Poem by Caydince Huston

“Finish your food,” my dad says
“There are starving kids in Africa.”

Sitting at my dining room table,
6 year old me didn’t know whether Africa was a state or country,
let alone that there were starving children there.
Or, realistically the other way around.
The children there are starving.

I replied, “Daddy, why can’t I send them my plate?”
“We can do that!”
So he sends 2 plates of food,
and the neighbor sends 3.
the city sends 10,
the state sends 400,
and the country sends 10,000.

“We’re helping right, dad?”
“Of course we are!”

Little did 6 year old me know,
those plates of food did nothing.

Local African restaurants flinched
at the sight of the U.S's cheap, imported food.
So, the restaurants shut down,
in fear of competition.

The local farmers’ crop could not compare
to the truckloads of the
“new, free food”.
So, the farmers dig up the plants,
in fear of competition.

I sit down at my dining room table,
once again.

“Dad, I thought we were helping...”

“Finish your food.” my dad replies.
there are starving kids in Africa.”

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Caydince Huston is a first year at University of California, Davis. She holds the title of 2025 Tulare County Youth Poet Laureate. She enjoys writing poetry, studying agriculture, and performing.

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