November was Hunger Awareness Month for Social Concerns at the church. We had a handful of educational opportunities on Sunday mornings, but we also had two events. One was our 16th annual Thanksgiving Meal with our Catholic Church neighbor. The other event was a movie showing of a documentary on sustainable agriculture followed by community discussion.
I knew the movie would garner a lot of mixed feelings. "Fresh" is a film that looks at our food system, from seed to store. And it asks the question, is the current system working. Is it healthy? Good for the environment? Just? Though the film does look at buying options in grocery stores and the scarcity of fresh, healthy, affordable foods in inner city neighborhoods, it mostly examined industrial agriculture. Because this region is so heavily rooted in an agricultural economy, I knew that this would touch a lot of people. And, since there is a lot of conversation in the ELCA right now about whether or not farmers should use genetically modified seeds, I thought that conversation might overflow into our event.
I was nervous. I knew there would be people present who had very different views from me and from each other. Though I thought it might be a risky event to host, still I thought it was an important one to have. No matter how people feel about sustainable agriculture or industrial farms or genetically modified seeds-- the truth is that we have simultaneously a global food crisis AND an epidemic of obesity. We have more cheap food than ever before, but global health is declining. And environmentally we are losing potable water and arable land. Something has to be done about our food system. Someone needs to be talking about it... And we did talk about it. On a night when a severe winter storm threatened to cancel the entire event, 40 people showed up to talk about our food and farming system!
I thought the movie would be the only "controversial" hunger event, but as it turns out, our Thanksgiving Meal generated lots of tension as well. Our meal is advertised as a free meal for those who need one on the holiday. The goal of both churches upon starting the meal was to bring people together in fellowship, over a Thanksgiving feast, who would otherwise have no one to share the holiday with. It was never designed solely for "needy" (aka poor) people. But rather for those who need fellowship and the hospitality of a good, warm meal. This Thanksgiving we served 1100+ meals! About 500 of them were served in our sit-down dining area. The other 600 were delivered/ to-go meals.
The controversy came when many volunteers (and outside on-lookers from the church communities) began questioning whether meals were going to people who didn't really need them. They look so well-dressed-- why are they here? Or I saw their house, they could have had their own Thanksgiving meal. I found myself saying multiple times-- who are we to judge? We say we offer a free meal to those who need one on Thanksgiving, and that's what we're doing. Need comes in many shapes and sizes. Sure it'd be great to get more of those "to-go" meals to be eaten at the church with the others gathered there. Sure there are some who abuse the system. But, it is also true that we provide an extensive feeding and fellowship ministry on Thanksgiving. And that many people who would have otherwise been alone or gone without a home-cooked Thanksgiving meal had company and good food. And that's an incredible gift we can give to the community!
Both events showed me that the need to talk about hunger and food is great. And we in the church need to be having these conversations... We are a people who gather regularly at the Table to share a heavenly meal with one another. We are a people bidden by Jesus to "feed [his] sheep." We know that we do not do it alone, but we are called to be God's hands at work in the world. And it's a great thing to be a part of!
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