These past three years has been so rough on my wife and I. We got a second hand bed set. My wife started breaking out with sores. We thought it was bed bugs her not having insurance medicade or nothing the hospital gave me two treatments for bed bugs. So we got one treatment. So I held the treatment to kill the bed bugs until I was able to get the other treatmen to kill the bed bugs. During that time we have bought what we could afford to treat our home. We couldn't afford another bed so we bought bed bug repellant cover for the mattress and the box spring. So we both treated ourselves. It didn't get any better. Me having medicade and her not. Not knowing what to do or what's attacking us. My wife having lupus SLE. her whole body tore up. For over a year finally she spit out a whole bug. We put it in a zip lock bag drove to John's Drugs in Purvis Ms. They said it was seed ticks. So we bought poison for seed ticks we would bath in the poison. It wasn't no since for me to get treatment if my wife couldn't so we tried using the poison to get ride of the ticks. From God up above some one told us a Dr in sumeral Me goes by your income. Thank God. But all through this pass three years we went days without eating. The Dr gave us DOXYCYCLINE MONO 100 Mg. It's been three refills we still fighting these ticks. So caught up with fighting ticks lost our phone bills bills no phone services lost food stamps dozens of times cause we missed call cause no phone services no gas being disabled her no job trying to get on disibility again. She tried to work three jobs fired her cause claims to slow. She has SLE Lupus. We do need some any kind of help.
You think you know what the 'face of hunger' looks like...but you don't.
I consider myself beyond fortunate to live the live I live and to work with the organization that I am a part of. As a first generation child in America, born the immigrant parents from Nigeria, there are a million ways that my life story could have played out. By the grace of something more powerful than me, my parents have lived full, successful lives in the United States and my two older sisters grew up with a roof over our heads, food to eat every day and the opportunity to build a good live for ourselves. But not everyone, no matter where they were born, is as fortunate.
A year and a half ago, (June, 2014) while ending a short term contract as a consultant for a U.S. Senator's re-election campaign, I was turned onto an organization in my hometown of Hattiesburg, MS because they had a new vacant position. The organization, Extra Table, was a non-profit started by a local restauranteur and had the mission of feeding the hungry in Mississippi by getting new, healthy food in bulk to food pantries and soup kitchens. I applied for the position and interviewed, not knowing if I would be the right fit, but knowing in my heart that I had the 'Type A' personality skill set that could help Extra Table get organized and hopefully be more effective. As most fairy tales go, I interview twice and got a call an hour after the second interview offering me the job as Program Coordinator.
Fast forward November 14, 2015. Extra Table was hosting its 3rd Annual Hattiesburg Hunger Run, a 5k, 10k and 1 mile Fun Run around Downtown Hattiesburg to help raise money for Extra Table. After the race, we hosted an after party for all of the runner to eat, drink enjoy some music and hopefully learn more about what Extra Table is doing in their area. While chatting with some of our volunteers and passing out plates of BBQ to runners, an older man, meek in appearance and timid to approach, walked up and asked if I worked with the group putting on the event. I told him that indeed I did. The gentleman smile lightly and proceeded to tell me a story, full of the very stuff that Extra Table was born out of. He told me his truth:
He was an AIDS patient. He had just recently moved to the Hattiesburg area and he was a client who received a monthly food box at our local food pantry and often partook of hot meals at our local soup kitchen. For the first time in 10 years, he was not homeless. He had secured an apartment of his own, just a few blocks from where the Race was being held. He just happened to be walking by and saw that everyone was having such a great time. When he asked a volunteer what the event was for, he was told about Extra Table and our mission. He didn't ask for money. He didn't ask for food. He didn't come to criticize or take advantage or even offer a suggestion.
He found me to thank me.
He said he knew what good work we must be doing, especially since everyone was having such a good time, and he just had to say thank you.
I am but a small part of the much larger mission that is Extra Table, but my heart has become so embraced by countless stories like this one. I work for Extra Table with absolute joy and I fight on behalf of those who have been too weak, too scared, too ashamed, too outcast, too small and too neglected to be provided the basic need of a little food in their belly so that they can make it another day.
I say all of this, not to say that I inspire myself, but to say that this man and the 670,000 hungry in Mississippi that he represents inspire me to give, to work, and to be better through Extra Table.
Review from #MyGivingStory