Project Hope

“But why don’t they have food, mommy?”
“Because not everyone always has the money to buy food.”
“Then why don’t they go to the bank and ask for some money?”
“Because banks don’t just give out money to everyone.”
“But we’ll always have food, right mom?”
“I sure hope so. But you just never know…”
……………………………………………………….

Can you imagine how it would feel if the 282 times a day at which your children say, “I’m hungry” they were actually, legitimately hungry? Like haven’t eaten. Empty tummies. Grumbling gut. And needing food. Hungry.

You know what trying to imagine that does? Makes my stomach hurt.

We are fortunate that we can go to the grocery store, buy food, prepare meals at home, and give our kiddos proper nutrition, along with some total junk. I have the luxury of complaining about the fact that a pound of beef is more than 4 dollars but still choosing to plop it in my cart if I’d meal-planned for it. I also have the opportunity to buy two gallons of milk a week, even though it costs me $4.79 per jug. Or shopping in the Health Market because of my current dairy/soy-free diet. We are fortunate to have a paycheck coming in that can support the needs of our family. Not all families are in that situation.

A pretty cool gal I know is the Director of Project Hope, an emergency food pantry in north Omaha. She recently educated me a bit on what Project Hope’s function is, how they operate, and what their needs are and I wanted to talk about that here today. These types of pantries are designed for families that, for whatever reason, run out of money and assistance throughout the month. People can visit a food pantry and verify a need for help and get enough to tie them over until they get back on their feet or can make ends meet. The struggle is real folks. And not in a slang, hip, cool, facetious the struggle is real way. Because according to the Director of Project Hope, summer is one of the hardest times of the year. Crazy, right?! But in the summer, churches {a big source for frequent collection drives} are not as well attended as they have activities and vacations to get away with family. And schools are doing less to ask kiddos to help with collection drives as school is not in session. And of course, many children, who normally eat two meals a day at school during the year, do not have ample amounts of food to make it through the day. And it’s six months out from the Holiday season which is truly the feast time of year for so many non-profits, with the rest of the year, being the famine. And so the bellies of kiddos and babies are running on empty.

I often steer clear of topics that I find to be polarizing or controversial. Because I really don’t want any comments on this post to be about how you feel about why people don’t have food for their families {In fact, I almost get nervous hitting publish}. I’m writing about it today, as a mom and with children on my mind. Regardless of my feelings or your feelings, the reality is, there are babies, and children, who don’t have the basic necessities to thrive, or to be clean, or to be healthy. The 6 year old who goes three days without food. The 8 and 12 year old who have more access to food when the school year comes back around and they can have meals at school. The baby whose formula gets watered down, stealing vital nutrients, in an effort to make a can of formula stretch. I mean, that makes me want to cry. If I try to imagine Barrett, Jonah, or Harrison, in that position, well, that’s heart wrenching.

Project Hope and other food pantries throughout the state are not intended to be used as handout central. In fact, according the the Director of Project Hope, the majority of visitors are one time only because they are in a position of truly not being able to feed their family until the calendar flips to the next month. Pantries and Backpack Programs are a great way to get food in the hands of children so their tummies are filled, even if just for a day or a week.

Project Hope accepts donations of food, toiletries, feminine products, diapers, blankets, clothing, and even used toys. Almost anything outside of furniture. And school backpack programs are always in need of monetary donations to keep food plentiful for those families in need.

As I talked with Barrett and Jonah about why we were recently buying groceries, when we’d already done our weekly trip to the store, they had a multitude of questions. Why doesn’t everyone get food? Do they get to eat pizza? Why are we buying fruit in cans? I can only hope that over time, they will grow more conscious of the disparity between those who have and those who have-not, and if nothing else, be grateful for the things that we can often take for granted.