YOU CAN HELP FILL SHELVES OF AREA FOOD PANTRIES

Most of us don't know what it's like to be hungry. Sure, some of us have hearty appetites and look forward to our next meal with gusto. But most of us know where our next meal is coming from. If national statistics are to be believed, most of us eat far more than we need to at most meals.

You don't have to go all the way to China to find starving people like the ones your mothers constantly reminded you about when you were a child. There are hungry people right here in our own nation. And in our own town.

Many of our hungry people may not really be starving. They might be just really, really hungry. And for these people, they don't know where their next meal is coming from. When they find something to eat, it probably won't add inches to their waistlines.

Virtually every community in our country has a food pantry operated by a church or some organization. These food pantries are the modern-day organizational version of our mothers' compassion. Remember the days when hungry people we called them hobos or tramps came to the back door, never the front door, and asked hat in hand if you could spare some food? There were very few mothers in those days who ever sent away a hungry hobo. Perhaps these kind mothers recalled times when they too had been hungry. Stories from the Great Depression are filled with tales of bread lines and whole days without meals.

Fortunately, we live in a community, like so many others, that is full of caring people. Even though a hobo rarely knocks at the back door any more, we are aware that people from time to time fall into situations that leave them without food to eat. This is where the food pantries come in.

Most of us would be surprised by how much food these pantries hand out every year. It can be measured in tons. Without assistance from food pantries, many individuals would go hungry. Or they might be inspired by their hunger to commit crimes to obtain food.

Food doesn't just magically appear on the shelves of the various food pantries. These operations rely mostly on donations from caring folks to keep their shelves stocked.

Help in obtaining food comes in many forms. Two such efforts are under way right now. On Saturday, Boy Scouts will put plastic sacks on doorknobs in hopes you will fill them up. The filled sacks will be collected Nov. 13. And Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity at Southeast Missouri State University will be picking up filled sacks Saturday. Both efforts will help local food pantries.

Thousands of pounds of canned goods and other items will be donated. For you generosity, thank you. May you never know a hungry day.