Hope for the Garden

I hope to grow fresh nutritious fruit and vegetables for local hungry people. While the garden is small it can help some. Even a small dent in hunger will be satisfying.

We give to local food banks every year. We give cash to several banks. Cash is not very personal but it is the commodity they need the most. All are very worthy of your gifts too. Please give to them and make your own dent in hunger. I will list a few here:

• Oklahoma Regional Food Bank www.regionalfoodbank.org
• Other Options, Inc. 405-948-6531 otheroptionsokc.org
• Edmond Grace Fellowship, 14 N Madison, Edmond, 405-209-7809

Hunger is a powerful influence for those unlucky enough to experience its un-abiding, ever nagging presence. I am happy to have had just a few times being hungry: as a child of about 9 and during college, when all my money had run out. As a child, I remember the sweet salvation of ‘commodities’. Back then you didn’t get food stamps – you got food.

It was always a great day when my mom and I would go get the too few boxes of commodities. We’d get sugar, flour, butter, oats, powdered milk, canned chicken and such. It had the duplicity of being wonderful and scarce at the same time since it didn’t last. Of course, it was living through days of barren shelves, anticipating the next check or the next commodities day, that made the impression on me.

As a college student, my stint with hunger was short, just a couple months. In my last semester as an undergraduate, all my grants, student loans and gifts all ran out. The bank account was kaput. I had a bag of rice to last one month. I was too full of brass to ask for help. So I just showed up at friends apartments at dinner time. Thank you Bob Austin and Janis Lewis, Mike Pooler and others for being compassionate! None ever made me feel awkward. I finished finals and during the holidays delivered pizza for tips, a small wage (paid nightly) and the un-deliverable pizzas. It was not desperate hunger then. I had just a month until my part time graduate assistant job began.

So it is my hope that a 10 pound bag of potatoes or a quart of fresh strawberries will have a different impact to people who eat from this garden. And maybe for a few, the work here will reduce the nagging presence of hunger.

Hoping for a bumper crop…