Hungry

We have students who come to school genuinely hungry each day.

I know who some of the students are,

But I don’t know all of them.

Most of them try to hide their hunger because

They are embarrassed by it.

But every once in awhile,

The hunger is obvious,

And it always breaks my heart.

 

Recently, one of our fourth grade students didn’t have lunch.

Because he is lactose intolerant,

He couldn’t have the main entrée

And he didn’t want the vegetables or PBJ,

So he had no food.

His mood immediately went from pleasant to ill.

He stood and eyed his classmates’ food with longing,

Hoping that they would give him something that he could eat,

But they did not. .

 

I suppose it can be argued that if he was really hungry,

Then he would have eaten the vegetables or PBJ.

And maybe that’s true.

I don’t know.

I just know that he was hungry.

And I know that he’s a kid who faces a lot of challenges,

Who comes from a trauma background,

And that the mood reflected on his face and in his body

Was not a mood conducive for learning—

For him, or for his classmates.

 

As Marcus-The-PE-Teacher and I watched all of this unfold,

We became increasingly concerned for the situation.

We discussed the food options that we had in our rooms

And determined that we had Cheez-it’s and pretzels.

Because my room was closest, the pretzels won,

So I went to get our student a bag of pretzels.

 

By the time I’d done this,

Lunch was over.

I explained to the teacher what had happened,

That the student hadn’t had any food,

That he was upset,

And that we’d given him a bag of pretzels.

She was thankful.

 

I had put two types of pretzels in the bag.

One spicy. One not.

When I told my student that some of the pretzels were spicy,

He mumbled that it was fine,

And seemed genuinely,

And quietly (which is not this student),

And possibly even humilatedly,

Grateful.

 

Dear God: You have asked us to clothe the naked and to feed the hungry. Help us. Not just to directly clothe and feed but to work to change the system that is so unfairly balanced. The rich are getting richer. The poor are getting poorer. Help us to do something that will balance out the resources in this nation and in this world so that children and the least of these don’t have to go hungry. Amen.