Brooke Goins loves her job. As an elementary school teacher at Jacksboro Elementary School in Tennessee, Goins works with children every day, and is usually prepared for almost anything they have. That was until a young boy asked her a question that broke her heart.
“Today I cried at work,” she wrote in a Facebook post that later became viral, “not because I hate my job, or that it is just too hard (it really is). Today I cried for a child, a child who so innocently talked about food, and the lack of it.”
The young boy asked when “the lady who puts food in his backpack” was coming. He was referring to the school guidance counselor, who would visit the children and hand out canned goods as part of a program for children living below the poverty line. As the school week was a little shorter that week, the guidance counselor’s schedule was altered, and it wasn’t until this little boy’s question that Brooke realized the impact of this small gift.
“It caught me off guard,” she continued in her Facebook post, “He told me he was out of it at home and needed more. I asked if it was the macaroni bowls or the crakcers, he said no. I asked if it was the spaghetti Os, he laughed and told me no that they didn’t have those.”
It was the next part the boy told his teacher that made her break down in front of the class: “He looked at me and said, ‘those little Os (as he made a small circle with his hand), we don’t have those at my house, but when I do have them they give me a warm belly and help me sleep.'”
Realizing the huge impact a small visit from a school guidance counselor could have, Brooke sent a message round to her fellow teacher friends for a little help pitching in for a visit to the grocery store. Of course, nobody hesitated to help, and Brooke loaded up with items for a small food pantry, including plenty of those special spaghetti Os.
With a viral post of Facebook, and lots of updates through the year, Brooke has managed to garner support for this boy and others like him, ensuring that no matter what background a child has, they are not going hungry.
Unfortunately, this is by far an isolated case. It’s thought that around 11 million children in the US are in a “food insecure” household, meaning there isn’t enough food for every family member to eat and live healthily. That figure equates to around one in every seven children, just like the little boy in Brooke Goins’s class.
But with charities like No Kid Hungry and amazing people like Brooke, these figures can change, all it takes is a little kindness and compassion. “I want people to know that teachers are humans,” she told Good Morning America. “We love your kids and want the very best for them. Some days we get frustrated and feel overwhelmed, but today we did what was best for a child. Will it show on a test score? Nope! Do we care? Nope!”
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