AMARILLO, TEXAS -- We may not like to admit, but it's true that many kids in Amarillo go hungry.
However, there are a number of organizations that are trying to take care of that. One is Citychurch with its, "Fill the Bag and Feed a Child" program.
For the volunteers at Citychurch the day starts early. Dozens from the church, surrounding communities, and as far away as Alaska have packed over 2,000 sack full of fruits, drinks, cookies, and other goodies, and they prepare a hot meal, too.
"It takes a lot of volunteers. Today we're filling a group of about 85 volunteers and any given week during the summer we have upwards of 150 volunteers, half of those will be living with us," said Donnie Lane, Citychurch Senior Pastor.
After that, the sacks and hot food are loaded onto trailers attached to either a van or even bicycles.
"A bike puts you in a more inferior position. And so it's a little more humbling and the kids are more comfortable coming out and talking to you," said Lane.
Then, the volunteers get the reward for their hard. A child's enthusiastic expression and excitement to see these Citychurch members bring to them, what to many, is their only meal or snack for the day.
"They smile they're so happy to receive it. I mean, I've been on the other side, I've received a lunch and I know how they feel and I love seeing the smile on their face when they get the lunch," said Terrin Campbell, Citychurch member.
It's that reason that brought Campbell in to volunteer. "I don't like the things being said about our generation, you know, 1998. I mean my class is not the best behaving class, you know, since I've been in school and a lot of people say we're not going to do good in life, but I want to prove everyone wrong".
The "Fill the Bag and Feed a Child" program is something Citychurch has done for 15 years. They say they saw a need and wanted to address it.
"When we started picking up children we realized they were hunger at the time we were just using popcorn. And so now we have an industrial kitchen thats fully equipped and it allows us to do more and be more efficient," said Lane.
Citychurch is not federally funded, meaning they rely solely on your donations. If you would like to help either monetarily or volunteer, call them at 371-0089
