Four-year olds Maria and Geoffrey were playing house in their preschool classroom. She unloaded the grocery cart and he set the table. Maria was carefully putting the food away on the shelves in their little play kitchen, but a few pretend cans of vegetables were left out on the counter top.
I inquired about those cans still sitting out. Geoffrey spoke up quickly to set me straight. “Oh, those are the cans we’re takin’ to the food pantry. We have to give food to kids who don’t have enough to eat.”
Watching in awe as these two continued their “house” scenario, I marveled at the thoughtful teaching they must have received from their teachers and parents who’ve shared lessons of citizenship with their little ones.
In every community, some children go to bed hungry. Advocacy groups describe this as “food insecurity,” a situation that affects one in five American children. That’s approximately 12 million kids.
And yet many of us have pantries crowded with too much food to store. Parents and educators have the opportunity to change the way this society thinks about resources. Our attitudes about our belongings are formed early in life and are impacted by parents who insist that we set aside part of our allowance to give away. They’re impacted by teachers who encourage kids to bring in a pair of mittens for a mitten tree for those whose hands would otherwise be cold.
Each fall, my community conducts a massive food drive which fills local food pantries for the lean winter months ahead. Business and community leaders bang the drum for this cause that assists many local families. Schools proudly compete for their impact, weighing their contributions against those of other schools.
The schools’ contribution nudges the total higher each year. But I believe the most important impact of this involvement of schools is more long-term in nature. This annual act of giving is teaching kids to share what they have.
We can raise children who will see to it that no one goes hungry in this land of plenty. Maria and Geoffrey offer us hope as they display evidence of having internalized this value. When generosity shows up in children’s play, you can bet it’s firmly planted in their hearts.