Hard Choices No Parent Should Make

“They’re not hungry anymore. They have smiles on their faces.”

Sylvie, Leo, and Christian – California, United States

Sylvie and her husband, Leo, have raised three children in Santa Ana, California. Today Sylvie is a stay-at-home mom for their youngest, 11-year-old Christian. For this tight-knit family, their children are their world.

But when Leo lost the job he’d held for more than two decades, that world got harder to hold together. “Either we pay rent or lose the car,” says Sylvie. They kept their home, but the hard choices kept coming. “We had to choose between food and paying the electric bill.”

Then came the moment Sylvie knew they needed help. “I looked around and I didn’t have anything to cook,” she says. “I felt disappointed, ashamed, and hopeless that I couldn’t find anything for my children.”

Asking for help didn’t come easily. “It’s hard for us as a family to ask for help,” she says. “I was embarrassed at first.” But when they learned about the Feed the Children Food and Essentials Hub at Scholarship Prep, Christian’s school, everything changed.

When Sylvie opened the box, she could hardly believe it. Spaghetti and sauce. Canned fruit. Juice. Hygiene items for the whole family. “I was like, ‘All this is for us? Are you sure?’”

In the car, she and Leo looked at what they’d received and both cried. “We’re so blessed,” she said. “Look what we got!”

Leo felt it, too. “I didn’t know what I was going to do, didn’t know where the next meal was going to come from,” he says. “So finding out there’s a place we can go allowed me to start thinking of other ways to get myself back up… It was relief.”

And their children feel it most. “They’re not hungry anymore. They have smiles on their faces,” says Sylvie. “At school they’re focused because they know their tummies are full.”

Now Sylvie turns each box into meals for her family. “Every little thing in the box counts. It counts to us,” she says. With food costs eased, the family can finally think about getting back on their feet and thriving, not just surviving.

“How do I feel about knowing people care about me and my family?” Sylvie says. “Amazing and blessed and thankful that they care. So you need help? They’re saying ‘Welcome, we’re here, let’s do it. Let’s work it out.’ And they have, and I’m so thankful for them.”

No child should have to go to bed hungry this holiday season. Join our global movement, and let’s end holiday hunger for children everywhere.