Bringing Hunger to Church: One By One
Posted by La Verne Dickerson-Coleman on Tuesday, July 26, 2011
When I attended Sunday School a few weeks ago, I did not imagine that I would see the faces of hunger. I lived with it briefly as a child but did not conceive the thought that hunger would be in my daughter’s Sunday School class.
Like many churches who want their congregations to expand, my church in Prince Georges County Maryland is no different in wanting more members to join. The church is located in the neighborhood of modest living citizens and very close proximity to a Talented and Gifted elementary school. Even though I work at Share Our Strength, it was beyond my imagination that hunger existed in my own church.
Here’s what brought that reality to light.
One nine year old girl who lives in the neighborhood came to the Sunday School one June Sunday morning. She undoubtedly saw our church’s marquee that read “Sunday School begins at 9:30 am.” I thought that surely she was interested in learning about our church and the Baptist doctrine. So she came one Sunday, and the very next Sunday she brought her cousin. Following that Sunday, she brought her brother along with her cousin. And then the following Sunday, she brought five neighborhood kids. She was a born “missionary”! The children’s ages ranged between two and ten years old and she brought them one by one within a three week period. Wow!
But you see, she was spreading the word, but not the word that I thought. The church officers initially wanted to provide a light snack before the students delved into the lesson for the day. It was not until after this nine year old little girl brought the last of the seven children that I and the other members of the church realized that these kids were hungry not for knowledge gained in church, but for food. Their neighborhood school had provided free meals during the school term. And now that it was summer, they did not know where they could go for food.
I have been working at Share Our Strength for almost five years. In this time, I have grown to appreciate the number of families and youth that Share Our Strength has been able to help through its grants, partnerships and sharing of information to make sure no child is hungry. Share Our Strength has afforded many schools, soup kitchens and organizations opportunities to build its feeding programs for children and their families. I know from experience that if a child is hungry, they aren’t able to function as a normal child would – learning and being productive in school and playing and growing as every child should. There is no excuse or reason why there should be children hungry.
It is often said that nothing is free in life. But I beg to differ – there are free meals for every hungry child during the summer. They just need to know where to go to get that free meal. We all have a strength and we all can help. You too can share in eliminating child hunger by taking the pledge to end child hunger by 2015.
The little nine year old girl, I spoke of earlier just happened to come to my church one Sunday not realizing that my church provides free breakfast every Sunday morning. Knowing this, she began to spread the word. And they followed her one by one. She brought hunger to the church, where kids were being fed.
If you know of someone that is in search of a “summer meals site,” or need direction on other state programs including the National Hunger Hotline, please check out our information about how to get assistance.
If you have a desire to learn more about our work on summer meals or to donate to support these efforts, you can find out more on our No Kid Hungry in Summer page.
July 26, 2011 | 6 comment(s) | Tags: church, no kid hungry, summer meals
Comments
6 reader comments so far.
Thank you for sharing this La Verne. Wow. They say that hunger is hiding in our communities and this is the perfect example. Hunger knows no boundaries. Yay for free summer meals!
Posted by ariane on July 26, 2011
Thank you La Verne for sharing this powerful story! And thanks to your church for helping the kids in the neighborhood.
Posted by Mike on July 27, 2011
LaVerne, thanks very much for sharing this story...and to your church for sharing their strength! It is good to know that there are places like this in our communities that are seen as beacons of hope.
Posted by Nancy on July 27, 2011
the innocense of a child is always a blessing from above -- thank you so much for sharing La V, really brought this home for me.
Posted by Gayle on July 29, 2011
Thank you so much for sharing this story La Verne. Its great to hear about Share Our Strength's employees making a personal impact in their own communities.
Posted by Susan on July 29, 2011
La Verne, what an important and powerful story. Thanks for everything you do at Share Our Strength and for all that you're doing in your community to feed hungry kids!
Posted by kate on August 2, 2011
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