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Multiplying loaves and fishes

By Chaplain Johnny Phillips | The News Herald

Published: March 26, 2009

There stands out in the memory of every individual a sight, a fear or a thought that remains with them for the remainder of his or her life's span try as they may to suppress it.
One such horrible memory for me occurred about six year ago when Sue and I were on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic and we were given the opportunity to cross over the border that country shares with Haiti.
I have worked with the folks in the slums of Brazil and even among the Dominicans. We thought we had seen the poverty of sugar cane workers toiling long and labor-intensive 14-hour days for only a little more than an American dollar. But Sue and I were not prepared for the misery we confronted a mere few yards into the Haitian countryside.
There was no semblance of civilization, no paving or architecture, just utter starvation and need. Emaciated thousands staring at us with eyes that begged us "rich Americans" for anything we would give. The image has haunted me all these years. But we were not Jesus and we could not multiply our few "loaves and fishes" to feed the multitudes.
Or can we?
Last year was the first I had ever heard of the Stop Hunger Now program. Would you believe that for less than 10 cents each, with matching funds, it is going to be able to furnish Haitian school children with 240,000 meals — all packaged in just one day (with donated labor, of course) from Burke County?
Co-chairman Rev. Denny Camp has told me of how each day 16,000 children die of hunger-related deaths, as well as another 14,000 adults. But the local Rotary clubs (Morganton, Valdese, Burke Sunrise, McDowell, plus the WPCC Rotaract) have combined forces along with funding made available from the Rostan Family Foundation, Rotary International and the Presbytery of Western North Carolina to, in effect, multiply our "loaves and fishes." In just one day, hundreds of volunteers, including some of my friends from the Riddle Developmental Center, will meet Saturday at the Collett Street Recreational Center in three shifts (9 a.m., 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m.) to package dehydrated but nutritious food in containers that will be distributed by the Haitian Rotary Clubs to thousands of school children.
This method of distribution was selected for a very simple reason. Haitian parents make certain that their children attend school, not only to receive an education, but also because there they will be fed. Denny Camp informs me that an additional world hunger benefit is achieved by this method with a significant drop in birth rate. Whereas uneducated females tend to have families of more than seven children, whom they cannot feed, educated young women average 2.5 children and are better prepared to raise them.
Two hundred, forty thousand meals packaged in one day for less than 10 cents each. Praise the Lord, He is still in the miracle business.

Johnny A. Phillips is the Clinical Chaplain of the J. Iverson Riddle Developmental Center.