Fill a Christmas Bag with Food
November 4, 2010
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This year, Sarah Jones has a Christmas dream. She would love to get plenty of healthy food for her girls to eat and no dinners of ketchup and water. "I'd give my girls dolls and other nice things, but they need good food," she told me. "I want them to do well in school and I know they can't stay healthy and grow when they don't get enough to eat."
Ketchup mixed with water looks a lot like tomato soup. That's what Sarah wants her little girls to think they are having for dinner. My heart sank when Mrs. Jones told me what she fed her little girls for supper the night before. For days on end, Sarah has to make do with the little she has.
Even more troubling is another image etched in my mind. When Sarah runs out of food, her girls go to bed hungry. "I sing them lullabies," she said tearfully. "I try to help them forget their empty stomachs and fall asleep." I visited the young mother and her girls in the broken-down, two bedroom shack they call home in a backwoods rural community.
They have no running water and scrape by with next to nothing, like so many families we serve. Since her husband left, Sarah can't earn enough to feed her girls all month. Some nights, it's lullabies instead of dinner.
Sarah lives a tough life. I found out later she has to hitch a ride to the grocery store 20 miles away, when she's lucky enough to have a few dollars to buy food. For me, Christmas evokes images of sparkling trees, wrapped gifts, charming carols and the sweet fragrance of gingerbread fresh out of the oven. For most families we serve, however, Christmas is far different. A few may hang a string of Christmas lights in a broken window, but nothing can change the dilapidated house they live in or the struggle they face each month to buy food and pay bills while dealing with layoffs, chronic illnesses and cold, cramped homes.
Our missionaries tell me they are already hearing from desperate families who have nowhere to turn to make their homes places of hope for Christmas. I know we will hear more stories of tragedy this holiday season that will break our hearts. I know that I can't do this without you. Our donations are down and we are serving hundreds of families who have nowhere else to turn.
My immediate concerns are to feed the poor and to alleviate their pain and suffering. These were our Founder, Father Frank Casey's concerns and they are mine. The Edmundite Missions served over 80,000 hot meals last year. Hunger never takes a holiday. It costs $38.40 to buy protein, fruit and vegetables to fill a Christmas bags with food for small children, elders, pregnant women and those without jobs, as well as the working poor who often cut back on food to pay the water or electric bill.
We all have dreams for Christmas. My dream remains the same, to feed the hungry and bring hope to those in despair. Every day I thank God for you and your gifts of love to help those dreams come true. May the Lord and Savior in Bethlehem bring you and your loved ones joy and hope this holy day.
In His Service,
Rev. Richard Myhalyk, S.S.E.
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