Living Free From Hunger ©
Reverend Janet Parsons
Gloucester UU Church
November 20, 2022
You can tell when Thanksgiving is approaching in my extended family. Conversation on the family WhatsApp group starts to heat up, with queries about the head count, and food assignments. The hosts this year converted to veganism a couple of years ago, but they are cheerfully cooking the turkey anyway. We’ll all add in everything else. The cousins are talking about reviving the dessert competition. There will clearly be too much food.
I learned something a couple of years ago – in the depths of the pandemic, in 2020, when I spent Thanksgiving alone. I always wondered what that would be like, and now I know that it’s entirely survivable, but not exactly fun. But what I learned, really, is that Thanksgiving for me is no longer about the food. I’d happily travel to my sister’s house if she was only serving tofu and kale. And let me say that I actually like tofu, and that kale is a work in progress. But I realize that I simply no longer truly care about the menu or the traditions.
But of course, at its heart, Thanksgiving is a vestige of a harvest festival, when we take the time to be aware of and appreciate the bounty that the earth can produce, with some human help. It can be a time to pause in the supermarket, or the farm stand, and really notice the variety of offerings, and the huge amounts of food surrounding us. Most of us in this part of the world, those of us blessed with the resources to partake and to share in the festival, are truly blessed.
All the thinking about food right now led me to look at food insecurity. The numbers of people without adequate food, both here in the United States and worldwide, are staggering. I discovered an organization called Feeding America, which I had never heard of. Feeding America is an umbrella organization that supplies local food pantries and meal programs. It serves 46 million Americans. (https://www.humanrightscareers.com/magazine/organizations-end-hunger/) I had to sit with that number for awhile. In a country of 332 million people, 46 million experience food insecurity. That’s just under 14% of us. We see this need every day here on Cape Ann, of course, by volunteering at the Grace Center, or at the Open Door. We’re proud to have organizations such as this offering so much help here, but have you noticed that they only grow larger and serve more people?
Worldwide, the story is similar – despite the efforts of many aid organizations, the need for food continues to increase. Of late, especially since the invasion of Ukraine, I’ve been aware of the efforts of the World Central Kitchen – a non-profit that responds to crises such as war and natural disasters. Because of the attention they’ve been getting, I was under the impression that they must be one of the larger responders to the global food shortage. But on a website that lists the top 30 organizations, World Central Kitchen ranked only 25th. The two largest are the UN agency World Food Programme, and Care, providing emergency supplies to many millions each year.
The agencies work to not just provide the food, but to try to build resilience in the populations they serve: improving cooking techniques, helping build skills in agriculture and food preparation in order to lift people out of hunger. I found myself wondering why all these agencies, with the same goals, cannot seem to eradicate hunger. But the organizations are fighting a constant battle against invasions, and civil wars, and against climate change. There are more and more natural disasters. There are severe droughts in Africa, including the worst drought in 40 years in the Horn of Africa. (https://www.concern.net/news/climate-change-and-hunger) In Asia, rice farming near the coasts can be threatened by sea level rise and the incursion of salt water into the fields. In areas that practice subsistence farming, there are hunger seasons, when they simply run out of food from last year’s harvest before the new crop is ready.
Interestingly, the world does produce enough food for all. But it can spoil before it gets to market, and in wealthier countries, can go to waste after it is purchased.
It feels as though there is a race being run. The agencies have expanded their efforts beyond simply dropping off food; they are attempting to help people adapt their growing and cooking techniques and manage their food supply chains. But one gets the sense that they are trying to outrun the next drought or the next hurricane, or the next civil war, in their efforts to create a world where everyone can live free from hunger.
What can we do? For starters, we must take the climate crisis more seriously. What we do here affects the world. Even as we sit here the countries participating in the United Nations climate summit conference, called COP27, just earlier today finalized an agreement that for the first time will create a ‘loss and damage’ fund that will compensate the countries, the small and poor countries, that are being affected by the climate crisis. This is an important step. Sadly, they failed to agree to phase out fossil fuels. We have to further that effort. We should continue to do all that we can, as individuals and as American citizens, to make decisions that will help us ameliorate the effects of global warming.
What else? Of course, we can also make financial contributions to or volunteer with, the agencies working to end hunger, either right here on Cape Ann, or worldwide. Many of you already do. Like those agencies, we should continue to show up, and to keep addressing the problems.
The World Central Kitchen says, on their website, “Cooking and eating together is what makes us human.” We eat to live, certainly, but we break bread together to remind ourselves of this common humanity, the need for community, and connection.
Today though, and this week, we can take the time to notice all that we have, to pause and give thanks. Let’s spend even a short time trying to imagine what it would be like to truly go hungry, to run out of food. As we prepare to break bread together now, let’s be especially grateful.
Blessed Be. Amen.
