ELCA World Hunger

United States
Meet Jim

Every afternoon for the past 10 years, 88-year-old Jim Freeman hears a knock at the door. A smile comes over his face as he walks to greet a volunteer from Mobile Meals, who is holding a warm, nutritious meal. Sometimes a nurse or a chaplain is there too—just to check on him. On his birthday, he receives a birthday card and cake.

Jim’s wife recently passed away after a 22-year battle with Parkinson’s disease. His two adult children have moved away. So it is just Jim and his dog, Brook, who occupy his home in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

Jim, like many of the 600 people served by Mobile Meals each day, lives below the poverty level. “I have no income other than my social security,” he says. “When I crunch the numbers, I realize that without this [help] I would not eat the way I do.”

As Jim ages, volunteers pay careful attention to his dietary needs—adding vitamins, limiting salts, increasing fluids—whatever it takes to keep Jim healthy and free from hunger. “We are feeding God’s people,” says Ralph Gillespie, a Lutheran volunteer. “And that’s what ELCA World Hunger is all about.”


www.elca.org/hunger