To the editor:

I saw the opened bag of chips before I heard her voice. As the woman lifted her half gallon of milk onto Just Food’s checkout table where I volunteer every Friday, she must have felt as if she’d been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. She said, “I am sorry. I am just so hungry.”

On the whole, our shoppers are grateful for what they receive. Still, I read their faces. I see their hunger. These days, intensity hovers over the long lines at Just Food’s pantry. Consider: From 2020 to 2024, the all-food Consumer Price Index rose 23.6%. Our shoppers shake their heads when they talk about the price of groceries. Consider too: The Department for Children and Family Services reports that if the government shutdown continues, Kansas stands to lose $34.4 million in food stamp benefits, affecting 188,000 Kansas families.

With these skyrocketing food prices and looming cuts in government nutrition programs what message are we giving our famished fellow citizens? It’s the same one the disciples wanted Jesus to give to the hungry crowd at the feeding of the five thousand, “send them away.”

But we can send a different message. When we give our dollars and make food donations to our local food pantries, we are saying to the woman who couldn’t wait to dive into her snacks and all others in her same boat, “Come. There’s nourishment here!”

Peter Luckey, Lawrence