FARMINGTON — For some children, Martin Luther King Jr. Day meant another holiday off from school, but for others it meant a day without access to a free lunch at school.
Two dozen people from the greater Farmington community gathered Monday afternoon to remember King’s fight against not only racism, but against social injustices like poverty and hunger.
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Each year, the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day service focuses on a different social injustice in the community to honor the work King did and to call attendees to action in order to continue the work that still needs to be done.
Susan Crane, pastor at Henderson Memorial Baptist Church, said King in his speeches condemned poverty as a social ill that needed to be righted.
“Dr. King is best remembered for his preaching on racism, but he also recognized that racism went hand in hand with poverty. ‘As long as there is poverty in the world,’ Dr. King said, ‘nobody can be totally rich. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. And what affects one directly affects all indirectly.’ ”
Crane said the service, hosted by the Farmington Area Ecumenical Ministry, is intended to reflect on a quote from King, who said, “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: What are you doing for others?”
Speakers addressed widespread food insecurity in the community and efforts that are being made to expand the work of the free or reduced lunch program. In Franklin County, about 22 percent of children live below the poverty line, and speakers said that with poverty comes a struggle to keep food on the table.
The ministry presented an award to Richard Bjorn, president of Kyes Insurance and a longtime donor to town projects, for fighting hunger in the area. Bjorn recently donated a matching $10,000 grant to the Care & Share Food Closet that prompted $17,000 in donations, with $12,000 coming from new donors.
Crystal McBean and Lory Zamboni spoke about Theresa’s Totes, a ministry the two women run that was prompted by a similar program in Oregon that provided meals for families on the weekend when they don’t have access to the free or reduced lunch program. McBean said she realized that if hunger on non-school days is a problem in Oregon, then it was probably also a local problem.
McBean said that the Gerald D. Cushing School in Wilton, which serves 125 students from pre-kindergarten to first grade, has the fifth highest concentration of students on free or reduced lunch in the state.
McBean and Zamboni’s program, Theresa’s Totes, is intended to address this. Tote bags are packed with meals for students and their families over the weekend. In 2015, nine families are being served.
Chris Magri, co-chairman of the witness and outreach committee for Old South Church First Congregational Church, said his church is also trying to address gaps in food availability by creating a summer feeding program for children in Farmington this summer. Magri said that while children in Farmington have access to the free or reduced lunch program in school, there are days such as snow days, holidays and summer vacation when they don’t have access to those meals.
He noted that on snow days, school administration is not just thinking about the state of the roads, but about the students who are depending on a free lunch at school.
“It’s also, if we do cancel school, those are children who won’t have a meal,” he said.
In Farmington, he said there is already a program at the Mallett School on Middle Street which serves lunches during the five weeks of summer school. There is still a gap, however, and he said the committee would like to serve lunches near the far end of High Street, where it intersects with U.S. Route 2.
He said the committee would also like to have a reduced cost lunch option available for the parents of those children, who would also be in need if their children are in need.
“If there’s a child not eating well, there’s also an adult not eating well,” he said.
The service also included Caitlin Zamboni, a student at Mt. Blue Middle School, singing “Share Your Goodwill.” It closed with the traditional singing of “We Shall Overcome.”
Kaitlin Schroeder — 861-9252
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