Sheltered ignorance

There are times in your life when you realize how uneducated you really are on a particular subject.

I work as a teacher in an elementary school in Indianapolis. One day during a staff service project, our principal, who came from an inner-city school in Indianapolis with a high poverty rate, was explaining what we would be doing that day for our project. We would be assembling birthday cake kits to be distributed at a food pantry on the east side of Indianapolis.

In the kit was a disposable cake pan, a box of cake mix, icing, candles, a birthday banner, and a can of soda. This seemed strange to me initially because I ignorantly, and arrogantly, thought to myself that someone in need of food would likely not be concerned with a birthday cake, but more so with actual food. You know, because I have all the answers, right?

My sheltered self settled in as my principal began our meeting with basic questions and facts about food insecurity in Indiana and Marion County. You know, those little statistics like one in seven Indiana residents are considered food insecure and 25 percent of Marion County residents need some sort of assistance to be adequately fed. The same statistics also state that nearly one in five children in Marion County face food insecurity.

My principal questioned the staff in a way to get a sense initially for how informed we were about this topic. She asked all of us what someone in need of food does to get what they need and to make sure their family eats. In a matter of minutes, I realized that this was such a staggering crisis. I was in part ashamed of myself for not being better educated on the subject. Why? I was simply uneducated.

She asked us what one must do in order to go to a food pantry. I sat there in a room full of adults, many like myself with similar backgrounds, and it was crickets. I realized at this exact moment how truly sheltered I am and how my ignorance needs to be turned into education and that I need to make sure I am helping with this crisis and heightening my awareness.

More importantly, I need to make sure my children are also aware of this. The same children of mine that swing open our pantry door at will and have never had to question where their next meal or snack is coming from.

The staff began to make an assembly line and put birthday cake kits together. I thought about my own children as I was assembling a kit and selecting blue and pink icing for the kits. I thought about what little boy or girl would be celebrating their birthday with the kit I was putting together.

In the months since, I have not only continued my education on the Marion County statistics, but have also started to really understand that this, too, impacts Hamilton County greatly. I grew up thinking that Hamilton County is filled with residents who have money, and in all honesty, I never thought about the fact that people in my own neighborhood might be hungry.

Photo provided

Reporter Columnist and Co-Founder of The Feeding Team, Mark Hall, has really heightened my awareness of food insecurity in Hamilton County. The statistics are staggering and sad to me. You have to start somewhere and for me it began that day assembling birthday cake kits for people I will likely never meet.

The Maya Angelou quote, “When you know better, you do better” has played through my mind many times since that service project. I know better now and am trying to do better by educating myself and making sure my children grow up knowing about this crisis and do something to help. I am having conversations with my children and making sure that they understand what a privilege it is to always have food and not wonder from where their next meal is coming.

Oh, and why would people who are hungry care about a birthday cake? Well, that is because their children have birthdays just like mine, and they, too, want to feel special and have a cake on their birthday. And shame on me for even questioning the need of someone else. And why a can of soda you may ask? Well, when you have nothing else in your pantry, a can of soda mixed with cake mix will serve as a substitute for eggs, oil, and water. Apparently this is one of the number one requested things at the food pantry where these kits were donated.

The real question isn’t why would someone in need care about a birthday cake; the real question is what business is it of mine and why should their children feel any less special than mine on their birthday with something as simple as a cake?

I encourage you to look into The Feeding Team and find a pantry near your home. Check your pantry. Talk to your kids. Educate yourself. Go to feedingteam.org.

Megan Rathz is a wife, mother, and teacher. She says everything she has ever learned in life came from her Master Gardener mother.