I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat...

"Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry, and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me...Truly I tell you, when you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me."  Matthew 25: 34-36, 40 NRSV

One day this summer, the familiar "ping" of an arriving text message sounded on my phone.  I picked it up and looked at the screen only to see a photograph of an empty refrigerator with a message from one of the children who has been a part of our second grade reading tutoring program (STAIR) at Independent Presbyterian Church that said: "Could you help us?  We are out of food. I didn't know who else to call." This family of four children who live with their grandmother had been living with almost no food in the house for some days before one of the children finally sent the photograph and text asking for help.  The Site Coordinator for STAIR at IPC and I piled into the car and went on a shopping spree, trying to buy enough basic food supplies to last them for about a week and we took it to their house in Kingston, a part of Birmingham that is near the airport where all of the families live in poverty.

This story is not an unusual one.  It must repeat in thousands of homes across our city every day.  I cannot count the number of times I have been to the apartment of a family of seven children being raised by their single mother in a housing project in North Birmingham--a family we have been building a relationship with for a year-and-a-half--and have found the refrigerator and the pantry completely bare of food, and hungry children climbing all over me and asking me to take them to get something to eat.  It happens every month for this family.  They receive right at $800 in food stamps each month to feed eight people--though sometimes that number swells because other relatives occasionally end up sleeping on the floor or the sofa of their apartment.  This family routinely runs out of food a week before their SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program--formerly called Food Stamps) card is replenished.  And so, for at least one week of every month, the children go to bed at night hungry and get up and go to school the next morning even hungrier.  We have learned this reality and now try to supplement their food in that last week.  But the mother of this family does not want to have to ask for help.  She longs to be able to be independent and to feed her children adequately on her own.

I cannot truly imagine the pain of any parent who must look into the hungry eyes of the child they love because they are struggling to make ends meet, to put food on the family table.  The seven children from the family I just mentioned come to our church every Wednesday night for dinner and programming and I have watched these children I have grown to love so much, and the children in our STAIR after-school program during their week-day snack, wrap food in napkins and stuff it in pockets and backpacks to take home to share with other members of the family.  Seeing a child hoard food because they do not know where their next meal will come from is heartbreaking.  In our land of plenty, how is it possible that some of our children still live with hunger?

Every single day, men, women and children; young, middle-aged and elderly; working and out of work; African American, white and Hispanic; able-bodied and disabled come into our office in Community Ministries at Independent Presbyterian Church.  They come, not because they want to but because they have no other choice if they are going to be able to feed their family.  They come to ask for help.  Every day, we give bags of non-perishable groceries to as many people as we can help out of our church's Food Pantry, along with a voucher they can take to a local food bank for a box of fresh and a box of frozen food.  Without fail, people express their gratitude with smiles, hugs, words and sometimes, with wordless tears.  Some of these folks, like a wheelchair-bound man today, return to volunteer and help us put donated food on the Pantry shelves--they want to do whatever they can to "Pay it Forward."  I see Christ in their eyes--looking back at me out of their often tired and care-worn faces.  "I was hungry and you gave me something to eat."

You can be a part of feeding some of God's hungry children in two very simple, but concrete ways.  You can set aside some time every so often to do some grocery shopping for our Food Pantry--we need all kinds of non-perishable food items and our shelves can always use more food!  We need canned meats, fruits, vegetables and soups; rice and beans; peanut butter and jelly; pasta and pasta sauces; breakfast items such as cereal, grits and oatmeal; dry and long-shelf-life liquid milk.  You can buy some of those items and bring them by the church to help stock our Food Pantry---even just a couple of cans can help!  You can also make financial contributions to IPC Social Services for the Food Pantry--we use these contributions to buy the vouchers for the fresh and frozen food boxes.  You can volunteer to come by and help us put donated food on the Pantry shelf or make up the grocery bags of non-perishable items we give to our neighbors who come to us for help.  There are so many ways you can take part in following Christs's call--"I was hungry and you gave me something to eat."  If you have questions, please call or email me!  Thank you ahead of time for your generosity to your hungry neighbors.