We’ve had a bellyful of hunger

It’s our shame that some among us regularly go hungry. Why in the land of plenty do people still go to bed with gnawing hunger pains?

Our population in the Mat-Su Borough has doubled and doubled again. At the same time, rent, food, transportation and health care costs have increased much faster than wages.

Some story lines in the Frontiersman date back decades, while others, like homeless and hunger, are recent additions to our pages. We remember when Wasilla had one visibly homeless man, an eccentric fellow named Hal. There’s a building in downtown Wasilla now where Hal camped back in 1997.

Would that Hal’s was still the solitary face of homelessness in the Mat-Su Valley.

Now even something as routine as a trip to Wal-Mart may well include an encounter with a homeless family that lives in a car parked there and survives by asking passersby for help with food and gas money.

Last year, the Mat-Su Borough School District identified more than 800 homeless or unattended students among its enrollment. But we really have no idea how many homeless adults there are.

These days there are efforts to feed the hungry, to provide services to homeless teens, to house homeless families at local churches and sites year-round that serve meals to hungry children.

As a community, we’ve even organized benefits and built cabins for families struggling with homelessness. It’s wonderful how we come together to help each other.

But it’s not enough.

Homelessness and hunger persist as unwelcome neighbors in our Valley in spite of our kindness and generosity.

Further, these social-economic challenges faced by too many in our community have lasting impacts for us as a region. That’s because research indicates hungry students have difficulty concentrating and their academic performance suffers.

During the school year, many students in the district qualify for free or reduced-cost meals. When school’s out, those students may not have a place where they can get the food they need to grow and develop properly.

We’re happy to see The Children’s Lunchbox expand its service locations this summer to include Food Pantry of Wasilla and Wonderland Park. It makes sense to co-locate these food programs in proximity to where kids and families who need these services already are.

We laud the many, varied efforts to end homelessness and hunger in our community, and we look forward to the day when stories about homelessness and hunger will again be absent from the pages of the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman.

What: Meals served by The Children’s Lunchbox

Where: Boys and Girls Club of Mat-Su, Food Pantry of Wasilla, Wonderland Park

When: breakfast, lunch and dinner at the club; 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Food Pantry; 1 to 2 p.m. at Wonderland Park

Cost: Free for children ages 18 and younger

Learn more: thechildrenslunchbox.org