Sesame Street Confronts Child Hunger

Sesame Street is introducing a new Muppet to the famous fictional New York block. Unlike most of her felt playmates, Lily is a seven-year-old kid whose family lives in poverty. She doesn’t always have enough food to eat and she’s ashamed of that fact. A very special episode of Sesame Street, “Growing Hope Against Hunger” will air this Sunday night where kids and parents can tune in and learn about Lily and her life.

Sesame Street has never strayed from issues affecting kids’ lives. They’ve always been very good at presenting topics to kids in a candid but comfortable format for subjects like grief, deployed parents, adoption, and kids with disabilities. I remember personally when the actor who played Mr. Hooper died and Bob had to explain to Big Bird about mortality.

Now Sesame street is addressing a new development that’s affecting America, namely that a growing number of kids in our country don’t always have enough to eat. The number has been growing steadily in these hard economic times, to the point where Sesame Street thought it was time to address it.

The special about Lily will tell kids from average families how they can help kids like Lily (by donating to hunger drives and soup kitchens). It’s also directed at kids who, like Lily, are from families suffering from food insecurity. Along with the growing number of hungry kids is a syndrome called “food shame.” Kids from hungry families feel ashamed of their situation and the hour-long program will address this too.

I remember a few years ago when Joe and I were living from paycheck to paycheck while he was between jobs. The only income we had was from piano lessons and Joe’s part-time job at the grocery store. After paying the rent and our mounting credit-card debt, there was very little left over for food. I remember being very grateful that our kids were too young to understand our situation.

They thought it was fun to eat pancakes twice or three times a week and didn’t think it weird that Mommy and Daddy would often eat oatmeal while they ate meat and vegetables— or even wait for the kids to eat their fill so they could eat what was left over. Had they been older at the time, they too might have been ashamed to admit that Mom and Dad were usually worried over food that week.

Now that those days are behind me (God willing), I’m very glad that my kids are getting the nutrition they need every day. I’m also saddened that I need to be reminded that not every family is so lucky. It’s so easy to get wrapped up in the minutia of my own life and my own problems that I forget to look around and see something other than how everything applies to me. I will be tuning in and taking notes.

I’m going to be Live-Tweeting “Growing Hope Against Hunger” this Sunday at 7 ET (hashtag #sesamestreet). You can follow my tweets: @lil_monmon.