To appear hip and relevant, and to increase readership, this column could conjecture about Lady Gaga, Charlie Sheen, or Rob Bell. Instead of spending your time and mine ingesting more of the over-covered and over-blogged, yet spicy topics de jour, let’s chew on a different story.
Jason, for instance. In a week where the previously mentioned three people occupied an amazing amount of public bandwidth, Jason—on behalf of an amazing number of children—spoke words too soft to be heard by most.
It terms of urgency, though, his words should be important to all of us.
Glance into his classroom, and this second-grader blends in with the other children. Every Monday afternoon, he spends an hour with a mentor. Most weeks prove unspectacular and provide no morsels to write about. But that recently changed. In the briefest of moments, with fewer words than this sentence, Jason made mention of his weekend.
“Yesterday my dad forgot lunch and then he forgot dinner.”
How does a parent forget about meals?
Jason lives with his dad and his dad’s girlfriend this year, after his mom decided last year that she didn’t want him to live with her anymore. Didn’t know what to do with him anymore. That’s pretty much how he put it. When life resembles a dark circus, a day without food is not a showstopper.
Remember, he’s only 8 years old. Yet he speaks for a staggering number of today’s kids. According to research found at childstats.gov, last year 22 percent of U.S. children lived in homes described as “food insecure.” The USDA defines food insecurity this way: “Limited or uncertain access to nutritious, safe foods necessary to lead a healthy lifestyle; households that experience food insecurity have reduced quality or variety of meals and may have irregular food intake.”
Bottom line: more than 1 in 5 of our country’s children live with food insecurity. Sure, I miss a meal occasionally for a variety of reasons, but always by choice. Kids rarely have the chance to choose.
A church in Michigan decided they could not simply ignore this issue. Through the mentoring program they offer in partnership with a local elementary school (a Kids Hope USA program), they learned about the rampant food insecurity in their area. This church has been around for decades, but remained completely unaware of the harsh realities kids face—because the affected kids simply blend in with all the others. Only after forming personal I-trust-you-enough-to-tell-you relationships with children in their community did this church hear the soft voices. And then they took action.
Every Friday afternoon, they fill backpacks with food for a growing number of kids and place them in the students’ lockers. Enough food to make it through the weekend. No more meals “forgotten.” An incredible, tangible act of love.
A similar story takes place in Texas. One lady became sensitized to the conditions of real children who live near her, so she prepares scores of sack lunches every day throughout the summer. She and her daughter load their SUV and drive to a neighborhood no one else notices. They know that large numbers of children fend for themselves over summer break, and that means forgotten meals. For the rest of her life, she’ll remember each smile she receives in exchange for a small brown bag.
Her church’s mentoring program at a local school provided an ideal setting to learn what’s really happening in the lives of people outside the church walls. Many needs remain unknown until revealed in the safety of a personal relationship. This only occurs, though, when a church’s heart for children beats strong enough to include those who don’t attend their services—and maybe never will.
What a great opportunity for love to make a breakthrough.
Why do children face food insecurity? A variety of reasons exist, none of which are due to any fault of kids. After all, they were just born this way*—into a life filled with challenges they must now face. A solution exists, though. Because when more churches develop a stronger heartbeat for kids, then more personal relationships form, and ultimately, love wins*.
*Okay, I caved and made Gaga and Bell references. Just couldn’t do Sheen, though. Sorry Charlie.
David Staal, senior editor of Today’s Children’s Ministry and a mentor to a second-grade boy, serves as the president of Kids Hope USA, a national non-profit organization that partners local churches with elementary schools to provide mentors for at-risk students. Prior to this assignment, David led Promiseland, the children’s ministry at Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois. David is the author of Words Kids Need to Hear (2008) and lives in Grand Haven, Michigan, with his wife Becky, son Scott, and daughter Erin. Interested in David speaking at your event? Click here)
© 2011, David Staal
