Dreams of a Food Pantry

Yesterday was one of those difficult days at work, a day of solving an immediate problem, while realizing that the larger problem is societal and not going to be fixed easily or soon.  Midmorning, a teacher called us all to her aid, and when we got there, we saw a student shaking and unable to talk.

As always, we wondered if we should call 911.  Was he having a panic attack?  A heart attack?  A reaction to drugs or some environmental irritant?

The student was able to drink some water and tell us that he was just shaky because he hadn't eaten for a few weeks.  I have a stash of granola bars and peanut butter crackers, which I pulled out.  He was able to eat a granola bar and drink the orange juice that our library assistant offered.

The teacher went back to class, and the others also returned to their offices.   I sat with the student for a bit until he felt able to return to class.  Every fifteen minutes, I walked down the hallway to keep an eye on everyone, and the student had perked up and was readying slides for the microscope.

After class, the student came to my office, and I offered to go buy him some food:  a loaf of bread, a jar of peanut butter, a tube of jelly, some cookies, some sort of drink with vitamins or electrolytes.  He shook his head and said, "I don't want you to have to do that."  I said that I really wanted to help, and he nodded.  I bought the food and gave him contact information for the food pantry at my church which is nearby.  Later in the afternoon, my pastor told me that he had called.

We spent the afternoon talking about the issue of hunger, both for our students and for the larger society.  We talked about whether it was time to bring back the bread run; once I went to Publix every Monday and got at least 1 buggy full of bread and 1 buggy full of treats, food that would otherwise be dumped.  I got that food and set out treats each day with the bread available for students to take.

But that was back when we had a lot more people on our campus; now I predict that much of the food would be thrown out by us at the end of the week.  And it doesn't have much nutritive value.

So we dreamed a different dream, and we're now planning a small food pantry.  I'm thinking of something that could make a self-contained meal:  soup cups, pop top cans of ravioli, that kind of thing.  I'll supply flyers with information about where to get more food.  And we'll keep a basket with granola bars and peanut butter crackers for students who need a quick snack.

This morning, I applied for a microgrant from Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.  I also made a pan of butterscotch brownies because it's the last day of work for a colleague who is moving across the state.  I am aware of the juxtaposition of want and plenty.

I wish I had a vision for how to get more resources to more people.  But I also know that solving the issue of hunger isn't as straight forward as it might seem.  We have the resources to feed every person in the world--at this point in history, it's not a matter of not having enough food.

So, even though I know the difficulty of the task, I'll keep working on eradicating hunger:  giving money to groups that get resources to hungry people, while working to get food to people on the local level too.  And I'll try to forgive myself for all the times I should have done more.