Shelves at the community’s food pantry are bare and that’s never a good sign.

If the shelves were empty because the needy have come in droves seeking assistance, it shows that our community may have lots of needy, hungry families.

If the shelves were bare because the food pantry doesn’t have enough money to keep the shelves fully stocked, it shows a lack of support for the program.

In the case of the Natchez Food Pantry, both reasons are true.

It’s easy to point blame, criticize the management, second-guess how they’ve spent resources, etc.

It’s also easy to blame the victims — in this case the needy, too.

“If those people would just get off their rear ends and work, they wouldn’t be hungry,” some critics say.

While perhaps that may be true in some cases, the great majority of the people receiving aid truly do need it. They aren’t just milking the entitlement system. They simply have no other place to go. Walking into a food pantry and saying, “I need help” is not an easy thing to do for most Americans.

Even if a few people are milking the system or even if you think the management could have spent its resources better, you’re missing the underlying point.

Members of our community are hungry and we should support the systems in place that can help them.

Please support the local agencies that provide meals and groceries for your neighbors. As the old saying goes, “There but by the grace of God go I.”