A Place at the Table

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# Draw me a map #

# That I can hold #

# Lines that tell me where to go #

# My head is full #

# Of lonely harmonies #

# And questions

no one's asking me #

# Who's gonna take my hand? #

# Show me the way? #

# How long will I have to wait #

# For someday? #

# Well, it's not the sky #

# I'm asking for #

# I'm just having trouble #

# Finding north #

# I've gone as far #

# As I can go #

# Trying to find something #

# That feels like #

# Home #

# Who's gonna take my hand? #

# Show me the way? #

# How long will I have to wait #

# For someday? #

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.

# Home #

Close-knit.

Caring.

- And yet, almost desperate.

- # The leaves have changed #

# A time or two #

# Since the last time

the train came through #

- Here, food.

- # I got my ticket #

# And I'm going to go #

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.

# You alone are my heart's desire #

# And I long to worship You #

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? Okay.

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

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