Can You Put Me Food Out?

Imagine a child having to ask someone at school…: “Mrs. ____, can you put me food out to take home for me?”

This note was shared with us yesterday by one of our campus contacts, along with this message:

“Please know that you are helping so many kids. I was given that note today… I have some noodles I can send with her for now. I also have a weekend bag that you guys have packed for her. Thank you so much for all that you do.”

Noodles.

I can send noodles.

For some reason, that part gets me.

Noodles are easy. 

A granola bar is easy.

A pack of peanut butter crackers is easy.

They’re the kinds of things many of us toss into our grocery carts without thinking much about them. They sit in our pantries. They get forgotten in backpacks. Our kids decide they don’t like that flavor anymore, and we find three of them crushed at the bottom of a drawer six months later.

But somewhere in our community, a child is writing a note asking her teacher if she can please put some food out for her to take home.

That changes the value of a snack.

At FOUND, we talk a lot about meeting basic needs. Clothing. Shoes. Hygiene products. School supplies. Snacks.

“Snacks” can sound like the smallest thing on that list.

They aren’t.

Hunger follows a child into the classroom.

It sits beside her while she tries to learn.

It goes with her when the dismissal bell rings and she knows there may not be much waiting at home.

And sometimes the thing standing between that child and hunger is incredibly simple.

A package of noodles.

A snack bag.

That’s what you help us provide. 

Food tucked discreetly into a backpack by a counselor, nurse or teacher who noticed.

There is tremendous power in that kind of simplicity.

The child doesn’t need to understand the supply chain behind it.

She doesn’t need to know who donated the food, who sorted it, who packed the weekend bag or who drove it to her school.

She just needs to know:

There is something for me to eat.

That is what your donations do.

When you bring us a box of snacks, it may not feel monumental.

When you add an extra package of crackers to your grocery order, it may not feel like that big of a deal. 

But then a note like this lands on a teacher’s desk.

And somewhere else, because someone donated something simple, that teacher gets to say:

Yes. I have something I can send home with you.

That is why we collect snacks.

That is why we pack bags.

That is why we keep showing up.

That is why we keep sharing these things with all of you. 

Because sometimes meeting a child’s need doesn’t require something complicated.

Sometimes it looks like noodles.

And noodles, we can send.