It seems no one’s immune to the threat of hunger and poverty … not even Cookie Monster and Oscar the Grouch. I saw the other day that Sesame Street has introduced the first impoverished Muppet to its well-known cast of characters. “Lily” is described as being “food insecure” and comes from a family that struggles to put meals on the table every day. Not surprisingly, Lily was created to help teach young children about the current economic problems faced by real humans in America today. It seems really sad that the great recession has now found its way into the apartment houses on Sesame Street, but it seems we live today in a world filled with a great deal of sadness.
I’m now the grandfather of children in the key age group for Sesame Street. Explaining realities like hunger and homelessness is never easy to do with a small child – especially if that child has been blessed to spend his or her life in a home that’s never been affected by such things. Children assume that everyone else in the world has all the same things that they do. If you’ve never gone to bed hungry, they assume, no one else has either. Finding that kind of empathy is difficult for a lot of grown ups, too.
Unfortunately, many of the children served by Volunteers of America don’t have to watch Sesame Street to understand hunger and poverty … they experience it first hand. The life experiences represented by Lily the Muppet are all too real for them. Food insecurity isn’t an abstract concept, but rather something they and their parents worry about daily. What we aim to provide clients who come to us for wide variety of services, from affordable housing to emergency food provisions and case management, is a sense of confidence that even during the worst of times, there are others hard at work to make sure they don’t fall through the cracks.
As we continue our work providing homes and hope to low-income families, I invite you to join us. Help us ensure that no child ever has to go to bed hungry.
- By Mike King, National President and CEO, Volunteers of America
