The Food Bank

One of my mother’s most often used phrases during my childhood was “Eat that. Children are starving in China.” Apparently, children in China would have been thankful for my uneaten lima beans and would not have suggested to their mothers that they would have preferred corn.

Fast forward to 2009, and I am the mother shaking her head over my kids’ eating habits. Unlike my mother, I do not tell Andrew and Beth that children starving in China would like their vegetables. Times have changed, and I could list Darfur, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe or any number of countries with starving children. Or, I could say that kids in their own hometown, Omaha, Nebraska, are hungry when they go to bed.

In the end, I don’t say anything about anyone starving. I leave that to another more age appropriate time. I scrape the plates into the trash wondering why they didn’t eat the nutritious yet delicious (ok, average tasting) meat loaf I prepared. And when everyone is tucked in safe and sound for the night, I write a check to my local food bank and give thanks for all that I have been given.

And then I call my mom and apologize for my misguided, failed and ultimately smelly attempt to mail lima beans to China in 1975.

Kate Kenny is the managing editor of Columban Mission magazine.