by Monica Palmer
A mother would do just about anything to protect her children from harm.
Recently, I stumbled across a news story from Massachusetts about a young, single mom named Mindy Tran who literally laid down her life to protect her twin daughters. Mindy had buckled her girls into their car seats and walked away from the vehicle to lock the door of her home. When she looked back, she saw the car rolling down a steep incline, headed for a busy street. Knowing that the car and her daughters could not avoid a collision if the car made it down that incline, Mindy used her own body as a speed bump, slowing it down, until a neighbor jumped in the car to bring it to a stop.
This courageous act of love has left Mindy hospitalized and in a lot of pain, but her daughters are safe, and that is all that matters to this brave mom.
I read Mindy’s story with awe, and I wondered if I would’ve been able to do the same thing if I had been in that situation. I began to picture my kiddos in the back of our car rolling straight towards danger and possible death. After only a moment of running that scenario in my mind, my heart began to beat faster, and I knew without a doubt I would have done whatever it took to keep my kids safe, because that’s what moms do.
This kind of sacrifice happens on a daily basis right here in our own communities.
Missouri is currently number two in the nation for Very Low Food Security, which means we have a lot of households where at least one person is not getting an adequate amount of food each day. If you had to guess which member of a family is most likely to miss meals so the other members get enough to eat, who do you think it would be? That’s right. It’s Mom.
The “feast and famine” coping strategy is common among low-income parents, especially mothers. When food is tight, these mothers will restrict their diet or neglect their nutritional needs entirely so their kids won’t go hungry. Then, when food is available, they tend to overeat on low-cost, energy dense food. This behavior causes metabolic changes in their bodies which promote fat storage and puts them at risk for obesity and other serious health issues. Of course, the moms aren’t thinking of the damage to their own health, because they’re operating from an instinctual impulse to do what is best for their children.
In the long run, though, the children are adversely affected by the parent’s sacrifice. Studies have shown that parental obesity, especially maternal obesity is a strong predictor of childhood obesity.
There is a common assumption held even among intelligent people that a person cannot be hungry and overweight at the same time. When in actuality food insecure and low-income populations are especially vulnerable to obesity. Hopefully this helps to further explain why hunger is a hidden problem in Missouri. Hungry people may not look like we expect them to.
We may not see the acts of sacrifice happening in our communities, but they are there. These sacrifices are made with love but could have devastating implications for the future health of our state.
I was overwhelmed with the out-poring of support from complete strangers for the young mom in Massachusetts. People were moved by her story of love and bravery. I know that if you could see the quiet sacrifices being made in some of the households in your community, you would be motivated to help as well.
Please support your local food bank and the partner agencies that help make these kinds of sacrifices unnecessary. Getting enough healthy food to eat should be a basic human right for every single person.