Having had a tough childhood, health care provider Champale Anderson has pledged to smoothen the childhood experience of deprived school children in her community.
By forming her grassroots charity, Champ’s Tear Drops, 48-year-old Anderson is able to provide food for children who come to her home begging for food aged 8 to 25, as well as, school children who would otherwise not have any meal for the day.
“Sometimes kids get a bag and come back to my house around 7 pm because that may be the only meal they have during the day,” she stated.
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Aside from preparing breakfast for deprived children, she also drives students to school if they miss the bus.
Local reports say that Anderson heads to work daily, wraps up her duties by 12:30 pm and heads to the school at her northern St. Louis community.
She then offers the children bags filled with goodies such as peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, cookies, fruit, vegetables, juice, snacks, and a few other surprises.
The mother of six comes told Good Morning America: “Those kids are waiting on me. I have to be out there because they are so excited.”
With the help of her own children and their grateful friends, she makes and serves a variety of chips, cookies, drinks and deli meat sandwiches when she can.
“They never know what I will have in the bag. I switch it up — special treats for my special babies,” she told local station KTVI-TV.
Grateful parents offer support when they can, she said.
“The parents always tell me ‘thank you.’ I have one young lady, she doesn’t have much, but she’ll bring a jar of peanut butter or a pack of cookies, whatever she can.”
But catering for such varied mouths cost money which Anderson might not always have. Thus, she has created a GoFundMe page, asking for $1,500 to buy more food for the kids. The campaign has brought in nearly $39,000.
The bigger dream, according to the Missouri mom, is to open a public recreational centre for kids in her neighbourhood.
“It makes me proud and I want to keep going and my goal is to go to different neighbourhoods and give out bags,” she said, adding “I do a hundred bags every day, sometimes a little more for the kids that’s coming extra. Their parents bring them over here to get it the bags and I’m going to start doing extra bags now maybe about 150.”
A Mother Teresa quote: “I alone cannot change the world but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples,” drives Anderson to do more.
