What Poverty Teaches Children to Accept

Last night at the juvenile center, a young man asked me a question that caught me completely off guard.

He asked if our church served McDonald’s.

At first, I honestly thought he was joking. I looked at him with confusion, unsure if he was trying to be funny. But his face never changed. There was no smirk, no sarcasm. He was serious.

As he continued talking, the truth came out. He explained that he was being raised by his grandmother and that he was tired of eating pizza rolls and ice cream for dinner. Not as snacks — as meals. That’s what they had. That’s what was available. And to him, McDonald’s represented something better. Something special. Something he didn’t normally get.

That moment stopped me.

What struck me wasn’t just his honesty — it was how low his expectations had been trained to be. When fast food becomes a luxury, you’re not just dealing with hunger. You’re dealing with a child whose understanding of normal has been quietly reshaped by poverty.

Standing on the Far Eastside, this isn’t abstract to me. I’ve seen it firsthand. I’ve watched families fill shopping carts at Dollar General — chips, soda, ice cream, frozen pizza rolls. Not because they don’t care, but because that’s what’s close, affordable, and familiar. For many families, Dollar General is the grocery store.

That conversation opened my eyes in a deeper way. Many of these kids are eating, but they are not being nourished. Their bodies, their minds, and their emotions are running on fuel that was never meant to sustain them. And over time, that lack of nourishment affects everything — focus, behavior, health, hope.

What stayed with me most is this:

That young man didn’t complain. He didn’t ask for steak. He didn’t ask for much at all. He had simply learned to accept less — and to call it normal.

I left that session reminded that ministry isn’t just about preaching salvation. It’s about seeing people clearly. Sometimes the gospel shows up as a conversation. Sometimes it shows up as a meal. And sometimes it shows up as realizing that what we take for granted feels like abundance to someone else.

I believe God allowed me to hear that question for a reason.