Church finds way to teens’ hearts through their stomachs
By SARAH BERKSHIRE Apirl 23, 2006
RADCLIFF - An area church youth group put their stomachs on the line to make their fight against world hunger more meaningful.
About 15 teens from The Bridge Community, a church that holds services at Bluegrass Middle School, participated in World Vision’s 30 Hour Famine on Friday and Saturday, getting a taste of what life is like for the world’s poorest children.
The teens raised more than $1,300 for World Vision, an international famine relief organization, before their fast. A federal grant will match the money.
While they skipped meals, they passed the time with community service. The youth group held food drives through North Hardin HOPE at Save-A-Lot and Food Lion in Radcliff. They sorted canned goods at America’s Second Harvest of Kentucky’s Heartland. Some members also delivered flowers to patients at Hardin Memorial Hospital.
Half way through the food drive at Food Lion, Nathan Henwood, 12, was drained but in good spirits.
“I’m hungry,” Nathan sighed. “My head hurts, too.”
Their first meal of the day still was a few hours away.
“I’m going to be digging in,” he said.
The students went without food from lunchtime at school on Friday to about 6 p.m. Saturday.
But when the long-awaited break-the-fast meal arrived, the teens found they had another lesson to learn about world hunger.
Gathered for the meal in the church’s ministry center, the kids listened to youth pastor Jack Taylor talk about what their efforts meant.
“You have defended the weak and the fatherless. You have defended the rights of the poor and the oppressed,” he said, referencing a verse in Psalms.
Taylor then passed out small leaflets. On the front of the card was a photo of a line of African children holding bowls and craning their necks to see the front of the line. The card read, “Unimix: what the hungry eat.”
The back of the card explained that unimix is a fortified substance to be added to corn-soy blend or other flours. It is gentle enough to be accepted by the fragile bodies of the malnourished. Another photo showed unimix plainly packaged in white 55-pound bags.
Taylor had mixed up a batch, using corn, mashed beans, vegetable oil, milk powder and water, for the youth group.
The teens didn’t smile at the irony or frown in disappointment. They silently studied the cards.
The youth said the community service and fast taught them a new respect for the problem and appreciation for the food that’s always available to them.
The room got louder once Taylor told them to dig in.
“It’s good,” 16-year-old Dennis Goff said, scooping the last spoonful from his plate and reaching for his friend Bryan Kuhn’s dish. Kuhn decided to skip the unimix, which teens said tasted like beans and sugar.
Though he ended up clearing a few plates of unimix, Goff didn’t think much of the mixture pictured on the card.
“It looks like a big package of dog food and they have to eat that,” he said. “I feel bad about it.”
A few minutes into the unimix meal, volunteers brought out the real meal — spaghetti, garlic bread and salad.
The teens rushed the buffet table, walking away with disposable plates piled high and bending under the weight of the food.
Sarah Berkshire can be reached at 769-1200, Ext. 428, or at sberkshire@thenewsenterprise.com
