“My mother keeps our food locked in a cupboard. We can’t eat when we are hungry or we will run out of food before the end of the month.”
“You know what we had to eat last night? Just a cold can of pork-n-beans. Just ate them right from the can. We couldn’t pay our gas bill so our stove is turned off.”
Just two of the stories I have heard from children over my years of teaching and working on hunger relief in DeKalb County as the founder of DeKalb County Community Gardens.
Those living with hunger are not always visible; however, they are always among us. I have delivered fresh vegetables to food-insecure people in every part of DeKalb County.
“We were doing all right for ourselves until my husband hurt his back at work.”
“My wife got cancer and lost her job. Then I got laid off and never called back.”
If you have 100 people in a room who are struggling to have enough food, you will hear 100 different stories about how they ended up being poor.
One in six children go to bed hungry some nights, not knowing when they will have another meal.
Many individual paths out of poverty need to be created. However, one thing is certain: It will take sustained community effort to ensure all our children go to bed every night without hunger pains.
I am Dan Kenney, and that is my perspective.
