Your article, "City's violence can take hidden toll" (Dec. 14), was important in that it outlined the issues of crime in neighborhoods and help that is being undertaken to curb the violence from the children of this city. It is important, but it doesn't address the cause for some of the violence as far as I am concerned. This is the issue of lack of food for children over the weekends.
We started a weekend backpack program at St. John's of Baltimore City UMC about four years ago after learning that there was a need for this mission in our neighborhood at the local Margaret Brent Elementary and Middle School. Initially, it was started with feeding only four families over the weekend, but has since grown to 100 families feeding 300 people. It hasn't even begun to fill the need of families of this city since current estimates are that there are approximately 2,500 homeless children registered in Baltimore City Public Schools. We have spoken to churches such as Grace UMC in the city that have adopted our program along with the Maryland Food Bank in order to address this problem but it is an expensive program that costs all of us $18 for each backpack full of food per week. We go to festivals and talk to as many people as possible and also gather financial support for the program because each week without this support some family is going hungry over the weekend.
The current food programs in the school system only provide food to the children on weekdays. On the weekends, these children are often hungry and then the only thing that they are thinking about when they arrive at the school is that they want to eat. This lack of food takes away much needed nutrition required to build healthy bodies and sound minds so that they can learn and compete in the 21st century. When children do not get the nutrition they require to grow, they cannot learn properly, and this creates another decade of poverty for many in our community. They are often left with the impression that no one cares for them despite the fact that their parents or care givers can only do so much and they could lead to crimes of hunger.
We have an established foundation in which to collect financial support so that we can attack the entire program not just a small segment of the population. It is Heart's Place Services, Inc. at 2640 St. Paul Street, Baltimore, MD 21218. For the cost of a meal at McDonald's or some other place, you could help us to feed a family for a week. Look up Heart's Place Services on the Internet and help us feed Baltimore's homeless children. We may then be able to think back 10 years from now and say we were able to stop childhood hunger. What a wonderful Christmas present that would be.
Christian H. Wilson, Baltimore