One of the most startling realizations I’ve had over the past few months is the statistic that in our little Alabaster, Alabama (suburb of Birmingham) there are 2,000 kids on free or reduced lunch.  We have a fantastic group that has grown out of Westwood called Sowers of Seed, whose mission is to provide lunch for those kiddos during the summer and to share Bible-based teaching about nutrition.  It was a real wake up call to me that there are hungry kids, not just in other places of the world, but right here in the shadow of our church.

So, I was already pretty fired up about figuring out how to partner with them this summer.  Then one of my very good friends who teaches at a public school commented about these same kids coming into breakfast at the school on Monday morning absolutely starving.  I felt pretty silly that it had occured to me that kids that might be undernourished during the summer would also be hungry over weekends.  Either their parents can’t or don’t provide them enough food.  Wow.  Kids right here in our area.

My small group (by the way, you need one of those if you don’t have one) has been looking for some type of mission project that we can do that our kids can also do with us.  We found out that several organizations in our area and across the country have been doing a project called “Backpack Buddies”.  Counselors at the schools identify kids who might need food over the weekend and discreetly pack easy to prepare/serve food in their backpacks such as fruit cups, pudding, macaroni and cheese, etc….  Organizations provide this food.

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