We organized a Food Bank collection in Paris. The idea came from a CLU [CL university] girl, because of her friendship with a family with whom she worked at the Food Bank in Milan, and her desire to re-discover Who answers her own need. We called the French Food Bank Association, asking if we could lend a hand. We immediately gave our availability and participated en masse, extending the invitation to the adults of the community as well. It was the first time that the Movement participated in this initiative in Paris. Among other things, we were greatly impressed by the Scout children who worked with us, as well as by some Italian in-laws who, having only two days in Paris, decided to spend one entire afternoon working for the Food Bank. They did not speak any French, so they just stuffed boxes and said “merci!” to the people dropping off their offerings. The initiative involved other friends, like our French college mates, and the parents of the Scout kids, who stayed to help us. We met many people, like Kader, a young Muslim Tunisian who, after reading the flyer we had prepared for the occasion, went shopping for the collection and inquired about us. He told us his story, and asked us if he could join us next year. In this initiative, we started from something that already existed, and it helped us keep our questions open and to look at reality. The origin of the community’s participation in the initiative was someone who looked at reality as a possibility of change for each one of us. Everything changes when I realize to Whom I am answering. Reality questions me; the more I desire, the more I need for my reason to grow, so that I can grab onto reality and what I see, not as a discourse, but as something that coincides with my humanity. How can I have an experience of reality and of what fills me with wonder? Only if what I live does not end with the Food Bank initiative; only if it happens again, in different forms, so that it will not just be because of a feeling that I can speak His name.

CLU students, Paris (France)