From its inception in 1999, the Herkimer County Hunger Coalition had two goals: to help in the fight against hunger in Herkimer County and to put smiles on the faces of area children living at or below the poverty level. We’ve been fairly successful regarding the first. Through securing monetary donations and generating a lot of publicity, we’ve helped our county pantries’ shelves stay filled. They’ve become models of what rural pantries should be. And they don’t rest on their laurels, continuing to improve their quality of service as exemplified by the Kuyahoora Food Pantry,

Regarding the second goal, we’ve also been fairly successful. Our Gram Lorraine Children’s Christmas Program has provided an estimated 20,000 deserving children with a minimum of four items of clothing, new coats, boots and a toy, book or game of choice.

I’ve personally seen their smiles in the pictures sent to us by grateful parents. Those kids with brand new backpacks filled with supplies are surely smiling when they enter school on that first day. Our Fire Safety Program each October in the memory of the six McCleod children killed in a housefire on Dec. 23, 1989, in Little Falls helps insure that there’ll always be faces to put smiles on. And our Pumpkin Man (Halloween), Denny O’Toole (St. Patrick’s Day) and Half and Half (half one thing and half another-e.g. birtle-half bird, half turtle) contests have sure as heck put smiles on their faces. Kay and I and retired Benton Hall principal Joe Long have seen them.

Ever see a kid on a bike without a smile? I haven’t. Former Herkimer County Community College student Mike Carroll called me over 10 years ago asking if I knew five children who could use a new bike. I did — students in the BOCES New York State Migrant Worker Program. Thanks Julie Metz. Kelly Brown of the Hunger Coalition suggested that we match the offer. So, on a sun-kissed day in May 10 children and their parents entered Walmart and left with smiles from ear to ear. This year, Rudy Scialdo’s Greater Herkimer Lions Club sponsored two more.

There weren’t smiles on the faces of the children I saw on television recently. Instead, I saw little living skeletons, eyes set in deep hollows and mouths barely open. The faces of starving children in Gaza.

Imagine holding your starving baby while tons and tons of food which could keep him and the thousands of others alive sit in trucks visible in the near distance. Physical torture wasn’t enough. Had to heap on mental anguish as well. Their plight is the result of two satanic forces. First, their own leadership, HAMAs, a Palestinian terrorist organization, initiated it all by their horrific attack against Israel on October 7, 2023. Secondly, the latter’s conscienceless leader, Netanyahu, who has compromised his humanity for another day in power, who knew the attack was coming but did nothing the fortify the area where it occurred, and who realizes that as long as the “war” continues he’ll stay in control. To hell with the hostages.

You’d think that he and his supporters would know better than to perpetrate an Auschwitz-like policy against the Gazans. The numbers might be fewer, but the objective, ethnic cleansing, the same. It’s enough to make angels weep.

Thing is, our government has the power to stop the “war” and resolve the hunger problem. Trump to Bibi: No more 2,000-pound bombs, no more military aid, no more trade, no more anything until you take peace talks and a two-state solution seriously and until you allow all humanitarian aid vehicles to begin moving. Netanyahu has played Biden and Trump for patsies long enough. To allow the conflict in Gaza to continue only guarantees that today’s teenagers will be tomorrow’s HAMAS. (Note: Reviving U.S. Aid will keep starving babies in Sudan from dying)

As long as the Coalition is in operation, it will work to ensure that deserving area children continue to have smiles on their faces. I know that our Greater Herkimer Lions, Little Falls Rotary, Kiwanis Clubs and Elks Lodges are working to do similarly. It’s not only the Christian thing to do, it’s the American thing to do. Hopefully, our Federal and state governments will take advantage of the vast opportunities at their disposal to help ameliorate the suffering of children, not only here but everywhere it exists. And just maybe some of the 900 plus billionaires in the country will dig into their pockets to help out. Putting smiles on the faces of all the world’s children may seem like an impossible dream, but the way exists. If our governments, with our help, can find the will, that dream can come true.

Ray Lenarcic is a 1965 State University of New York at Fredonia graduate and is a resident of Herkimer.