Feed Hungry Children

by Millie Gore Lancaster

I will never "get" hunger down in my belly like homeless people who live under the bridges in Wichita Falls do, and yes, I’ve seen them with my own eyes. I’ll never "get" hunger down in my guts like little children in Wichita Falls do, little children who have come to depend on PowerPaks 4 Kids to survive from Friday’s school lunch to Monday’s school breakfast, but Sharon Devereaux knows them at her school. I’ll never "get" hunger in my bowels like the emaciated children in Haiti, children whose round eyes bulge from their shrunken faces like their round bellies bulge from their emaciated bodies.

But I do "get" hunger intellectually. I "got" hunger intellectually in 1979 when I accompanied my parents on a trip to Egypt. The first day, everywhere we traveled on the bus, the ravages of hunger slapped me in the face. Wide-eyed children staring back at me listlessly from their mothers’ laps. Old people with vacant eyes slumped on curbsides. Dogs whose ribs were visible through their patchy, matted hair being kicked away as they timidly approached street vendors selling koushari. But that was simply a teaser to my introduction to hunger.

I didn’t "get" hunger until 2:35 that afternoon when our bus stopped at a light. I "got" hunger when I looked down from my window and saw an old woman picking up bits from the gutter and stuffing them in her mouth. Insects? Crumbs? Dirt? I don’t know. But whatever she was trying to eat, she found it better than the gnawing in her belly. And at that moment, I "got" hunger.

However, I only "got" hunger intellectually. I will never "get" it in my belly. But for me, intellectually is enough. That old woman in the gutter in Egypt is why I have to be part of Feeding the 5000. That and the fact that Jesus commanded us to feed the hungry and valued it so much that he did it himself. So I implore you to share a simple meal Sunday after church and help All Saints raise the money to feed 5000 meals to hungry people. The Sunday fare is simple but life-sustaining: bread and vegetable soup. No meat – that’s a luxury for 90% of the world. Beans and rice simmered in beef broth for a complete protein. Carrots, potatoes, peas and tomatoes. Garlic and onion. Maybe some green beans and corn. A meal at which many well-fed Americans would turn up their noses, but feast for a starving child in Haiti.

Come and share this simple meal, meditate upon the millions upon millions of people who would consider such a meal a gift from God, a gift that you and I can provide as God’s servants. Then give our Feed the 5000 fund at least as much money as you would have spent on a nice Sunday dinner at a restaurant. Including the tip. Follow that gift with a generous pledge to this project. Pledge cards will be available. Those who can’t be in Wichita Falls on Sunday can donate money to this project by sending a check to All Saints Episcopal [Feed 5,000], PO Box 3335, Wichita Falls, TX 76301.

A couple of weeks ago in my Anglican Digest, I read that our mission is to "Love and serve Christ; love and serve each other in Christ; and love and serve the world through Christ." Feeding 5000 meals to hungry people is a way that we can answer that call.