Or are they? Are the best things in life free? If so, then why do I want to join a gym versus a free walk around the block? Why do I want a new couch versus "the already paid for so in essence free" one I have? Why is the grass always greener when there is a price tag on it? Why is going to Pizza Hut for lunch during school time so much more appealing (i.e. "better") than the "free" one at school? Years ago....many years ago when my children were in elementary school, the school provided free lunches to all children. We lived in an impoverished city and it was easier for the staff to claim all children in that school needed free lunches than to write out the names and families of the 99.7%. I loved that idea because if all the children were eating the same "free" (I know....taxpayers money is not free) lunches no one could claim superiority over another. Problem was some of those 99.7% and the .3% were sending kids with lunchboxes and more appealing lunches! We now have an us vs. them mentality. AND to top it off the PTA or PTO was selling nacho chips and popcorn and candy as a fundraiser! AND the school had soft drink machines in the cafeteria! Now as a child, are you going to eat a lunch with broccoli and carrots and turkey or munch on a 50 cent bag of chips and Coke? Which looks cooler? And we really wonder why child obesity is on the rise!
Getting back to the story, my children wanted me to pack a lunch for them and purchase all the fun gummy bears and chips and homemade sandwiches. I refused. They could eat the lunches provided by the school like all the other children....well, at least 95.9% of the children. So imagine my surprise while watching the Food Network and seeing the hungry/ starving children in the United States. How can that be? How can children be starving in a country where free food programs/ food banks/ hot meals at churches/ soup kitchens/ etc are abound? Aren't they abound? Doesn't every city have these programs? Are we dealing with parental pride? Are the cracks people are falling through getting wider instead of narrower?
I'm really conflicted about this. Here I am writing a blog about my own weight loss struggles while there are starving children in Ethiopia... but wait, these children aren't on the other side of the world, they are in my own backyard. I know for a fact that children in my Rural, USA have breakfast and lunch provided for them. Some even take home backpacks for the weekend to make sure they have food while school is not in session. Are they eating it? Who's getting that food? My church has a neighborhood bus ministry. We "bus" in children on Sunday evenings for a program. Each Sunday, our King's Kids program provides a hot meal for the children before they go home. I've been wanting to provide a better breakfast for them on Sunday morning, but I've been lazy and would prefer to sleep a little longer and stay home a little longer before heading out to church. I'm not going to think that way anymore. I can be proactive in my community and make sure that every child in our King's Kids program has something to eat and does not go home hungry.
I've started a contest with myself. Each week I'll be weighing myself and if I gain (even a fraction of a pound) I'll drop $7.00 (one dollar for each day) into the kitty. By the end of the month I'll either have no dollars or $7.00 or $28.00. It's not much money and it might not be any money, but my goal is to think about those starving children and whatever money I have in the kitty by the end of the month will be donated to an organization that helps fight hunger or childhood obesity or nutrition.
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