Eat lunch; help feed hungry

"If this child lived next door to you, would you let him go hungry?" asks Sandra James, coordinator of the 17th annual World Hunger Luncheon June 6, sponsored by the Sarah Allen Group at First Baptist Church of Sylva.

Each child, no matter where he lives, is our neighbor in a world where more than 800 million people do not have enough to eat, said Sandra James, coordinator of the 17th annual World Hunger Luncheon.

Sponsored by the Sarah Allen Group at First Baptist Church of Sylva, the luncheon always held the first Friday in June, will be served in the church fellowship hall between 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. June 6. The meal will be the traditional poor man's fare dried beans, potatoes, coleslaw and cornbread, with homemade cake for dessert.

James said the number of those who go hungry is so staggering it "creates the temptation to throw up our hands in despair."

"We know that what we make from the luncheon isn't a drop in the bucket," she said, "but it may be a drop in the desert of poverty. Because we can't do big things does not mean our efforts are worthless."

Proceeds from the luncheon will be divided equally among the local United Christian Ministries, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention.

In countries like Malawi, where Dr. William Aldis has been working with the World Health Organization, an average of one out of five people is infected with the Aids virus. Half of these are farmers, left unable to work.

Many children, made orphans by the disease, have no one to care for them. Cereal crops in Ethiopia have been decimated by lack of rain. This year the number in Ethiopia requiring food assistance is expected to rise from six to 14 million. Our neighbors to the south, 1.5 million of them in Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador face severe malnutrition, James said.

Here in Jackson County the community comes together to help in this once-a-year event. Local merchants provide the food to be cooked; Southwestern Community College provides the use of a kitchen and many church members donate their prepping, cooking and serving talents.

Tickets are $5 and may be purchased from church members or at the door. Take outs are available and a call that day to 586-2095 will insure that the order will be ready when someone comes to pick it up.

Eat lunch; help feed hungry

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