“OUR family had to move countries because of the war.”

I was chatting to a member of staff who had come to donate some food the chaplaincy collects for Worcester Foodbank. It was one of those comments I couldn’t let go.

And when I asked for more she said: “I was born in Kosovo and most of my childhood was dominated by war. In the end my father took to hiding us girls in the basement when there was trouble because they did terrible things to girls.

“And then one day armed men came around and gave us 24 hours to get out of our home or we would be killed. So we began our trek to Macedonia.”

In my mind’s eye I saw pictures of ordinary people, families with their children, fleeing from the war criminal Milosevic and his troops.

“It took us seven days and it was cold. At night I remember our father finding us a hole underground so it would be a little warmer. And when we got to the border we had to pay the troops to gain our freedom and get to the other side.”

She told me all this with additional stories which are too graphic to write here, and if she could have seen my face behind the mask I was wearing, she would have seen me open-mouthed.

“That’s why giving this food means nothing to me. I have been there. It is important that we look after people who are less well off than ourselves.”

I admired this woman so much; and it struck me that because of what she had experienced, she now saw the world, and the needy people within it, in a different way.

She was full of compassion and concern and explained that she often gives food to the homeless she sees in the city centre.

“All of the materialistic stuff we have means nothing to me,” she explained as she told me that she had given away the money which she earned on an extra shift to charity. All I want now is peace and security for my family. Nothing else matters.”

Now that’s ‘food for thought’.