Youth group members find out what it’s like to be hungry and homeless.
By: Julie Gartland
Our mothers said, "Eat everything on your plate. There are people starving all over the world for the food you have in front of you." After not finishing all my dinner, through a child’s eye I imagined my mother scraping the leftovers into a Glad bag and shipping it overseas to the hungry and I wondered, would they really eat it like that?
When you have a plate of food in front of you, and you know there’s plenty more where that came from, it’s hard to imagine what it’s like to go hungry really hungry. So how do you get a group of teen-agers, who have everything, to understand what it’s like to have nothing?
Arriving at the Crossroads Youth Center in Allentown at 10 p.m. Friday, Feb. 23, were 11 energetic and optimistic youth and four adults. They would be sleeping outside and beginning at midnight they would eat nothing until Sunday morning (drinking only water).
The Allentown Presbyterian Church senior high youth group was participating in a 30-hour famine, along with more than a million other young people around the world, to get a "taste" of what so many poverty-stricken children and families feel each day. Participating youth were Kyle Seiler, Matt Daly, K.C. Ruch, Brad Gagnon, Piettra Alves, Jem Heinzel-Nelson, Lauren Strobino, Danielle Conk, Don Hiles, Laura Szalaj, Tricia Weitz. They were accompanied by adults Damaris Azan, Joan Lee, Art Boker and Liz Heinzel-Nelson.
The group’s first task was to build houses out of cardboard boxes, in which they would spend the night. Putting a lot of effort into setting up their territories, they personalized the boxes with their names and scripture readings, like this one from Deuteronomy 15:7-8:
"If there is among you a poor man of your brethren … you shall not harden your heart nor shut your hand from your poor brother, but you shall open your hand wide to him and willingly lend him sufficient for his need, whatever he needs."
As the kids constructed their makeshift shantytown, a reminder of what the famine was about came in the form of the loud cries from geese on Mill Pond, sounding like the mournful whining of hungry children.
The youth were given 13 cents each with which to buy their last meal before the famine. A family in a Third World country, they were told, has about 13 cents per person to buy food.
They had a choice of baby carrots for 3 cents, hard boiled egg for 6 cents or hot chocolate for 6 cents.
Before the fast began at midnight, the group decided what amenities they would be allowed to keep for the 30 hours. They seemed oblivious to any type of world hunger or poverty, complaining and whining about the "stuff" they had to give up.
Some of them were adamant about keeping their supplies toothpaste, deodorant, makeup, lotion. I was doubtful they would understand the purpose of the 30-hour famine.
Then they saw the children’s faces.
The eyes of starving Ethiopian children (World Vision video) stared back at them empty and hollow and there was instant silence. The children’s eyes were large in comparison to their body, like that of a newborn baby not yet fully developed, matched in size only by their protruding bellies.
Disbelief hung in the air. On the huge video screen, the Ethiopian children were silent, unlike the whining geese heard earlier.
The silence in the room while the kids watched the video was as heavy as the hopelessness in the starving children’s eyes, each youth reading those eyes differently.
"It was very powerful," said Matt Daly of Upper Freehold. "It was sad to see they are going through that starvation."
"Having spent half an hour worrying about their ‘stuff’ the video had a profound effect," said Damaris Azan, organizer of the event.
"I felt so embarrassed after watching the video that I was worried about keeping my curling iron," said Jem Heinzel-Nelson. "I learned that in the scheme of things it really doesn’t matter about the luxuries of life," she said.
"I’m impressed that the kids are willing to admit how ridiculous it was to worry about the ‘stuff.’ They’re willing to realize and admit when their priorities are wrong," said Mrs. Azan. "It gives me hope that we’re getting through to them and God is working through them."
But it’s not about watching some faces in a video from a far-away country and in the context of their safe environment thinking it can’t happen here in the United States.
Partnering with the Bowry Mission of New York City, the youth group traveled into New York Saturday morning to help serve food to the homeless on the streets.
"Going into New York was even more powerful because we saw firsthand how these people in our own country are homeless and hungry," said Matt Daly.
"You can tell the grief and sadness in the area but then there’s hope at the Bowry Mission," said Brad Gagnon. "You can’t just give money to some place. You have to physically do something to help. Seeing these people really enlightened me."
"It was really depressing," Brad said. "All their life just pushing shopping carts around. It’s hard to believe what few things they have."
Saturday evening the youth group listened to guest speaker Claribel Perez of Guatemala tell stories of children she sees every day who are simply happy to have the attention of an adult.
Ms. Perez’s host, Jeff McLaughlin of Allentown, said, "In the United States we’re pretty lucky because we have social systems in place to help the hungry and poor. But in Third World countries they quietly and slowly die of hunger."
By Saturday evening they all were looking forward to breaking their fast with Jeff and Vicki McLaughlin Sunday morning with a meal of eggs, bacon, ham, pancakes, orange juice, muffins and coffee.
Mrs. Azan, excited about eating, said, "Usually when you go to someone’s house you have to be polite and take small portions, but tomorrow we have good reason to eat a lot."
I wondered if they would feel guilty about eating after seeing so much hunger.
"No, I don’t think we’re meant to feel guilty," said Joan Lee, secretary of Allentown Presbyterian Church. "A man who helped us serve food to the homeless in New York said the hungry are taken care of, they are fed."
"I hadn’t thought about feeling guilty," said Mrs. Azan, "but I will be very grateful for every morsel I eat."
Besides having a "taste" of hunger, the famine helped get through to the youth that it’s not about being sad about what you see. It’s about taking action and having an impact on your world.
"We raised a ton of money to make a difference for some of the hungry people," Matt Daly said.
The group raised $4,200 in sponsorships, which will go to World Vision, a Christian non-profit relief and development organization.