Apples and bananas

In a commercial that ran in the Carolina Hurricanes playoff game, the elementary school boy came home. He looked in his fridge for apples and bananas. He looked in all the cabinets in the kitchen. No apples, bananas, or anything to eat. It brought to memory the song, “I like to eat apples and bananas,” a catchy tune that helped children learn their vowels. 
 
Scarlett Johannsson appeared next making an appeal for Feeding America. And I thought, holy freaking cow!!! Who are we who leave children hungry? Who are we who leave children separated from their parents? Who are we who let our children be massacred in their classrooms? Who are we, satisfied for our children not to learn how to read? 
 
Inaction. Partisanship. Short-sightedness. We are losing our future for political gain. We must be stupid. Cut Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security if that will fill the cruel bill of you MAGA Republicans. Some of us are old and we will find a way to survive in the dystopia you are creating. We are old, old enough to have lived through tough times before. But Lord have mercy, save the children!
 
We worship in a church that sends out almost two hundred Backpack Buddy bags each week. Each bag contains canned protein, canned vegetables, canned fruit and various breakfast bars and cereals. But there are no fresh apples or bananas. And there is no milk. While these bags keep children from starving over the weekends while they are away from school, they barely touch the surface of the food insecurity so many families face. 
 
This seems particularly spurious considering how much food is wasted in America. Garbage cans filled with scraps and thrown away leftovers fill our homes. Even as we try to eliminate waste, we fail. A lot. 
 
Feeding programs at schools help as long as schools are open. Free lunch, even with the stigma it carries, is lunch. Summertime and holidays become a problem when the lunch line is closed. In a land of plenty, food insecurity should not be an issue. And yet it is. 
 
Years ago, at Westview Christian Church in Wilson, we ran a summer program for children identified as needing food support while school was closed. We would pick the children up in our station wagons and transport them to the church. They had breakfast snacks, and a nice lunch, some play time, and some study time. The hope was to aid kids in retention of what they had learned, feed them and love them ‘till school bells rang in September. I remember it was a huge undertaking and not really sustainable for a small church.
 
So, smart people, what kind of feeding program is sustainable? What kind of reach can any kind of feeding program have? Who is to lead the charge for providing good nutritional food for the littlest among us? 
 
Churches and local governments are the closest units with feet on the ground in our communities. School administrations know which kids live with food insecurity; they identify the ones who get the Backpack Buddy Bags. I hope it’s just because I am not well enough informed to see comprehensive programs working to bring food to the children, but the problem doesn’t seem to be easing.
 
Feeding America is the program running the Apples and Bananas commercial. Feeding America is a US based non-profit that raises funds for more than 200 Food Banks across the country. They feed more than 46 million people a year. This is the largest US charity by revenue, reporting in 2021 a revenue figure of $3.574 Billion dollars. Information is found on their website about the operation and what we can do to help. Part of their report says that fifty-one percent of all food programs “rely entirely on volunteers.”
 
So, like it is with so many problems that need solving, money and volunteers are part of the solution. Wonder what would happen if a Feed America Corps were created where young people could do public service during the summer, or after high school graduation, as they decide what they want to do with their lives? That might be a good quid pro quo. Doing good is always a blessing in the world. Americans are pretty good problem solvers. I have heard it said, nothing is impossible, if we try. Let’s resolve to make it happen so everyone can at least have apples and bananas!!
 
Lib Campbell is a retired Methodist pastor, retreat leader, columnist and host of the blogsite www.avirtualchurch.com. She can be contacted at libcam05@gmail.com