Food tasting at club brings awareness to hunger

Seventeen-year-old Emily Brurud put on a food tasting event Tuesday at the Boys & Girls Club of the Hi-Line for the purpose of bringing awareness to childhood hunger.

"We're letting people know that there is hunger still with kids, and some kids don't have anything to eat at night, and the meals they get at school may be the only ones they have," she said.

The goal of the event was to let parents know about simple and cost-efficient ways to feed their children. Emily said the ingredients to make the dishes can be found at local food pantries and dishes are healthy.

On a table, feet away from the club's entrance, stood a couple of connected tables on which samples of Texas chili, pumpkin macaroni and cheese and chicken casserole were laid out across it in styrofoam bowls. A crockpot with more chili was on the other side of the dishes.

The Montana Food Bank Network reports that about 1 in 7 Montanans struggle with hunger, including 45,000 children living in food insecure homes, a problem related to economic insecurity in the state.

"Low wages, job loss, and insufficient fixed incomes leave many families unable to keep food on the table, while trying to afford the rising costs of housing, child care, and medical care," the Food Bank Networks says.

Emily said her desire to put a dent in hunger was passed on to her by her father, club Director Tim Brurud.

"We've had foster children and they would come in and they would be really hungry and they would eat just about anything, but usually, a lot of the kids wouldn't eat very healthy things. They would just want junk food - they wouldn't want home-cooked meals or anything else," Emily said.

Brurud said that about 12 years ago, when the Club opened in Havre, it would open at 1 p.m., "so kids have a chance to eat lunch with their parents and then come to the club." But he found out kids were coming to the Club hungry, so they pushed the time back an hour.

"So we started serving lunch because we realized there's kids that are hungry," he said. "Since then we're really focused on providing as much food as we possibly can. We do a big meal and a snack in the summer and in the school year to try to help out as much as we can."

Emily considered the event a success. Awareness was the goal and she said it looked as if that was achieved.

"We have a lot of people talking about it and we hear people talking when their parents come in and the kids are talking to others and they're excited about it and wanting to help," she said.