Yesterday was one of those cold and rainy days, the kind that makes you want to wrap yourself in a warm blanket, curl up on the couch and waste away with the TV while eating bowls of chili, soup and junk food. When my initial plans for the evening fell through, I thought I’d go home and cook something and enjoy the evening in, but I caved to laziness and got a cheeseburger basket from Zesto’s instead. I spent most of the evening wasting, or rather, enjoying time catching up on TV shows and indulging in some not-so-good-for-you food. But I’ve also been thinking.
Ever since I realized that I don’t struggle with the corn allergy anymore (Have I mentioned that here? If not, that’s a whole other story for later), I’ve been going a little crazy with things that I forgot tasted so good. While they taste good, they aren’t so good for me. As my stomach begins to resemble something more like an inner tube, I’m becoming painfully aware that it’s time to dial it back a little. It’s hard though because besides the Zesto’s tonight, I haven’t done a lot of fast food. I don’t buy a lot of snack items like chips and Little Debbie cakes. I’m just a pretty good cook and I can make whatever I want. And I must say, I eat well. Sometimes, when I think about it, I eat shamefully well. And I like chocolate.
You see, in 2010, there were 925 million hungry people in the world. These people have been suffering and dying while I’ve been stuffing my face and developing that inner tube around my waist. I probably throw away more food in a year than a lot of people get to eat. Even more upsetting is the fact that there is enough food supply in the world to feed all of these hungry people. This problem isn’t a matter of there not just being enough to go around, it’s a problem of local resources, education and most of all, compassion.
So, what can I do? That’s a big question, a loaded question, one that receives both simple and complex answers. As a Christian, the answers become even more simple and more complex. The first and simplest thing I can do is pray. I can ask the Holy Spirit for direction and help with the complex. On the more difficult side, I know that a full stomach does not necessarily equal a full soul. In order for the world to truly be filled and at peace, it will need to accept the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ. Still, it’s difficult to tell someone that Jesus loves him and cares for his needs while he suffers everyday from lack of basic provision, especially when that suffering could be relieved with just a few resources.
Relieving a person’s hunger is as simple as giving him something to eat, right? Yes … and then no. I’ve served food at the local homeless shelter. I’ve collected food for Harvest Hope food bank, I’ve sorted food for other food banks. My mother oversees a project with her church called “Sacks of Love” where they put together bags of food to send home with children in need every Friday so that those children will have something to eat on the weekend. There was a season in my life when I would go every third Saturday a month to a church turned food pantry for the day, a small church that was only a mile from the house where I grew up, and sort food and serve the members of the community who were eligible for food. A lot of the food that we received was recently expired, but mostly still good food donated from grocery stores. The majority of the food was high in sodium, preservatives, calories and fat. This was while I was still having to avoid corn and I had determined that I would die if I had to live off of the donated food. Most of the people who came to receive food were overweight and/or in poor health. This was typically accompanied by laziness. I noticed that there was a decent amount of open land on the church’s property and asked about the possibility of growing a garden to supplement the food pantry. The response I got was, “That would take a lot of work, wouldn’t it?” With several of the people receiving the food being unemployed and local, I figured they’d have some time and willingness to put in some effort, especially since they’d be reaping the benefits. I was wrong. Food education was also an issue. Sometimes during the Spring/Summer, we’d get shipments of produce that was starting to go bad, but still had a lot of good and salvageable food in the crates. One day they brought all kinds of produce and also several cases of soda. People skimmed by the produce, but went crazy for the soda to the point that we had to guard the pallet and limit how much they took.
The problem, in the United States at least, is not just feeding the people, but educating them to eat at least somewhat healthy. Then there’s the issue of motivating people to put forth the effort to help themselves and seize opportunities. In third world countries, the issue seems to be more of resources like clean water and fertile land for growing food, along with the knowledge to grow that food. What I’m trying to say is, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to hunger, and the more you look at the challenges, the more complex they become.
The problem is big and I am small, but I can start by recognizing the problems. It’s easy to drown out the pain of others and live like it doesn’t exist. It comes down to more than simple awareness though. I have to stare at the problems face to face. As terrifying as that is, it’s the only way to become motivated enough to do something about it. Then it’s one step in front of the other.
I’m challenging myself this March with a diet of mostly rice and beans, the main food of most folks in East Africa. There will be some flexibility though. Fruit and vegetables can be added. I’m also allowing myself to use food that’s also already in my pantry (time to learn how to make Quinoa taste good!) and if I go somewhere where a free meal is provided or it’s one of those absolutely necessary social/business situations where I have to eat out, I will, but I will be less indulgent there as well. The idea came from this site http://eatriceandbeans.com. It’s an invitation to live as most of the world does. I also plan to tally up my credit card and bank statements from this past month and see how my food spending will compare at the end of March. This might lead to a way to live more sacrificially and provide some of those needed resources I mentioned earlier. This project is not huge or earth shattering, but it’s a chance to sort things out a little.
In addition to this, each day in March I plan to pray for specific ministries, groups of people and causes. There will also be meditation on specific Scripture each week. If you wish to join me in any part of this endeavor, I’ll be posting the prayer topic each day as well as the weekly Scripture. I plan to write a little bit about my adventures with rice and beans and hopefully some recipes to go along. If anything, this will help me stick to the plan. Should you choose to participate with me, please comment or e-mail to share your experiences.
I don’t plan for this to be easy, in fact, I know I’m going to go through some withdrawals. I apologize in advance if there are moments that I become unpleasant. However, I do plan to grow closer to God in the process and hopefully gain a little more understanding and compassion for my fellow humans next door and around the world.
