Most foster kids came to our home with food insecurities and needed constant reminders there will be enough and that they are enough. Some kids ate so much they would throw up, some hid food and others would go days without eating if they were upset or stressed. Food became an issue because their parents didn’t have enough money to feed them, other times food was withheld and used as punishment, or the parents weren’t around to feed them.
One little boy had such issues with food because his mom was a prostitute and would leave him to fend for himself. This little boy could never remember my name and called me “Judy” for a month straight. It would start at 5:30 am, and I could hear him down the hall, “Judy, hungry boy.” This went on all day long.
Normally, I don’t like food in the bedrooms, but with foster kids, I encouraged it so they wouldn’t have the fear of being hungry in our home. I made it a priority to take all our kids to the grocery store, let them pick out foods they liked, and we would eat dinner together to provide that daily routine.
