Empty Bowls

It was one of my best teaching days but it broke my heart. Here are kids at the Lacoochee Boys and Girls club, where they come every afternoon after school. This day I was to bring clay so that the kids could make little bowls for the Empty Bowls project, which in this community funds the money for food for these kids. So they are making these bowls for a fundraiser that will take place in town at the steps of the courthouse next month. And they understand that they will not be there to experience it.

Prosperous folks will come and eat soup and bread contributed by philanthropic souls. For a contribution everyone will get one of these clay bowls to take home. The kids ask, "What will they do with the bowls?" I say that they will put paperclips in them and remember that lots of kids (including you!) may not have enough to eat sometimes. They don't really know that the food they eat at the Boys and Girls Club must be paid for.

But they love making anything out of clay! They are starved for creative work. They hunker down and, middle school students down to five year olds, work hard on these bowls. Most have forgotten the goal and some of the little girls are putting clay eggs in their bowls and the boys are thinking how they can include a stele. All the time this is happening (75 pounds of clay, yikes!), there are many wonderful conversations and I am charmed by the beauty and outgoingness of these children. Some of them know me from other venues and we are so comfortable together.

But I look around this place, that a year ago was so dismal and actually frightening to me, and see such improvement. But everyone really looks foreword to being in the new community center that will be complete by the year's end.

I look around and see that the space for the little kids has less richness than our upstairs hall playroom for visiting grandchildren that is full of books, blocks, Legos, games, trains and trucks and dolls. I could cry.

Most of the folks who work here are tender and supportive to kids. But there was one staff member who seemed so toxic to kids. She never was polite or respectful to them, outright angry. I thought I would never let a kid of mine be anywhere near her. I felt the devastation that the five year old kid who spilled his meal might have felt. He couldn't help it! No one offered to help him clean it up ("Hey, no big deal. Let's clean it up. You get the broom, I'll get the dustpan. And you can still have lunch!) But no, that tiny kid's day was ruined. When I spoke of this to the administrative staff they said they were working on it..

Empty bowls.. The food that is served there daily does fill bellies. What I saw being served today was a menu of doughy cheap hot dog buns topped by the cheapest of generic hot dogs, melted velveta cheese and ketchup on top. On the side were generic crinkle cut fries from a big box store. I had brought $10 worth of grapes and they were served as well. The drink was kool aid. Lots of empty calories but those bowls were really empty. I could cry. This is not food for growing bodies and brains!

We nourish our grandchildren with fresh organic foods from the garden, no manufactured food, certainly none of those hot dogs made out of who knows what? We are so privileged!

So, I keep on trying with the community garden. Keep on being there for the kids.