April 22, 2008

I’m writing this letter in shock.

I just got back from the Selma Food Bank. I had gone to see what food was on hand for our feeding programs for the very poor. I could scarcely believe my eyes. There was no meat, no beans, no rice, no vegetables.

“We have over 8,320 ceramic plates and bowls,” the Selma Food Bank Manager told me. “Sadly, we have no healthy food to put on them. I’m ashamed to say if a hungry family came in right now, we couldn’t provide them with a single nutritious meal.”

I could see it was the worst shortage in years. Many shelves were empty in the cavernous, leaky building. There was no cornmeal. No sugar or flour. No peanut butter or other protein. There were packets of gravy mix, but nothing to put gravy on.

And there was more bad news. What was on the shelves wasn’t good for feeding children or elders—empty calories filled with sugar. There were thousands of bags of chocolate chips, bottles of salad dressing, and box after box of Valentine’s Day candy, snack cakes and nondairy creamer. The shelves also held over 2,100 bottles of shampoo.

“I’d love to help you and the children, Father, but I can’t give what I don’t have,” the manager confessed. “Between the scarcity of corn used for alternative fuel and the tough economy there’s nothing left. It’s a problem for food banks across the country. ”

Elders and children in our rural communities are crying from hunger. As I see little children in my neighborhood holding onto older sisters as they step over the rough railroad tracks walking to Bosco Food Kitchen, I am more determined than ever to make every effort to follow Christ’s command to feed the hungry poor who depend on us.

Right now I feel the crushing pressure placed on the Missions’ food pantries and food kitchen. Daily they are the last hope for many kids and their families who have nothing to eat. How can we afford to pay full price for meat and vegetables for the thousands of meals we serve each month?

While the manager and I stood there discussing the bleak outlook, a truck backed into the Food Bank with another delivery. We hoped this shipment might contain much needed food for hungry families. But our hopes were soon dashed when the first boxes off the truck contained more shampoo, followed by fabric softener and detergent. My heart immediately dropped as I thought of the hungry children and frail seniors in four counties who depend on food bags and meals from our Missions. “That’s 4,450 pounds of nonfood items,” said the discouraged manager.

The most alarming decline is in U.S. Department of Agriculture commodities like beans, peanut butter, powdered milk, canned fruit and vegetables. Last year’s drought and increased production of ethanol fuel keeps commodity prices high. The result is 63,245 pounds less of healthy food being delivered to Selma’s Food Bank that were once the bulk of USDA shipments.

While I took in the desperate situation at the Food Bank, where we have purchased low-cost staples in past years, I worried about Mrs. Lucinda Reese and the two little grandchildren she’s raising. They depend on Bosco for survival. Even on days when they don’t have heat, they still walk nearly a mile in every kind of weather because, as she puts it simply: “The children are hungry every day.”

That’s why I’m writing you. Our needs are urgent. I can’t feed hungry children without your help. It will cost over $31,710 during the next two months to buy the nutritious food the Food Bank is unable to provide. For $323, I can buy the hamburger, rice and peas needed to feed 200 people for one day at Bosco. I can fill a grocery bag with food for a hungry family for $65.

I know our cook can’t fix 1,400 meals a week without basics, even if it means paying higher grocery store prices. I told our Bosco manager to buy the meat, vegetables, fruit and rice she needs to serve healthy meals, even though we don’t have the money on hand to pay the bills. That’s why I’m coming to you on behalf of the forgotten poor.

I have placed emergency phone calls to our Sisters in rural communities and urged them to pack hundreds of grocery bags full of healthy food and deliver them to poor elders and families, even if it requires paying higher food costs. Despite the crisis at the Food Bank, poor children should not go to bed with empty stomachs.

“Give us this day our daily bread,” we pray at morning Mass. My prayer is that you will help me through this crisis so we can feed hundreds of rural poor who depend on us to be Christ’s hands and feet.

In Christ’s Service,

Father Richard Myhalyk, S.S.E.