|
Autobiography |
Ballet | Books | Dolls & Costumes
| Gardens | Kinesthetic | Main | Meditation and Prayer |
Rhythmic Dance | Spirituality | True Spiritual Stories | Yoga |
* Food for Kids *
How to give food to hungry kids and families
compiled by
Susan Helene Kramer
This page is about
hunger, and
what each of us can do to help alleviate it, starting right in our community or
via the internet.
The photo at right is me in 1949. During my
early years we often ate pancakes for supper, because my father was finishing
high school and going to college after WWII, having left school after 11th
grade to join the Navy and fight the war.
It seems that almost every generation has periods of hunger. But today we are
so lucky to have the internet to find out where there is need and to be able to
give online or through food drives and food banks in our community.
Here are two stories
about ways to give. The first is how my father gave as an adult
and the second story is how to give to kids in schools.
My choice for online giving is Santa Barbara County Foodbank. It serves the area where several of my
grandkids go to school, and that makes it dear to my heart.
|
1.
Giving Food to Hungry Families |
One of the greatest lessons I learned from my father was
giving. Helping out others less fortunate was a task he took to heart.
One way to help out in these downtrodden times for many is through sharing our
food, making gifts of food to children who would otherwise go hungry on
weekends, when they would not be eating their free breakfast and lunch at the
local elementary school.
My father did not want to go public with his donations, so what he would do is
go food shopping after dark and leave the bags of groceries on the doorsteps of
the families in need.
He could give, and being painfully shy, not have to be
present for a thank you. He was a year round Santa to many families along the
river where I grew up.
Sometimes it is hard to learn from what our parents tell us to do, but just
this example of his kindness in the face of need was an example that opened my
eyes to seeing the need wherever I lived.
I use the lesson from my father who eventually passed out of this life in a
quiet manner; his obituary reading that he had enjoyed swimming, sailing, and
fishing along the river. But, I knew that way beyond that he served the needs
of families less fortunate in the community in unseen ways of giving out free
food, which helped others and made him feel good about himself.
Buying food for others need not cost you more. For example, by buying your
family a less expensive dessert, you can feed a family a supper of peanut
butter and graham crackers, which are non-perishable items and excellent
donations.
Use your talents to develop yourself, and you may find you can help others less
fortunate, too.
|
2. Food Drives for Your Community
School |
I'd like to request that as a special gift to your community,
that you check with your local elementary school to see if there are
children not eating dinner or not eating on weekends, and to organize a food
drive if there's a need. There is hunger in America, too.
For donations pick items kids can open most easily without help. Suggestions
include: food packaged in boxes, cans with pop tops, jars with screw lids, food
packaged in bags, and no perishable foods. Buying food for others need not
cost you more. For example, by buying your family a less expensive brand of ice
cream you can feed a family a supper of peanut butter and graham crackers.
Giving to the community is practical spirituality in action and not limited to
church groups. Buying food for others need not cost your
more. For example, by buying your family a less expensive brand of icecream you can feed a family a supper of peanut butter
and graham crackers.
Service to the children in our community is an extension of caring for our own
family. We are part of an individual family, then community family, extending
into world family.
The drive to care and give springs from our consciousness that has been opened
and expanded by many sessions in meditation and deep reflection. Why else
meditate then to grow in spiritual consciousness, to grow into the full
awareness of our humanity.
As the boundaries of selfishness dissolve, the ability and energy come to us in
how to provide for more than ourselves. As meditation melts away personal
limitations in thinking, more and more ideas come to mind in how to care for
our fellow human beings. Growth in consciousness is progressive and what begins
as an individual giving event can grow into a regular giving routine.
Children are hungry every day and need nourishing food to fuel their growing
bodies. Children are our future and it is our job to give them the best care we
possibly can.
Kids need to eat during the days away from school. Many schools have a free
breakfast and lunch program, Monday to Friday. Action on the part of each of us
can help fill the children's stomachs on Saturday and Sunday.
Contacting the school office is the place to start to get the ball
rolling.
-
Santa Barbara County Foodbank
- Share Our Strength, No Kid
Hungry Organization
photo above - snowball on sled outside school
updated
December 16, 2009; January 31, 2012