Stamping out hunger in Hillsboro
Apr 16, 2019 -- Posted by :By Cole Short, Hillsboro Banner
The memory of the conversation three or four years ago still weighs on Joe Johnson.
The pastor at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Hillsboro hadn’t crossed paths with one of his parishioners in months when he saw her and asked how she was doing.
Winter had been hard on the teenage girl and her family.
Her father hadn’t been working and there wasn’t enough food in the house.
“I said ‘Why didn’t you come to me and say something? I would’ve helped,’” Johnson recalls telling the teen. “She hung her head and said, ‘Ashamed.’
“That really opened my eyes. But after looking closer and having conversations with a number of people, I realized this wasn’t an insolated incident in Hillsboro.”
Our Savior's offers meals to kids on Wednesday nights during the school year. The outreach effort will be expanded this summer when the church begins providing noon lunches to kids on Wednesdays from June through mid-August.
Meals will be provided by the Great Plains Food Bank.
So how can local residents who want to help get involved?
For starters, Johnson says, volunteers are needed to hand out meals at Our Savior’s as the church begins its lunch program this summer.
The Kiwanis Food Pantry wouldn’t turn down offers, including donations, either, he says.
Those unable to offer their time or money can be supportive by being aware of how they treat others going through financial troubles, Johnson says.
“We want to maintain people’s dignity and build relationships and engage in solutions where people are walking together on the same path,” he says.
“This all started with a student saying ‘We didn’t have enough food in the house.’
“My hope is that a student in Hillsboro never has to say that again.”
For more, see the Banner's online or print edition.