More than a few cans

This fall at Luther Seminary I am engaging in a guided reading and research project that focuses on ancient and contemporary Christian responses to hunger and poverty.  The project is modeled on a course that was offered at Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg by David Creech, Ph.D. who is now the Director for Hunger Education with the ELCA World Hunger Program; David tweets @hungerbites and blogs at Hunger Rumblings.  Throughout the semester I’ll be blogging about my reading, my experiences with advocacy organizations and policymakers and my questions.  I will also be developing strategies for engaging congregations in a response to these issues.

Why focus on hunger and poverty?

Volunteering for Meals on Wheels, in a shelter for homeless, at a food bank and at food pantries has helped me understand that poverty, hunger and homelessness are not just headlines.  The faces of people affected by these problems are the faces of my neighbors.  It confounds me that 58 children go to bed homeless every night in my county; that 1 in 4 children in our county schools may miss a meal every day because they are in households that cannot feed them; that children go hungry on school vacations because the school nutrition programs shut down.  And this is what happens in a first-world country with adequate infrastructure, education and economic activity.  

Where to begin?

I’m beginning by reading the 2011 Hunger Report, the 21^st Annual Report on the State of World Hunger which was written and produced by Bread for the World Institute. 

The first myth to bust is that addressing the hunger crisis is simply a matter of providing “enough.” The services that are provided by food banks, food pantries and direct client services are all important, but they will not end hunger.  David Beckmann writes in Exodus from Hunger: We Are Called to Change the Politics of Hunger that “Charitable programs are important to hungry people, but it is impossible to food-bank our way to the end of hunger.”(Beckmann, 11) 

What are the questions we need to ask?

Hearing “It takes more than meals to feed the world.” from ELCA World Hunger, I quickly realize how little I understand about the complexities of the hunger crisis.  The factors that contribute to the global hunger crisis are varied and interwoven:

gender disparity: “Women suffer twice the rate of malnutrition of men.  Nor are children spared: girls are twice as likely to die from malnutrition as boys.” (“Hunger Report”, 13) When an emphasis is placed on improving maternal health and on small householders, the health of the whole family unit improves.

economics: global food prices are impacted by petroleum prices, commodity trading, restrictions on imports and exports (“Hunger Report”, 17-18)

environment: global food security is affected by increases in biofuel production because grains and oils seeds are diverted into production; climate change has created the need for drought-tolerant seeds and seeds that can tolerate high-saline environments but agricultural research that would develop new seeds is chronically underfunded; where does agricultural research end and genetic engineering begin? (“Hunger Report”, 22-23)

partnerships: what misperceptions do westerners have about African countries and their leaders and governments.  “The stereotype of a giant vacuum of leadership in the developing world doesn’t fit with reality.” (“Hunger Report”, 23)

While these are the factors driving the global hunger crisis, it is not difficult to recognize how the same factors are perpetuating hunger here in the United States, too.  And although I have a measure of pessimism about the political process in Washington, D.C., I don’t think their folly absolves me from learning and taking action.