Face of Hunger...

I volunteer a few days a week at Community Harvest Food Bank. Every Monday and Wednesday afternoon from 1-4pm. Most days I serve in the Community Cupboard, which is basically a small grocery store where people throughout the city can come upon being referred by a social services organization. People of all nationalities and all circumstances walk through the door seeking to fill their cupboards and feed their families. Their situation determines the amount of food they can get, and everything is weighed in pounds.

Other days I serve in the Senior Pak area, which is a section within the food bank that assembles and distributes over 900, 20 - 22 pound bags to homebound, fixed-income seniors. This area is a big staging area with all types of food, mostly single serve and highly nutricious food. When I work here, it's mostly stocking and organizing the shelves from which the bags are filled from. Another key element of this area is the fact that all of the bags are delivered by volunteers that commit to a route every other week. I have also taken part in this.

This week, I spent most of my time in the staging area of the big Salvation Army area. Each year the Salvation Army does an amazing job of making sure families have gifts, food, and clothing on Christmas. This year, in partnership with the food bank, they served 1,200 families food. Each family received 50-100lbs of food. So Mon-Wed, all day long, people were streaming through the food bank warehouse selecting their food.

This was such an experience. You have the folks that work at the food bank trying to organize everything and handle the important details such as weighing the food and filling the staging areas. You have the Salvation Army employees and volunteers helping out. You even have the department of corrections with their people helping, whom have to wear orange vests to point them out. And then there is myself just taking it all in.

Then there is this wide variety of people walking through the doors receiving the food. Many nationalities, races, and circumstances. Some seem used to the idea of selecting food from big wire bins who if I had to guess are used to being in the system. Some you could tell that this was an overwhelming experience. And then you have individuals that cannot speak English and are having a hard time comprehending what's going on or what to do or even what some of the food actually is.

The thing that broke my heart and brought the most joy were the children. You have these young kids that don't know any better that run around and smile like crazy not knowing the circumstances of which they are being brought up in. In these kids you can tell they are loved by their parents and are encouraged to be kids. In other kids the same age, you can tell they are seen as just problems or stress makers. Parents that are so strung out on their issues that their child's actions are huge deals. Kids just being broken down for being a kid and the kids doesn't know any better because they are being who they are. And finally you have the children of the non-English speaking families that have been forced to grow up way to fast and carry too much responsibilities. Middle school children required to translate and make decisions for their parents and also take care of their younger siblings.

As you read this, I'm sure you begin thinking about all of the circumstances and forming your own thoughts and if not, please do. I write this as just laying out the scene because for me to actually try to write out what I think about all this will not make sense. I'm in process... I'm always in process.

What I do know is that God is Love and everyone deserves to be sacrificially loved.

God is big and the journey is long....

Merry Christmas to you all