believed it.

I don’t know especially since there has been no documentation found suggesting she was mentally unstable – only a slur tossed out from her former mother-in-law, whose son – the children’s father – had been trying to take the children from their mother for years. A police report suggesting she might have some mental issues. But no proof. Even close neighbors have said that Rachelle Grimmer was not mentally ill, but rather that she was compassionate and intelligent.

I'm not sure what to believe.

That leaves me with this thought - could it be that she and her children were just hungry.

I have thought long and hard this week about Rachelle Grimmer.

I have thought about her situation; wondered at what it must feel like to be so desperate to feed your children.

I have had that moment of panic – that realization that in a few days there would be nothing to feed my child.

Monday, December 5 I was receiving hundreds of Facebook messages wishing me a Happy Birthday. I was getting calls from friends and loved ones. I knew presents, a cake, and my family would be waiting for me when I returned home from work that night.

What did she experience that day? What was it that finally made her feel hopeless, worthless, and empty that day? At what point that night did she look in the face of her children and make her decision to shot them? When did she decide to kill herself?

Monday, December 5 was the first day of the South Plains Food Bank’s U Can Share Food Drive. We raised more than 400,000 pounds of food and more than $170,000 during the week of our drive. But the community gave more than pounds and funds during our drive – they gave hope.

When we here at the food bank give out a food box, we give more than food – we give hope.

I know that food was offered to this mother during the hostage negotiations. I am sure at that point she knew she would be headed to prison and perhaps would never see her children again – the same children she had been begging the system for help to feed since July.

I wish Rachelle would have gone to her local food bank. Maybe things would be so different today.

Maybe if Rachelle had been given that box of food, that box of hope, maybe she would have felt like she had the time to gather all the documentation needed for her food stamp case.

I believe, as painful as it is, as hard as it is – i believe Rachelle Grimmer was hungry.

Rachelle Grimmer needed food for her children.

Rachelle Grimmer needed a food box.

Rachelle Grimmer needed hope.

Aloha!

Aloha!

Recently I reposted on Facebook a statement made by Newt Gingrich in regards to someone using their, SNAP benefits, formerly known as food stamps to travel to Hawaii.

I had a few people leave comments. What was interesting is that my childhood friend of more than 25 years actually believed this could really happen. I refrained from commenting because I cherish her friendship and value that people do not have to support the same beliefs about things as I.

But today, after sleeping on it a few nights – I feel like I must comment in some manner.

So here it is. . .

It could never happen!

I know because I have personally received both SNAP and WIC benefits.

SNAP benefits in most states are put on a plastic card, much like a debit card. There is a set amount in the account, say $197 like in my case. I could only use those benefits at approved locations where my purchases could be regulated. There are some items, even food items that SNAP recipients are not able to purchase.

An example would be: I could purchase a TV dinner, but I could not go to the ‘food court’ of the grocery store and purchase a bbq plate or make a salad that was hot and ready to eat. I hope that makes sense.

I also could not purchase tobacco or alcoholic beverages.

So now let’s just be honest!

I had $250 of child support coming in every month. That’s it. No, really – that’s it. I had a new baby, who was born with health problems. He was sick and could not go to daycare. I could not work. We were living with my best friend who was nice enough to allow us to move in with her rent free so we weren’t out on the streets. But that was it.

I received WIC. Even those benefits were mirochipped onto a plastic credit card so those purchases could also be regulated.

I received $250 cash a month.

I received $197 in SNAP a month.

I could not have ‘freed up’ enough money to travel to Hawaii! Trust me!

Most people who receive these benefits are not cheating the system – they are not cheating us tax payers. They really need them. They are grandparents raising grandchildren. Some are just simply seniors on their own who can’t afford the increase in food prices, increase in gas costs, increase in - well everything! Some are single parents or families who are working just to make ends meet but find themselves short every month.

I doubt they swallowed their pride to stand in line after line, to jump through hoop after hoop to get a few extra dollars a month because they have this dream of going to Hawaii!

But yes, I hear you! I hear you talking about another headline – some lady who lives in a million dollar home who gets SNAP benefits. I hear you talking about the guy in front of you in line at the grocery store that just purchased five prime ribs and paid with his food stamps.

Okay, so there are a few people who are defrauding us fellow tax payers. So there are a few people who make choices at the grocery store that really is none of our business. I said we would be honest.

For those who need the benefits, for those who lose sleep every night wondering where, when, and what they are going to do for their next meal, wondering how they will feed their children – hoping no one will take their babies away from them because they were laid off and haven’t be able to find work yet. . . for those people I want to explain to the rest of you. . .

They are not planning a trip to Hawaii.

They are most likely wondering what they are going to do when their WIC and SNAP benefits run out this month and they still need food for their family. They are probably wondering if they do take this new job – with much less pay than the one they had before they got laid off – how will they make ends meet if they lose their WIC and SNAP benefits because they ‘make too much.’

Not a day goes by that I don’t think about those people – the ones who really need the help.

I needed help. And even though I received both WIC and SNAP – I still needed help.

I found it at our local Food Bank, the South Plains Food Bank where I am proud to say I now work.

Others find help from us too – about 84,000 of them last year. They came to us or one of our more than 221 agencies and they asked us for help.

We stand in the gap between them and hunger. We stand in the gap between them and homelessness. We stand in the gap between them and losing their children. We stand in the gap – period.

They dream about being able to feed their families. They dream of only working one job instead of two or three. They dream of a better life.

They are not dreaming of Hawaii.

Aloha!