Victor kindergarteners form food pantry brigade - The Missoulian

Victor kindergarteners form food pantry brigade - The Missoulian

HAMILTON – When you’re in kindergarten, the last thing you want to think about is living every day with an empty stomach.

The idea of hunger on that scale is hitting home right now for the 13 youngsters who make up Sue Lane’s kindergarten class at Victor Elementary School.

Last week – right after they finished their morning exercise – they reached into a sack and pulled out a box of macaroni, or a can of corn, or a sack of flour. And then they zipped up their coats and lined up single file to walk the block and a half to the place where people in their community who live with hunger find hope.

The Victor Food Pantry is located at the Bitterroot Valley Church of the Nazarene.

As the youngsters strolled toward its front door, Bill and Roxanne Gouin were standing there ready to meet them with big smiles and cheer.

The couple manages the food pantry that serves people in the Victor community.

Last year, the Gouins were delighted when Lane’s kindergarten class pushed and pulled little red wagons filled with 28 turkeys and a ham to the food pantry. Their generous gift made it possible for the pantry to provide Thanksgiving meals to more than twice as many families as they had the year before.

This year, Lane and her students want to do even more.

But first, the youngsters needed the opportunity to see the food pantry and learn just how important the community resource is to people who face hunger every day.

Once inside, they found seats at a table surrounded by shelves filled with food, and the freezers where their turkeys will eventually find a temporary home.

“When you look at all that food on the shelves, you probably think that we could never run out,” Roxanne Gouin said. “But we do.”

And all that food isn’t enough to keep something on people’s tables every night of the week. The couple explained the pantry can only help people with a box of food once a week.

“Why can’t people just go to a restaurant then?” said one young boy.

“Because restaurants charge money,” Roxanne Gouin explained. “We can give them some food for free. At least then, they have something to eat.”

“What do you do when you run out of food and money?” asked a little girl.

“We pray,” Bill Gouin said. “That’s the honest truth. We pray.”

Helping people less fortunate than yourself is a lesson both Lane and the Gouins hope that youngsters will take from this next month as they reach out to family, neighbors and maybe even a journalist for donations of turkeys.

“We have talked quite a bit in class about what it feels like to be hungry,” Lane said. “We talked about how hard that must be for families.”

“Why would you want to bring food’’ to the pantry? she asked her class of 13.

“Because if people don’t have any food, they’ll be able to come here and get some,” said another little girl.

While one youngster thought it would be great to bring a million turkeys over to the food bank, Lane said they are actually shooting for something closer to 100 by Nov. 17.

On Nov. 1, the youngsters will start asking everyone they know to donate a turkey.

The Gouins hope the community will join in the effort to ensure that families in need will have a nice Thanksgiving meal. Besides turkeys, the food pantry will need items like canned cranberries, green beans and yams. They’ll also need to stock their shelves with stuffing mix, turkey gravy and potatoes.

Anyone with questions can call the Gouins at 363-5054, or the church at 642-3838.

“We really have been blessed here in this community,” Bill Gouin said. “Whenever we think we’re going to run out of food, more comes in the door. There is a lot of need right now. More than what people realize.”

He smiles as the last of Lane’s class walks out the door.

“That’s such a gift that they are receiving,” he said. “They are learning what it feels like to help others at such an early age. That’s so important.”

He smiles and nods his head.

“And they are such a blessing to us,” he said. “They really are.”