Doing more than cramming a couple of cans in my son’s bookbag.
Sometimes life’s irony hits you right between the eyes and lodges in your brain.
Thoughts that irate the heck out of you.
Today, in the interest of multitasking, I walked the dog over to a friend’s place of employment.
A bit anxious how lack of activity will affect my menopot once the weather turns cold and dark, I asked her to acquire some appetite suppressants for me.
Why not start on the offensive before the holidays?
That’s not the irony — just the pathetic truth.
After I got my stash of supplements, on the trot home I listened to a broadcast of a international ministry I give money too. Once again multitasking. Walking dog, going on errand, feeding my spirit.
That’s when the trouble started.
The program I listened to this morning was about a food ministry in a large metropolitan area. How a particular family had been helped.
I was moved by this man’s story. Who wouldn’t be?
Then irony hit and messed with my day.
I was listening to a story about a food ministry walking home with a carton of appetite suppressants.
BAM.
The uber-ginormous weight loss industry earns multimillions in a world where people with jobs can’t feed their families an entire week without help.
Now I know this isn’t any big new revelation but today I took it personally and felt pretty foolish.
Many years ago a woman approached me for money in front of a supermarket. For some reason, “Come on in with me, I’ll buy you what you need” came out of my mouth.
As this young woman and I wandered about the story putting items in a basket, she picked out lots of staples. Milk, bread, baloney and eggs.
I went home and opened up my cupboards and saw all the food stacked in there.
Even with a surplus that could feed a small village in a teensy country on the other side of midnight, it occurred to me that I still went to the store — day after day — to buy more food because evidently we didn’t have enough.
I’ve written about and worked regularly with local organizations that provide food for those in need.
I’ve explored why low income families eat a majority of high calorie, low nutrition food. I’ve seen children throw away half their school lunches because it didn’t excite their taste buds. I also know that some take advantage of what is in place to render aid.
Don’t really know the purpose of this post is except maybe to put it on public record that I need to do more than cram a couple of cans in my son’s book bag this time of year.
And I’m really tired of thinking about it.
Any ideas?
At least you’re thinking about it Jamie! We can’t be perfect all the time. But we can do the best we can to help.
I think about this a lot. It makes me very sad to see the differences in school lunches based on the family’s income. Sometimes we spend one week eating only what comes out of our freezer and cabinets. It feels good to actually save money and utilize what we already have.
As another reader stated, anything you do is still giving and helping, so feel good about what you DO and not guilty about what you don’t do. Thank you for this insightful post.
I guess Susanna I know of other programs that have been started by private individuals in neighboring counties. Makes me wonder why we aren’t doing the same here.
How wonderful that you took a young woman shopping! In my work with at-risk families I am smacked in the face by food insecure/hungry people every single day. For many going to a food bank and producing all kinds of verifications is overwhelming & time consuming. They can’t afford to take time off their $7.25/hr job to ask for food. I think a foodmobile (like the bookmobile) driving thru neighborhoods during non traditional hours and giving away food would be great.
Robbie. The food mobile is a great idea. There is a large food bank in Augusta that has one and it will go out to rural areas on specific Saturdays.
You are the only one. Maybe the purpose of this post was to be an eye opener for each person that reads it.
Just got a great suggestion Kenya to head over to Scary Mommy and donate to the Thanksgiving Project. Little by little we all can help if we keep our eyes and ears open. http://www.scarymommy.com/thanksgiving-2013/
Great post. Now that I am working in a school again, I am stunned by how small the lunch portions for middle schoolers are…same as what a kindergarten gets. I can not tell you how many kids come to my office hungry even though we serve breakfast and lunch.
We have often given to a local program that sends backpacks of food home with kids on weekends so that they will have something nutritious to eat while school is not in session. Our gifts have not been what they could be and have been way too sporadic.
Having real faces to associate with hungry tummies has been a motivator to me to be more regular in our giving and to give more.
Perspective comes in all kinds of forms, including capsules!
I commend you for connecting the dots as you did. We would all do well to think that way far more often.
[…] to The Third Annual Scary Mommy Thanksgiving Project and inspired another Yeah Write Blogger, Jamie Miles, to do the same. If you can help, follow this link to make a […]