Some declare that fasting leads to deeper spiritual understanding. From Biblical times through the present we read about saints and sinners abstaining from food to grow closer to their maker.
This is great – however – I recall many an afternoon in high school when my tummy was growling and no, this did not make me become spiritually closer to differential calculus, English composition, or US History.
Imagine then being a kid, of any age, and hungry all the time. Imagine the voice of teachers imparting sage knowledge upon you whilst all you can think of is filling the void in your stomach. Do you believe a hungry child is ready to learn? Do you think a hungry child is even listening at all?
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Yesterday, at the Lakewood Community Collaboration, we explored hunger. A panel from Northwest Harvest, St. Leo Food Connection, and the FISH Food Bank discussed a crisis of hunger in our area. As for me, I’ve always been blown away that a nation able to grow enough to feed the world, has any percentage of its population hungry. But I guess that is economics, and that was a late afternoon class for me in high school.
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The good thing – in Lakewood at least – is that hunger among school kids is being addressed through breakfast programs at school, backpack programs that give young people food to take home, and the summer lunch program. We as a community are trying hard.
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Being a mentor in the classic sense is wonderful, but there are other ways to make differences in the lives of young people. Helping to make sure that there are full tummies, which open ears, and create paths to effective learning is equally important. Jump in as an individual, or recruit a group of people from your own social/business circles to support the organizations that help feed our young people.