85 Faces of Hunger

Approximately 85 children of Oxford wait in line each Friday for their weekly ration of food to carry them through the weekend. 

But to them their hunger never dies, it continues like a river week by week. 

For far too long these faces of hunger went without food every weekend, excited to attend school on Monday, not because of their hunger to learn, but because their hunger for food after a long weekend without. 

They stand in line week by week not able to plead their own case, in hopes that one day their unusual story of hunger in a wealthy region located in a poor state, where one might assume that the faces of hunger are little to none.

It’s unknown to these children that their lives could be different.

It is even unknown to them that their present condition needs serious recognition.

The media does an exceptional displaying the faces of hunger in Africa and the Mississippi Delta, but I could not go without questioning, what about Oxford? 

It seems unlikely that the media would even have a need to cover a story of this magnitude, especially in a land engulfed with wealth and riches, not just financially but intellectually. 

A land to many that is filled with milk and honey. 

A land that has produced some of the most prolific and provocative writers and scholars of the last two centuries and some of the most well-known and sought after athletes of this day. 

It saddens me even more to hear the story of a kid, whose backpack was found dripping with milk, and when asked to open his backpack to clean the milk, he responds, “ I just wanted to carry the milk home because we never have any.”  

It is this story and many more of despair and seemingly endless hunger that has propelled folks like Mary Leary, Helen Phillips, and Alyce Krouse to create LovePacks in Oxford. It’s a nationwide organization dedicated to eliminating hunger among children. 

Each week they build food packs to send to six school sites in Oxford in hopes of eliminating food depravation. 

It shouldn’t be them alone; together we can fight hunger. 

We can sit on the sideline and be saddened by the chances these kids might not have as a result of hunger, or we, as college students and members of the Oxford community can do something about it. 

Some of us have, for example Sigma Chi Fraternity in 2010 gave $5000 from the their Derby Day events to LovePacks.  This donation alone provided over 500 packs of food to hungry children. While this made a difference in 2010, let us reflect on this and ponder what we can do now in 2011 to rid a seemingly endless problem. 

Let us take bold action in eliminating hunger, it is unfair that children have to stand in line each Friday for their weekly ration of food in a land like Oxford, with the greatest institution on this side of Heaven, and some of the most distinguished leaders in America. You can help the children of Oxford by emailing LovePacks at lovepacks@gmail.com. 

Off the cusp of Food Day 2011, let us be mindful of food access and insecurity, not for ourselves but for the neediest of the needy, like those 85 children of Oxford. 

Cortez Moss is a senior public policy leadership major from Calhoun City. Follow him on Twitter @MossMoss12.