Gift of food helps — and eyeglasses, too

She knows the pressure to have things.

She sees teens with smartphones and nice shoes and clothes that cost more than her family can afford.

And she knows some people judge her by what she doesn’t have.

“It’s like if you don’t have what they have, you’re poor, you’re going to be a bum,” says the 16-year-old, who goes to an area high school.

She doesn’t let it get to her. She’s focused on more important things: family, education, church.

When she was younger, there were times when her family didn’t have power, water or gas for heat. But then, she says, “God blessed us with some money.”

Still, finances are tight, so when she heard of a twice-a-month mobile food pantry at her school, she told her mom. They go every time and get healthy foods — yogurt, fresh vegetables, fruit — that otherwise would be out of their financial reach.

“My mom applauded one time over the cottage cheese,” she says, a smile crossing her face. “I hope Harvesters never stops (providing food to teens) because this is helpful.

“I know kids are having tough times. One kid I know basically eats once a day. I wish they would come to the pantry.”

She says sometimes a “little extra help” is all someone needs.

On Easter Sunday, while she was singing in her church choir, her eyeglasses fell off and she stepped on them. For months, she’s had colored tape at one corner, holding her glasses together. The other corner is wrapped with transparent tape.

People started asking her, “When are you getting new glasses?”

One day she finally wrote an answer on her Facebook page. She would get a new pair “when God blesses me with new ones.”

Last month, a vice principal approached her and said her school had a special fund to help with such things and she’d soon get a new pair of glasses.

“I burst out in tears,” she says. “Nobody has really done something like that for me. My mom does a lot, but for somebody else?”

She’s been counting down the days until she gets her new glasses. Just one more to go.

The appointment is Friday.