Today, I ate lunch alone at a favorite restaurant.   Frequently on Mondays, a colleague and I meet for lunch to share stories and envision new ways of working together. But today, he was out of town. While eating my lunch, I sent a few text messages and answered a couple of emails. In the digital age, we’re connected like never before. But, as part of our food justice conversation, how are we connected to others through our food? Who is... Read more

(We’re revisiting this post from 2014.)   Mutual Encouragement by Rev. Scott Keeble Samelton lives in southern Malawi.  He is a carpenter by trade, which means he occasionally gets hired to build a bench, a bed, a window frame for a neighbor. By and large, Samelton’s family survives on subsistence farming – eating what they are able to grow in their nearby garden. Throughout southern Malawi, life is lived on a razor thin margin.  The vast majority of residents (over... Read more

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the... Read more

(We’re revisiting this post from 2014.)   The Food Stamp Challenge by Rev. Jim Montgomery Suppose your household income is at or below the poverty line and your family must now get by on food stamps.  Most of us have never experienced that, have we? Ivan Herman, a Presbyterian pastor in Sacramento, and his family did just that as their Lenten discipline last year. The June 10, 2013 issue of the Presbyterian Outlook reported that Herman, his wife Susan and... Read more

(We’re revisiting this post from 2014.)   SNAP Challenge by Rev. Meghan Davis Last fall I participated in the SNAP Challenge.  SNAP is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or food stamps.  The idea is to spend a week spending only the amount of money of an average “food stamp” benefit for a person in your state.  This includes everything we consume: every meal, snack, beverage and seasoning. According to the most recent statistics I was able to find, the average... Read more

(We’re revisiting this post from 2014.)   I Was Hungry and You Fed Me by Rev. Tim Green We live in a very small, very rural community.  The sign welcoming you to the largest town in our county reads “Population: 750.” (And I’m not entirely sure that number is up-to-date.) When I say we are “rural,” I mean that we are surrounded by farms and forests, and that the deer population outnumbers the human population. It is a 40 minute... Read more

(We’re revisiting this post from 2014.)   The Problem with Three Day Weekends by Rev. Rob Dyer Three day weekends are the worst.  On Tuesdays, when the kids return to school, many show up early, huddled at the school’s front door.  We can’t let them in until 7:45am or 8:00am.  I can’t remember the official school policy.  I just open the doors at 7:45am on those special Tuesdays.  I don’t care what the policy says. The kids know they aren’t... Read more

There are approximately 850 million hungry people around the world, despite the fact that there is enough food produced every year to provide every person on the planet with nearly twice as many calories as they need. And yet, nearly a billion people are not fed. At the same time, nearly one-third of the total food produced around the world – about 1.3 billion tons of food annually – is wasted. The value of the total food wasted is roughly the... Read more

“Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace.” – May Sarton   This week, we have revisited a few of the 2014 posts that are related to gardening. (You can read them here and here and here.) But what does gardening have to do with food justice? Every day – several times a day – we are given the option... Read more

(We’re revisiting this post from 2014.)   A Church Garden The idea for a garden originated with a mission program presented for our Women’s Group., where information was shared from Presbyterian publications on the many ways that churches have been helping with food for people in need. At about the same time one of our members was given some free seeds, leftovers from past seasons, some many years ago. We would need to have faith that these seeds might still... Read more