Lapte (milk) is often taken for granted as it is part of our everyday life. Whether with a bowl of cereal, as a glass of chocolate milk, or as an ingredient while cooking, it’s readily available whenever we need it. And besides milk, we have all kinds of other food to keep ourselves well-nourished.
This is not the case for many low-income families living in Romania. Many simply do not have the resources to buy milk or other nutritious foods. Often their diet is quite meager, which is why milk is a good supplement.
In the town of Darabani near the Ukrainian border live a number of impoverished families. Milk is dropped off at a church in town, then distributed to these families. One of the unbelieving families who receive this milk explained that this gift is a staple in their children’s diet. It is regularly eaten with cooked corn mush.
Some of these families do not have the luxury of a refrigerator. They simply store the milk on their porch or in the house with dry food supplies. The first day or two, they will enjoy sweet milk, and then as it sours, they eat it with cooked foods such as corn mush, bread, rice, or potatoes.
This milk is delivered to people living in various situations. Often it goes to handicapped children, fostered children, or children living in dysfunctional homes; other times it goes to the elderly who are trying to scrape by with meager pensions.
Most importantly, as milk deliveries take place, relationships are built, and love is shown to the lonely and hurting. As a staff member said, “[It is] a regular reminder of the love of God that lands on their porch.”
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