"What would it cost to help just one person hang on?"    Not only do I pose this question to you, my readers, but also it's for me, too.  Really, I am asking myself this question.  What can I, no, SHOULD I do to help just one person or one family in my own city?

I am so blessed. I have money, not alot, but enough to meet and to exceed the basic needs of my family.  Perhaps I could choose to give up Pizza Night just ONE time this month to donate the money I would have spent at Papa Johns to the local food bank or other local charity?  Maybe if I skipped Starbucks just two times a week for ONE month and put that money where my coffee drinking mouth was, I might actually help someone meet a basic need for her family. Maybe I might help to bring comfort for just one minute.

Poverty is a reality for 1 out of 8 americans.  That means when I look out into my classroom of 25 students, THREE of them are living at or below the poverty level.  Their entire family is struggling to put food on the table, gas in the tank, and heat in the house, all the while praying that no one needs to go the doctor or the hospital.  God forbid.  If they are worried every waking moment about meeting just the basic needs of everyone in the family, no wonder some of them come to school without supplies, homework incomplete, and a chip on the shoulder with the whole world's name on it.




This presentation was sponsored by the Catholic Campaighn for Human Development.