The
Joy of Giving…Hunger in America
The joy of giving is
what the holiday is all about to me. I can think of no better way to celebrate
the birth of Christ than to feed his flock as He did when He provided bread and
fishes to the multitudes.
Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand,
Matthew 14:13-24
13 When Jesus heard what had happened,
he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds
followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When Jesus landed and
saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
15 As evening approached, the disciples
came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late.
Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some
food.”
16 Jesus replied, “They do not need to
go away. You give them something to eat.”
17 “We have here only five loaves of
bread and two fish,” they answered.
18 “Bring them here to me,” he said. 19 And
he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the
two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he
gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. 20 They
all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of
broken pieces that were left over. 21 The number of those who
ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.
The numbers actually fed by Jesus vary from the Gospels of
John, Mark and Matthew. Some biblical scholars believe that there were actually
15,000-20,000 people fed that day.
That miracle should be our challenge today to feed the
hungry among us; because there
is hunger in America. There is no community in the country that is not affected
by the fact that some of their citizens go hungry every day. The most vulnerable
of the population, namely children and senior citizens are of the most concern
to me. Besides poverty there are other factors associated with food insecurity
such as high unemployment, lower household assets, and certain demographic
characteristics.
Here are some statistics
I gathered for these two groups. This information comes from:
www.feedamerica.org. For more
information, please go to that site.
Child
Hunger in America
According
to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), 15.8 million children
under 18 in the United States live in households where they are unable to
consistently access enough nutritious food necessary for a healthy life.
Although food insecurity is harmful to any individual, it can be particularly
devastating among children due to their increased vulnerability and the
potential for long-term consequences.
Charitable Food Assistance
- Twelve million children are
estimated to be served by Feeding America, over 3.5 million of which are
ages 5 and under.
- Proper nutrition is vital to
the growth and development of children. While almost all (94%) of client
households with school-aged children (ages 5-18) report participating in
the National School Lunch Program, only 46 percent report participating in
the School Breakfast Program.
During the 2013
federal fiscal year, more than 21.5 million low-income children received free
or reduced-price meals daily through the National School Lunch Program.
Unfortunately, in 2013, less than 2.5 million children participated daily in
the Summer Food Service Program.
How Can You Feed a Hungry Child?
Search out the food
programs in your community to see how you can provide better, more nutritious
food to the children around you.
One of the best
organizations focusing on feeding hungry children is “Child Hunger Ends Here”
which is a program sponsored by corporate partners, ConAgra Foods and P&G.
They provided an 8-digit code on their products which when entered at a special
website, donated money to provide one meal to Feeding America. The program
ended in September 2014. I challenge other corporate partners to team up in
this way. Singer Hunter Hayes supported the effort also. Here is his video on
YouTube:
As far as providing
the right nutritional food for children I recently read of a wonderful program
at the Belfast, Maine C+OP which has a program called C+OP Explorers for
children. When the children sign up at the co-op they can pick out one piece of
fruit a day to eat while their mothers shop at the Co-Op. Such a simple thing
can make a big difference in the nutrition of a child.
Senior Hunger
There is a good chance
that there are seniors in your community who are going hungry and are too
afraid to admit it. Maybe their children are grown and gone; they are widows;
or their health is an impediment to providing themselves with food security. Do
a little research in your own neighborhood and try to help them out.
Here are some
statistics I found for this vulnerable group:
Food Assistance for Seniors
- Seven million elderly persons are served by
Feeding America each year. 33 percent of client households have
at least one member who is age 60 or over, and 76 percent of these
households are food insecure - an estimated 3.9 million households.
- Among all clients served by Feeding America, 17
percent were seniors age 60 or over, while 27 percent of adult clients
surveyed at charitable feeding programs were age 60 or older.
- Among all food programs in the Feeding America network,
12 percent of meal programs, such as home-delivered meal programs (or
Meals on Wheels) and 7 percent of grocery programs, such as senior brown
bag programs, are targeted for seniors. Three out of four (76%) client
households with at least one senior report planning to use a food program
in the Feeding America network on a regular basis to assist with their
monthly food budget.
Local Food Banks and
Good Shepard Food Mobile
If you live in Knox County and are a person in need of food
assistance there is a food pantry run by Area Interfaith Outreach, at 70
Thomaston Street, Rockland. The Good Shepard Food Mobile will be coming to this
site on December 9, from 10 AM to noon. You must bring your own bags and boxes
to carry the food home in. About 7,000 pounds of food will be distributed,
including fresh produce, an assortment of meats, essential non-perishable items
and breads.
Talk about bread and fishes. We thank everyone involved in
feeding the hungry folks in their communities. Maybe someday soon there won’t
be a hungry mouth to feed in America anymore.
Believe with me in the joy of giving and thanks for listening.
No comments:
Post a Comment