Our group visited St. Clare’s on a typically bright and hot Haitian day.   On this day, we saw a miracle.  We arrived in the morning  not knowing exactly how the food program worked and what might be taking place.

Sometime after one o’clock a hum of activity began.  Still it wasn’t the roar that I expected but the anticipation was growing.  As 2:00 pm drew near the crowd started to grow.  There is a fore court kind of area and the children buzzed about knowing that the food was being prepared and soon they would eat.  At 2:00 o’clock the smallest children lined up outside the gate as plates of steaming hot food were piled up for distribution.  Our group would help hand out the plates, sometimes really hot plates.  The kids streamed into the entry way and into a large area with tables.  We watched with concern as little children led even smaller children by the hand and the crowded line threatened to put them under the feet of the children in line.  My 16-year-old daughter, Natalie, was completely in her element.  Big smiles were shared as we moved the children into their spots to receive their lone meal of the day.  The tables were crowded with kids, mostly no older than kindergarten age.  It seemed like some would get lost at the crowded tables. Then plates of food were rapidly passed out to the children in a bucket brigade of heaping rice, vegetables, and meat sauce.  Having no idea how much food had been cooked or just how many people would be served I am sure all of us were struck by the healthy portion of food.

The people that run the program are tasked with keeping control of hundreds of hungry children and then as the feeding progresses, people of all ages.  There is a system to the whole day’s program.  It unfolds before our eyes as we move from room to room as different groups are seated in a repeat of the first process and then a welcoming, prayer and “Bon Appetit” for the newest group.  The miracle continues and heaping plate of food upon heaping plate of food is dispensed in our bucket brigade.  Side struggles occur and the leaders must take a stand to keep the process as smooth as humanly possible when you have people starving getting their only meal of the day.

It is hot is the kitchen with boiling water and large pots of food being cooked.  The dishes that come back from the first feedings are washed and recycled to be used again as second and third groups of people are served.  Some people take food home to be dispensed to their families; some groups share their food for later consumption.  We have but a small window into what their lives are like.  How many people depend on just one of these adults for their daily food and well being?

There are still groups remaining to be fed.  It is past 4 o’clock.  The effort to feed 1,500 people for just this one day is unbelievable.  It is like running a marathon.  It is like the annual Booya Festival in South St. Paul, MN.  I would be truly impressed if this feeding program were even an annual event.  But the miracle of the feeding program is that what we saw on this glorious day takes place nearly every day of the week.

Paul Miller, MN