Earlier this week, YMCA Community Action Project's Tommy Hobbs collected 20 food boxes from Silverdale Baptist and distributed them to families that YCAP serves throughout the Chattanooga area at its downtown, Ooltewah and Cleveland locations.
"The boxes are filled with non-perishables," said YCAP director Andy Smith, whose father Joe started the organization in 1998 as a way to help at-risk kids through boxing. "Canned goods, cake mixes, rice; stuff the families can cook throughout the holidays. Silverdale also gives them gift cards from Food City, Walmart and Target."
Nor has the generosity for some of our town's neediest citizens stopped with the good folks from Silverdale Baptist.
"Dallas Bay Baptist took 21 of our young people to Target last week," Hobbs said. "They gave each of them a gift card worth $115, then took them all to Rib and Loin in Hixson for dinner. Such a nice thing to do."
Those school children served by YCAP need a nice thing or two more than the rest of us. Their lives are a daily struggle for food to eat, a roof that doesn't leak over their head, someone to help with homework and the like.
And never have those needs surfaced more than during the coronavirus pandemic, when too many of our community's young people have been out of school and unsupervised unless they're under the care of YCAP or other non-profits.
"Here's the thing," said Smith. "A lot of these kids we serve lost, essentially, a year of school. That out-of-school time is the most important time of the day for what happens to them. If they're not in sports, or the band, or some other school or church activity, there's a good chance they're out on the street, getting in trouble."
More than 20 months ago, the pandemic in its early stages, Smith began to notice that a lot of their youth - or "clients" as YCAP refers to them - were going hungry due to schools being shut down and students being asked to learn virtually from home.
"We started serving dinner five nights a week," said Smith. "We have 25 kids in our program at any one time at each of our three locations, but over the course of the last year we've served 180 kids total, and we don't count any of those 180 unless they're a part of the program for a minimum of 30 days."
Food is not all the YCAP programs that serve boys only downtown and boys and girls in Ooltewah and Cleveland provide. There is tutoring, counseling, physical activities such as boxing, and a safe haven from the streets.
Struggling to follow rules early in his life, Arnold joined the program five years ago. Now 18, he graduated from Lookout Valley High School this past spring after finishing second in his weight class (125 pounds) in the United States Boxing National Championships, Youth Division.
He recently followed that up with a bronze medal at the same weight in the Elite Division (adults).
But while he dreams of a spot in the Olympics and a professional boxing career, Arnold also spends much of his time mentoring YCAP's current clients
"I want to give back," Arnold said Tuesday afternoon. "I can help be a big brother to these kids. YCAP made me what I am today. I'm a better man than I was before and I'm doing something I love."
There are few better women in the Scenic City than Kim Wamp, wife of former U.S. Congressman Zach Wamp. On every other Monday for the past 15 years, Kim has brought dinner for up to 25 YCAP kids.
"She's done it for so long that those Mondays are known as 'Ms. Kim Day,'" said Smith. "And everyone can't wait for those dinners."
It is easy to take the power of food for granted, especially for those of us who've never been hungry.
When Arnold was younger, he was the recipient of a Food City card. Asked the best Christmas present he ever got his mom, he instantly replied, "I bought her a turkey one year with one of those cards."
You hear daily about charities being stretched to their limits in order to provide help for those in need. It is a national crisis, attempting to lift the less fortunate, especially all these young people who are going to bed hungry each night.
But as the pandemic rages on, and household budgets grow tighter, Smith has also seen something remarkable unfold in the Scenic City.
We will need to retain that big heart as Christmas comes and goes and the pandemic lingers. Hunger doesn't stop when the holidays end.
Or as Smith noted of the daily challenge to feed our youth in troubled times: "Kids can't concentrate on school with an empty belly."
NOTE: Anyone wishing to donate food, clothes, Christmas gifts or money to YCAP can call 423-847-7682.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.