"You're Not Yourself When You're Hungry"

Do you remember the Snickers ad campaign from a few years ago in which a character in the commercial, played by an actor known for irritability or curmudgeonliness, acts out in some way until another character gives them a Snickers bar, causing them to transform back into their own polite self? The tagline for these commercials was, “You’re not yourself when you’re hungry.” The implication was that the judicious application of Snickers can make you yourself again.

Those commercials, although playing for laughs, actually hit on a serious truth about hunger, especially childhood hunger. Kids who are hungry are more likely to do poorly on tests and lose concentration in class. They are more likely to act out in ways that they wouldn’t if they were well-fed, and in some cases their behavior can be serious enough to embroil them in the juvenile justice system. Hunger can affect emotional regulation and decision-making, deficits that can lead to conflicts with both peers and authority figures.

It’s true, then, that you aren’t yourself when you’re hungry, but the solution is not a Snickers bar. It’s nutritious food, including healthy portions of fruits, vegetables, dairy products, and whole grains. Unfortunately, too many families struggle to put this kind of food (or even less healthy foods, which are usually more affordable) on the table. One in five American children live in households that experience food insecurity, and this number increases to one in three among Black and Latino families. In far too many households parents are compelled to make unsavory choices: skip meals, eat less so their children get enough food, or forgo paying for utilities in order to afford groceries.

These problems, and the ill they bode for our nation’s future, are the reason Community UCC will be participating in Bread for the World’s Offering of Letters on May 4 during the reception following worship. As you load up a plate of delicious food, I hope you will take a few moments to write a letter or two to our legislators, encouraging them to support Bread’s Nourish Our Future campaign, which is focused on ending childhood hunger in this country and around the world.

In these Thursday emails during April you will be reading about the four key elements of Nourish Our Future: 1) expanding the child tax credit; 2) securing and modernizing the WIC program that provides food and formula to women, infants, and children; 3) fighting food insecurity among college students; and 4) strengthening international nutrition assistance programs. Some of these items may seem to be big asks in the current political climate, but we serve and worship a God who is able to make a way where there seems to be no way. God invites us to participate in growing the commonwealth of God, where no one goes hungry and you don’t need a Snickers bar to be who God has created you to be.