A Place at the Table

J' Draw me a map J'

J' That I can hold J'

J' Lines that tell me where to go J'

J' My head is full J'

J' Of lonely harmonies J'

J' And questions no one's asking me J'

J' Who's gonna take my hand? J'

J' Show me the way? J'

J' How long will I have to wait J'

J' For someday? J'

J' Well, it's not the sky J'

J' I'm asking for J'

J' I'm just having trouble J'

J' Finding north J'

J' I've gone as far J'

J'Aslcan goJ'

J' Trying to find something J'

J' That feels like J'

J' Home J'

J' Who's gonna take my hand? J'

J' Show me the way? J'

J' How long will I have to wait J'

J' For someday? J'

Collbran, Colorado, is really cool,

and it's mostly where

all the cowboys and cowgirls roam.

We're just country people.

The town of Collbran is a quaint, quiet little town

with that honorable Code of the West type atmosphere.

J' Home J'

Close-knit.

Caring.

- And yet, almost desperate. - J' The leaves have changed J'

J'Atime or two J'

J' Since the last time the train came through J'

- Here, food. - J' I got my ticket J'

J' And I'm going to go J'

All right, this is my tree house.

This is my table that I built,

and this is the carpets that I found in our shed,

and so I just put it in here.

And sometimes I sit here when I'm, like, sad

or if I'm angry.

If I get a bad, um, grade

in one of my classes 'cause I'm not doing really good.

Our home is a two-family unit.

And my daughter lives with us and her family and my husband.

You're finding out more and more

that the kids come back to the parents

and they live and that's about how you make it.

I work at The Cattleman's Grill.

I've never received government assistance,

but I went down there...

And I was gonna try to get food stamps.

They turned me away.

My paycheck is about $120 every two weeks.

So it's hard.

My husband, he works for St. Mary's Hospital.

And I'm working now, too, so we're over the limit for help.

We've got seven people in our family,

so you make your food stretch.

We've been without vegetables for a while.

We do run out of milk.

We eat dry cereal.

You have to live the best you can.

You've got to make things stretch nowadays.

It's not easy.

Sometimes we run out of food,

so we try to figure out something.

Probably ask friends for food.

We get really hungry, and our tummies just growl,

and sometimes I feel like I'm gonna barf

'cause it feels bad.

But I don't really know what to do.

J' You alone are my heart's desire J'

J' And I long to worship You J'

The title of the message this morning

is "Church and Community."

The church should always be in the community.

And I believe what we're doing

is exactly what Jesus would have us do,

is exactly what He's doing in the world today.

Jesus was involved in those around Him.

Jesus fed 5,000.

We fed 5,000 here in the not too distant past.

Hunger is an issue in our community.

One of the ways we found that the need

is greater than we thought was, on Wednesday nights,

we started preparing a meal for anyone who wants to come.

And we had no idea what to expect.

And now we have between 80 and 120

that we'll feed a hot meal to every Wednesday.

So it is a bigger problem that we're aware of.

I think when people hear the term "hunger,"

they still imagine a skinny, undernourished human being.

They see the pictures of famine victims from sub-Saharan Africa.

That's the image that we carry around.

If you're comparing hunger in America

to hunger of the most grinding kind,

then no, I mean, people are not dying of hunger

in the same way here that they are in Africa.

But that's about the best that you can say.

It's a problem that people are ashamed of acknowledging.

Our own government is ashamed of acknowledging it

from my point of view.

And you just kind of, you know,

you're--We're in denial about it, I think.

No.

- - Aww, thank you.

Hunger is right here in the United States.

It could be right next door,

and you would never know

because people are too afraid to talk about it.

Hold on tight. Oh, boom.

Bella, watch your shoe.

Being where I'm from, there's so many expectations

of these girls just have kids, drop out, do drugs.

You know, things like that. I don't want to be that person.

Since August, I lost my job,

I had to get on public assistance

to be able to have some type of income coming into the house.

What's that?

Train. A train coming.

My dream is to go to college.

If I go to school, it's an investment in my future,

but at the same time, I'm struggling so much every day

to be able to even feed my kids every day.

- Uh-oh. - Wow.

So it's really hard to make that decision now.

Like, I can't tell my kids,

"Okay, I'm going to school,

"so in two years, we're gonna be fine."

I can't tell them, "Yeah, I'll make sure

"you guys eat in two years."

Aiden, come eat.

- Eat it all. - No.

Look, you could pick it up.

All my life, I know what it's like to eat Oodles of Noodles,

seven days a week, three, four times a day,

'cause it's all we had and cans of Chef Boyardee.

When I had my children,

I said I would never, ever let them taste it

just because that was my breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

But life brings you situations and circumstances,

and it's up to you to be able to deal with it

and find a way to get through it.

A survey from the U.S. Department of Agriculture

reports that one in six Americans

say they don't have enough to eat.

Last year, nearly 30% of U.S. families

were classified as "food insecure."

Food insecurity is this idea

that you don't know where your next meal is coming from.

You have no idea how you're going to manage

to find that food or afford that food.

And when 50 million Americans don't have that power,

that's a very dark indication indeed of where we are.

Step up on there. This will make a noise.

Step up on the table right there.

I'll be with you in just a second.

- What grade you in? - Second.

Second? You're in the second grade?

- How old are you? - I'm gonna be eight.

Fixing to be eight.

All right, and you've got asthma?

Okay, do you ever have problems with shortness of breath

when you're outside playing or anything?

I have to stop playing and take a deep breath.

Okay. What did you eat for breakfast this morning?

I didn't eat.

You didn't eat breakfast this morning? Okay.

When you get home in the afternoon,

do you eat a snack? What do you eat?

- Chips. - Chips? What else, baby?

What do you drink?

- Pop. - Pop? Oka)!

Do you have any other snacks besides chips you could eat?

- Huh? - Cookies.

- Kisses? - Cookies.

Cookies. Cookies and chips, okay.

Maybe you could ask Mom to start

buying you some--some carrots and some celery

and maybe some apples.

You could slice some apples up. That'd be good, hmm?

A lot of people think there is a yawning gap

between hunger on the one hand and obesity on the other.

In fact, they're neighbors.

And the reason that they happen often

in the same time and often in the same family

and the same person

is because they're both signs

of having insufficient funds to be able to command

food that you need to stay healthy.

Mostly, I really shop for--

I look around and see what's the cheapest.

You have--Fruit are very high.

And you got chips that's 35¢ a bag.

So I say, "Okay, I'm not gonna get the fruit.

"I'm gonna get some chips."

But if the fruit on sale, I'll leave the chips and get the fruit.