This Easter Remember Bosco Nutrition Center
March 3, 2010
Moses Grant is a single father. His wife abandoned the family after the factory lay-off cost him not only his job, but his self esteem as well. It’s hard enough to take care of two little girls under the age of six, but now he can’t find child care while he searches for any kind of work he can get.
The day to day struggle to survive is written all over his face. Teisha, his 3-year old, is sickly and he knows she must eat nourishing food to strengthen her immune system. I watch as she steps up on her tip toes to grab her tangerine, a “treat” for eating all her lunch. Mr. Grant brings his girls to eat at Bosco, the only hot meal they will eat each day.
One day I watched Moses and his girls come into Bosco, hungry and shivering in the cold. He slumped down in a chair and looked so broken hearted, I sat down with him. He told me of the constant fear that consumes his life. He has begged employers for jobs, saying he’ll work for half pay. With every rejection, he returns to the shabby room he rents above a store feeling like a failure. His girls are the only blessings that keep him going.
“We be so thankful for Bosco!” he told me. “Ms. Gayle is good to us. She loves my girls.” Teisha and her sister snuggled under their father’s arm.
“I don’t know what to do, Father. It’s hard to see my girls go to bed hungry at night. I like it when Bosco has spaghetti on Wednesdays. It fills me up so I always save half my lunch for my girls to eat at night. I eat the bread and they eat the spaghetti.”
My heart lodged in my throat. I asked him if there was anything I could do to help. “Father, he said, “you give us food and a warm place to sit down and eat. I can’t ask for more.”
A friend told me that a recent article in a national newspaper cited Selma as having the highest unemployment record in the nation. I know that to be true because our requests for food are up nearly 18 percent over last year. I am also reminded that no state has a worse infant mortality rate than Alabama, a shocking statistic that only proves how swiftly semi-starvation can kill babies when their mothers are severely malnourished. This rate is more than twice as high among Black women.
Last year Bosco provided over 80,000 nourishing meals to the poor. As the economy continues to worsen here in the South, I am at a loss at what to do to help those whom Jesus called the “least of these.” He reminds us that we are asked to feed the hungry, to give water to the thirsty and to open our hearts to the homeless. Jesus trusted in the goodness of people to feed and care for the poor.
All I can do is to trust in the Lord! I must trust that I will have the money to continue to feed the hungry people who line up in freezing temperatures and in torrential rains, huddling with their children in line, waiting for Bosco to open. The rapidly rising cost of food and heating has hit our budget hard and I need your help more than ever to feed the hungry.
To provide solid, healthy meals for families with children, grandparents and handicapped people who depend on me costs $413.60 a day to buy the hamburger, spaghetti noodles, bread and milk to feed over 220 people a nutritious meal. Hunger does not take a day off. Every week I need to buy the food which costs $2891 to keep starving folks fed.
People of faith believe that God rewards us for sharing our blessings and that when you sacrifice for the poor, our Lord will “satisfy you with good things,” with no questions asked. This Easter, as we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, I ask you to remember that Bosco Nutrition Center is the only place in the area that offers meals with no questions asked.
In Christ’s love,
Rev. Richard Myhalyk, S.S.E.
