Full Disclosure

It happened again.  This time I was being shown around a church by the Associate Pastor.   She was showing me their food pantry – a small space but with a very good assortment of food available.  As we were talking about feeding the hungry she said “I need to make a full disclosure”. I should have known what was coming, but was still taken by surprise.  “I was a client of Loaves & Fishes several years ago”. 

 She went on to explain that she had grown up firmly middle class, but several simultaneous misfortunes had put her in a crisis where she literally had nothing to eat.  As we so often hear – in the years since her Loaves & Fishes visit, she had returned to school, finished college and attended graduate school.  She is now fully employed and totally independent.  And has a passion for providing food to all who need it.

I don’t know why I am surprised after all these years.  Countless people have taken me aside to confide they were once recipients of Loaves & Fishes’ help.  It happens in churches, when I’m talking to groups of corporate folks and among new volunteers.  Just one more reminder that “the hungry” look just like you and me.   Indeed it could be any of us tomorrow.