Last year, very early on in the school year, a woman caught my eye. I would see her walking to and from the school with a little girl in tow. Sometimes I saw her on the school grounds after school, waiting for the same little girl. The first time I saw this woman I was positive she was a meth addict. She was so thin and had missing teeth and looked generally un-well.
Last spring, several months into the school year, I was driving my kids and our neighbor to school. As I approached a roundabout I saw this woman and the little girl starting to cross the street. I slowed down for them, but the woman motioned to me with her hand and wanted me to stop. I did so and rolled down my window. She asked if we could give them a ride to the school. I agreed, but I was nervous. The woman got in the front passenger seat and the little girl squeezed in the back with the five kids already in my van. Thankfully, the drive to the school is not far, but this woman talked the entire time. She talked to me about how she had just had surgery the day before, but had no idea what the surgery was for, and how her mom just kept crying about it. Seeing her close up confirmed my suspicions about meth because her mouth just looked awful and she smelled terrible. After we dropped the kids off, she told me to drive her back home slow and directed me in a longer way so her boyfriend wouldn't ask why she was home so quickly. I was relieved when I finally dropped her off and made it out of her parking lot.
I was quite shaken by the whole thing, not just for myself and the kids, but especially for that little girl I always saw her with. I ended up emailing the school principal, just to relate my experience and check on the little girl. Mr. Prusse got back to me very quickly and said they are very aware of the little girl and they are doing everything they can to help her. He told me the girl is actually the niece of that woman. I have to admit, I still wonder about the state of the girl's parents if her aunt is the one who is the legal guardian. Honestly, it terrifies me and breaks my heart for that little girl. Mr. Prusse also told me that the girl was given a coat and that each Friday she is sent home with a "Pantry Pack", supplied by the Bountiful Food Pantry so that she has food to eat during the weekend. This immediately broke my heart. I could not imagine Marshall or Bridget being sent home with a pantry pack and having to ration that amount of food throughout the entire weekend until they could get back to school for a meal.
Since this encounter, I began to learn more about the Bountiful Food Pantry and Pantry Packs. The food pantry puts together 1500 pantry packs each week that are distributed to elementary school children throughout the district. Even though that seems like a lot, there are an estimated 16,000 elementary school children in Davis County who are not getting enough to eat. Junior high and high school students who face hunger have other options, similar to a food pantry, where they can get food. Northridge High School just opened their own food pantry this fall, focused on serving hungry teenagers.
On Monday night I took Bridget and Rachel to the food pantry to help assemble these packs. Danny, Stacie, and Jaxon also joined us. It was an hour well spent. I definitely plan on going back so that Richard and Marshall can join us.
It was heart-warming, and also heart-breaking, to watch my little girls, who have never had a lack of food in their life, fill a gallon ziploc bag with food. We put in one cup of Kraft macaroni and cheese, one can of ravioli, one milk box, two fruit cups, one juice box, two packets of instant oatmeal, two granola bars, one fruit snack, and one cookie pack (which they don't always have). That was it. That is all that would fit. That is all those 1500 kids are going to eat from Friday's school lunch until Monday's school breakfast or lunch. It is incredible what burdens some people are forced to live through.
Since we moved back to Utah from Wisconsin, I have had a strong desire to remind my kids, and show them through service like this, that we have so much, while some others have so little. Even though they are still young, I felt like they were surrounded by the apparent needs of people much more in Milwaukee. This mostly happened at church, because we picked up people who did not have cars, they saw that some people weren't dressed nice because they did not have money to buy nice clothes. I also took them on a lot of Relief Society visits where they were in homes that were sad to be in. They just saw need a lot more in Milwaukee, and they saw us help. I was also surrounded by great friends who were so proactive with things like this and organized multiple service activities within our community.
Now that we are in Utah, and will one day move into a larger home, surrounded by larger homes in a more established neighborhood, I do not want my kids to forget that there are a lot of people around them who have much less and have needs that are not being met. I want them to want to serve. I want them to feel comfortable serving. I want them to feel comfortable around people who are different than they are. I also want them to know that there are other organizations besides the Church that help people. Growing up, most of my service experiences were through the Church. When I moved to Wisconsin, I had a lot of other opportunities to serve that did not involve the Church. I want my kids to know that other churches help people, that other organizations help people, and that they can find so many different ways to help people.
"Unless we lose ourselves in service to others, there is little purpose to our own lives."
-President Thomas S. Monson
