Feeding Hungry Children

“We are providing free lunch and snacks for 180 children every day, plus nearly 100 free breakfasts,” reports Associate Pastor Dan Trevino, “This includes 60 children at the Rosemont Apartments.”

This is Baptist Temple's sixth year offering free lunch to the children of our community through the USDA's summer feeding program. In 2009, we served lunch three times a week for five weeks. This year we serve breakfast, lunch and a snack all week at the church and set up a satellite location.

Over 90% of the children in our neighborhood are eligible for free or reduced lunch during the school year. They can receive a nutritious breakfast and lunch during the school week but are at risk for hunger on weekends and during the summer.

A 2012 Feeding America study discovered that Texas leads the nation in the number of hungry children. According to the San Antonio Food Bank one out four children in Bexar County live in poverty and struggle with food insecurity. Food insecurity means that when food is prepared, it is usually of poor quality or an unbalanced diet leading to malnutrition and health problems.

God cares about the hungry.

• Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen… Is it not to share your food with the hungry… Isaiah 58:6-7 (NIV)
• John answered, "The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same." Luke 3:11 (NIV)
• When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time. Leave what remains for the alien, the fatherless and the widow. When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again. Leave what remains for the alien, the fatherless and the widow. Deuteronomy 24:19-21 (NIV)

Baptist Temple is concerned about the hungry, as well. The summer feeding program is one way we fight hunger in our community.

“Arise, cry out in the night,

At the beginning of the watches;

Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord.

Lift your hands toward Him

For the life of your young children,

Who faint from hunger at the head of every street.”

Lamentations 2:19