Starving Families in Need

When I receive the emails and phone calls from social service agencies, requesting assistance for a family that is struggling to make ends meet, my heart breaks. Right now, we have about 20 families on our list and we are barely able to supply these people with food on a semi-regular basis. Without funding and without a dedicated force of volunteers, it's so hard to motivate those volunteers who do contact us.

If I could help them all, I would. The woman who was living in a motel room, paid for by her social service agency, with three small children. The man who is working for minimum wage but can hardly put food on the table for his four children and wife. The woman with stage four cancer who can barely afford medical treatment, nevermind food for her two children. Their stories break my heart over and over again. Each time a volunteer contacts me, my hopes swell, hoping so much that this time, they will help just one of these families. Some do, like the woman from California who mailed two huge boxes of food to a family in Michigan. Others don't and, while I understand that there are reasons why, it doesn't make it any easier to know that we cannot help every family that is on our wait list.

Of course, with the help of local organizations and churches (like Assumption Church who has consistently support our efforts!), we can make a difference...even if it is only one family at a time.