Church uncovers, serves hidden hungry

WHITEHOUSE—Many people would see an elementary school student stealing food off a teacher’s desk as a behavioral problem. Teachers and administrators in Whitehouse found something much more problematic, and First Baptist Church stepped up to help resolve the issue.

Last fall, a Whitehouse student stole his teacher’s lunch. When the teacher figured out who was doing it and eventually caught the young man, he ran out of the classroom and stuffed the entire lunch in his mouth, hoping he wouldn’t have to surrender it.

It was his first decent meal in days.

In a school staff meeting, Amy Culpepper, a third-grade teacher at Higgins Intermediate School and a member of First Baptist Church, quickly discovered this young man may not be alone. In Whitehouse, roughly 200 students in that one school receive free or reduced lunches. The program provided something for them eat to during the week, but left many of them lacking on the weekend, and they came back hungry on Mondays.

“I think we just take it for granted that everybody has three meals a day and a safe place to sleep,” Culpepper said. “That’s just not so.”

While the presence of hungry children surprised some people at the school, it shocked Ray Davis, pastor of First Baptist Church, when Culpepper brought it to his attention.

“We’re a pretty affluent community,” he said. “We found hidden hunger that we didn’t know existed.”

Amy Culpepper (left) and Jan Powell (right) from First Baptist Church in Whitehouse inspect canned goods before students arrive to pick up their food-filled backpacks for the weekend. (PHOTOS/Jim Jackson)

First Baptist Church members knew they had to do something to help the hungry children in their community. Working with the school, each family in the free-lunch program received a note asking if they would be open to receiving food for the weekend. Many of the families jumped at the opportunity.

“When we started seeing our teachers having an issue with hunger, we knew we had to be involved in that,” Davis said.

The church contacted the East Texas Food Bank and became involved in its backpack program. Each Thursday, church members fill backpacks with food for each child through the weekend. Those backpacks are distributed on Fridays for students to take home. The young people return the empty backpacks on Mondays.

Culpepper said the church rallied to help these children. Quickly, more than 55 people volunteered to help with the cause. The congregation and other individuals pitched in $7,500 to make the program last through the end of the school year. The church recently received a Texas Hope 2010 Care Grant made possible by gifts through the Texas Baptist Offering for World Hunger that will enable the congregation to continue serving in the fall of 2010 as well.

“I think the whole thing has been a God thing,” Culpepper said.

The assistance has excited the children, Culpepper said. They enthusiastically look forward to backpack day. When they receive it, many of the students hug the people they receive it from.

Don Branam helps distribute food-filled backpacks to students as Arlene McDonald, children’s director at First Baptist Church in Whitehouse, supervises. (PHOTOS/Jim Jackson)

“It’s rewarding when you see those kids, and they hug you when they get their food,” she said.

The church currently is looking for ways to expand its feeding efforts to other schools and throughout the summer. Nearly 1,300 students who are on the free-lunch program in Whitehouse are facing the same situation as these students at Higgins Intermediate. Culpepper hopes other churches will get involved in the effort.

The need moves Culpepper when she thinks about it.

“If it’s true some kid in school is going hungry, it’s hard to go home and eat a meal,” she said. “I just can’t stand the thought of a child going hungry.”

The situation in Whitehouse is a reminder that hunger occurs across the state. More than 40 percent of students in Texas public schools are on the free or reduced lunch program. Texas has the highest rate of child food insecurity in the nation.

“We live in a pretty well off school district,” Culpepper said. “It’s not inner city. We live in a rural community outside Tyler. I think it would be shocking to know how some people live. It was shocking to some people in the church.”

Davis praised Culpepper for bringing the situation before the church and the congregation so readily taking action. It is a prime example of God using a person in the church to reach out to people in need, he said.

“All of our mission work is at the intersection of someone in our church and the activity of God,” he said.