Helping the Hungry

Article #1, Published February 16, 2017 by Eli Wasson

A quote for the read:

"I don't want to live in the kind of world where we don't look out for each other. Not just the people that are close to us, but anybody who needs a helping hand. I can't change the way anybody else thinks, or what they choose to do, but I can do my bit."
— Charles de Lint

My first story comes from something that happened to me yesterday in the cafeteria at my school. My friends and I were sitting at our table, like usual, and all of the sudden we noticed this African American student go into the kitchen. He opened his backpack and put it on the ground. What he did next was something I have never witnessed before - and it may not seem like a big deal but once you actually see something like this in real life, you feel different about it. Anyways he started grabbing some snacks off of the snack shelf and shoving them into his bag. All within one minute this student just walked right in, took some snacks, and swiftly left without being seen by any of the lunch ladies, the hall monitor, or the administrator. But he did make one mistake: when he opened up his backpack to start stuffing it full of goodies, he dropped a book and some papers - evidence that someone had been in there. Apparently he either didn't notice it or was too nervous to spend the extra time to stop and pick it all up. After that a lunch lady came back in and noticed the mess of papers and the book laying on the ground. She just looked at it and left it there, probably confused. A short while later the boy came back to the kitchen and asked the lady if he could get his stuff. I didn't here the entire conversation but she let him in, he got his stuff, and left.

So, I knew what had to be done but I didn't know if I should do it or not. I knew the only reason why anyone would steal snacks is because they're hungry. I asked a friend sitting across from me at my table if I should tell someone about what happened. He told me I should because I might get beat up by his friends. But I have seen this kid before walking around reading a book. Anyone walking around reading a book with glasses on could not possibly be that bad. Anyways I didn't really care about that. I had quickly come up with a plan that would benefit everyone.

I got up from my seat and went over to the same lunch lady who let the boy get the stuff that he had dropped. She was busy cleaning up when I interrupted her.

"Excuse me," I said.
"There was a boy who came into the kitchen to get some stuff, did you allow him to come in?"
"Yeah. He dropped some papers in there and I let him in to get them," she replied.
"No but before that, did you allow him in to get some snacks?"
That's when she realized what happened.
"No, I did not. He told me he just dropped his book in there and I didn't really believe him."
"Okay well um, because we were sitting at that table over there and we saw him go in and lay his backpack down and starting grabbing some snacks off that shelf."
After I said that another lunch lady came over. She had overheard and they both became angry.
"Do you know what he looked like?" the other lunch lady asked me.
"No, I know who he is. I let him in to get his stuff that he dropped,"
"What's your name, honey?" she asked me.
"Uh," I hesitated. I knew when I told her they would have my name and I would be included in a long investigation.
"Elijah Wasson."
She wrote my name down and the two ladies went and found the boy. The bell rung and everyone was leaving for their next class. Just then the two lunch ladies, the boy, and the administrator I told you about earlier, were walking back. As I was walking past, I stopped the lunch ladies and I asked, "Um, I know this is kind of weird but do you think I could pay for the things he stole? Like if he was stealing them because he was hungry and couldn't buy lunch or something."
As I was asking all of that to those two ladies, a wave of pure sadness hit me. I almost couldn't finish what I was saying. It wasn't a sad kind of sad, it was just like a sympathetic sadness. I had never been so close to anyone in that kind of situation where they were so desperate that they stole just to feed themselves.
"Well we'd have to talk to the dean about that," the lunch lady replied.
"Raymond*, did you take these because you are hungry?" she asked him.
He talked so quietly that I could hardly hear him. All I could make out was that he said something about his lunch and money.
"Okay, you need to tell us this and we can get something figured out for you to eat lunch. Just don't ever do anything like this again."
He nodded his head and said okay.
"Now this man is doing a very good deed. Is it okay if he buys these snacks for you?" she asked him.
"Yeah," he replied.
He then stuck his hand out at me and he shook my hand.
"Now it's going to be a dollar fifty, it that okay," the lady asked me.
"That's fine," I said in an obvious kind of manner. Knowing this kid's situation, $1.50 was no problem.
"Okay well I already got your name down so I can just charge your account, is that okay?"
"Yeah."
The two lunch ladies and the boy then walked back over to the kitchen, the dean asked me for my name, and that was it. I went on to my next class and they went on buying the snacks for him to eat. Even then I was still filled with some sort of sadness, so much so I almost started crying. I don't fully know why yet and probably never will but because I asked to buy those few snacks that he stole because he might not be able to buy lunch for himself, he did not end up getting in trouble like he could've been if I hadn't of pointed that out to the admin and the lunch ladies.
So, the moral of this story is to make sure you don't judge anyone by the actions they do. Sometimes we are forced to do something for survival. The next time you watch the local news and see that a bank has been robbed, don't immediately think they did it just because it's fun. They did it because of the society they live in. They did it because they have no one to help them out of it.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. What he stole was three cookies. All of this over three little cookies.

* For the purpose of privacy, I have changed the boy's real name in the article

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I'm a 16-year-old sophomore in high school. I've figured out that Steemit is a great way to express my feelings about certain topics and get paid for it! I like to start all my articles with a quote to get the reader to understand the 'feeling' of the article before they start reading it.

See more of my posts here!