Everyone Eats on Friday.

"How do you decide which kids get food and which don't?"

It's a common question put to us, asking who plays the role of "Basic Needs Decider" in schools. Our answer is simple: we feed those who are hungry.

"Sure, but how do you determine which ones NEED it?"

Our school system is over 70% food insecure; the schools where we've implemented are trending between 84-98%. With stats like that, we're not so much worried about those who don't need food so much as the ones who need more than we provide.

So it comes very naturally to us that the answer is this: everyone eats on Friday.

There are no sign-ups, no documents for overwhelmed caretakers to wrangle, no red-ink balance lines to try to decipher who might have an extra few pennies that fall here or there, rendering them disqualified.

No lines to divide children into deeming "have" or "have nots" that assign a stigma or a damaging label. Because every study ever conducted on this matter will report that when children are faced with the option of eating while ostracized or going without, they'll choose an empty stomach. Every time.

And often when faced with the shame often affiliated by society of assistance programs, parents will chose to forgo in hopes that their children won't know of the secret struggle. Sometimes it's just the humbling worry that "someone needs it more than me," that keeps families from reaching out for that lifeline, because someone always has it harder.

And then there are those children who would gladly fight that battle...but unfortunately the guardians fail to show up. To quote one such child who shared with us on the subject: "They had weekend food backpacks at our school, but your parents had to sign up for them. My mom and dad were addicts; they weren't going to leave the house, let alone tell the school they were struggling to feed us. None of us were allowed to talk about things at home. So I would see other kids getting food, eating the food. And spend the weekend waiting for Monday when I could eat again."

So we've kept to this rule. We won't implement in a school or a program unless we can guarantee that when the food bags are passed out, they fall into every pair of hands. On the rare circumstances that the child doesn't want the bag, they can leave it for the next child to take two (often given to a younger sibling at home).

This mantra has followed into our summer feeding program, where any child 18 and under, can walk into one of the library locations and request a bag of food. They'll be fed, no questions asked, because we believe that this basic human dignity is the birthright of every child.

Is it a heftier bill to pay? It certainly is, and the best investment we could make.

For those who believe with us, you can feed a child for just $3.50 at www.blessingsindiana.org/donate

Because today is Friday. And everyone should eat today.