The next time you sit down to a home-cooked meal, be sure to give thanks for the gifts that are before you. Many youth on the Coast do not have the chance to give thanks for those kinds of blessings.
Youth workers are sounding the alarm this week that too many kids on the Coast are going hungry.
This trend is nothing new. In fact, we found out that the hunger need has been growing to a now alarming rate, which certainly surprised us and I'm sure will surprise many more in this community.
And to what do youth workers attribute the growing number of youth to feed? Many have mental health concerns, either themselves or their parent or primary caregiver. There are drug and alcohol concerns, either with the young people themselves or their caregivers. Youth who don't have a proper place to call home every day are forced to couch surf among their friends. Many are also missing school and, as a result, struggling to find adequate employment. When you add up all these factors, it equals more and more youth faced with the challenging prospect of fending for themselves, and that means making difficult choices - whether to eat properly or, in some cases, to eat at all or to find a warm, dry place to sleep at night.
Front-line youth workers would like to see more support from the community, say, in the form of donations for the food bank or possibly the return of hosted community dinners at the Rockwood Centre in Sechelt or other locations.
One youth worker we talked to this week recalled as many as 60 residents would come out to eat a communal dinner that was cooked by volunteers with food donated by local sponsors.
Both ideas warrant a look from the community, but we would also encourage all levels of Coast government to come together with the community for a much broader look at the issue.
Clearly more is needed, whether it is funding, allocation of community space or simply banding together to get a greater message out to the community.
We know that economic times are tough and the last thing governments probably want to hear about is another community group needing a hand-out. But we're talking our children here, the wave of our future. How can we expect to have a vibrant future if our youth are struggling to cope with simple present needs like a hot, healthy meal?
Food for thought for all of us.
