The Students' Stolen Lunches

CEBU, Philippines - Grade one students from Lapu-Lapu City Central School were crying when they found out they lost their food for lunches.

The teacher from that class wondered who would do such an act. So, one morning, when the students were out of their classroom for an activity, she spied the empty classroom to find out who the culprit was. She saw one of her female grade one students rummaging through the lunch boxes and bags of her classmates, took their rice and viands and gather them in one plastic bag. The student then slowly went out of the classroom and out of the school. The teacher followed the student in her aim to tell the parents about what their child did at school. The teacher continued following the student until she was led to a small, tattered shack where the student entered.

The teacher hid a few meters away from the house where she got a good glimpse of almost all the parts of the house, since it was just a box-type of house. She watched her student.

The grade one student then took out four plates from their tiny kitchen and placed it on the small wooden table. She took out the small amount of food she gathered from her classmates’ lunches and divided it among the four small plates. She then happily called her younger siblings who were playing on the floor and ushered them to their seats for their breakfast.

Then the student went to a sickly woman lying on a small wooden bed and talked to her, smiling. The woman smiled back at her, then laid her head back again.

Upon watching the entire scenario, the teacher felt a painful lump in her throat and silent tears fell down her cheeks. She was greatly touched with what she saw. She then went back to school.

The next day, she visited her student in her house with a sack of rice. The student was so happy. Later did the teacher learn that her student didn’t have a father anymore and that their mother was sick and couldn’t work, that’s why they didn’t have food to eat. This left the grade one student, who is the eldest among her siblings, to look for ways to feed her little brother and sisters and their sickly mother.

This led us into great realization of how lucky we are in life. We don’t have the right to complain but to thank for every gift we have, instead. (FREEMAN)