The Fear of Hunger by Gr8teful

Let me just say that I have had hard times. Well, I thought I had, but now I am having to re-evaluate what hard times really are. I will have to give back my platinum membership card because I just ran into a real live scenario that put mine to shame. I work at an elementary school with tomorrows adults. Right now, they are still children, that are eager, youthful, innocent, and hungry.
Everyday children eagerly press into the peppermint scented hallways to classrooms awash with light not for the next lesson, but the next meal. I know that it was hard for my mother being a single parent, but some of these children have it a lot worse. I know we could probably all trade horror stories about life and the venom of poverty, but that is not a trophy I willing to fight for. And yet these young people come to school with hungry stomachs to go with there hungry minds. Education is the appetizer to the main course of breakfast and lunch.
You know you use to always have the hungry kid in class. The one who would eat anything and would want everything even if they weren’t hungry. You can always spot those kids. No, I am talking about the children whose eyes have a look of desperation, a haunting soul stirring stare. The ones that you know that this is it for the day. I had heard rumors of this, but never had the little birds hopped onto my porch and shared this wisdom: “ I am hungry, there is no food at my house”. There is a silent question at the end, a whisper, would you please help me? It is as if the little one had been praying all day for something magical to happen, something that would turn the shadows into rainbows. Why do we still struggle with hunger when there is so much food in this country of America? Let’s not even go out of the state. We can stay in our little zoned box in the county, in our little city and still have enough to feed everyone. I know that this would be a pipedream, but it bothers me when I see so many people throw away so much food everyday and laugh about there waste, when you have these elementary students wondering what tomorrow will taste like.
Financially, I am not swimming in a pool, nor even a spa-like bathtub,( maybe more like a coffee cup at the local Quik-trip gas station), but when I go home and look around I see that I am blessed. Even if the fridge is pretty much empty and there are two cucumbers that look pretty cozy with the orange juice I am alright! I don’t care if I am surfing on a Ramen noodle paradise or whatever is on the menu, at least I have options. I cannot imagine what it must be like not to have a choice. Even if I have one potato, I can make a soup, fried potatoes, au gratin, shredded, or just baked, however only minutes from my home there is a family not only not having a choice, but not having anything. I though everybody had something. I know that people have problems, but I would hope with all the resources out there that eating would not be one of them.
I am saddened by this reality. Like I said I know what poverty is and we have hung out pretty often. There are things in my own mentality that I have to alter even now, which are the side effects of hanging out with friends like that. I can remember being young and noticing perishables, as well as other things getting low in the house. The only difference is that a blessing was always right around the corner. I never went hungry. I never felt the angry hole grinding within me, rocking me to sleep. The lullabies I heard were sweet ones of things cooking and banging away in the kitchen, the perfume of mama’s creation lingering overhead. I too, would learn this art of inventing, making the best of the least, making everything from gravies to turkey delicacies! These lessons were ones that helped to build my character, made me grow, persevere and aided in be becoming very handy. This child may very well have the same testimony in the future if we can help get him there. He could stand up on podiums and speak very eloquently on how he was a boot-strapper and used the struggles to fight upward. However today he is just a child, a little boy. He doesn’t care about all that right now. What I saw in this child was not anticipation to get home; it was the alarm of need. If I had just seen him and not seen him I would never have noticed it. It’s not like he was wearing a sign, he was very clean, very tidy. We have to be careful looking for what deficiency looks like. It does not always have a rugged face and swollen bellies. So when I looked into those chocolate colored eyes I saw deeper into the fear of his little famished world. In that moment my little issues became very small and insignificant. The dreamy fog was blown away by the clouds of Hunger. Our kids should be hungry for knowledge not just the next entrée. So what could I do? I did the only thing I knew to do… I did something. Now, I challenge you, what will you do?