HUNGER
"For I was hungry and you gave me food." Matthew 25:35.
I have learned a lot about hunger in Jackson County recently and I thought I might share some of what I have learned with you, dear reader.
Nathan Attwood
Pastor, Marianna First United Methodist Church
Roughly 20% of the 50,000 people in Jackson County receive SNAP (supplementary nutritional assistance program, commonly known as "food stamps") benefits. Nationwide, about two-thirds of people who receive SNAP have jobs and do not earn enough from their pay to feed their families. They are not deadbeats, they are the working poor. Additionally, around 85% of households that receive SNAP benefits have someone in the home who cannot work--children, the elderly, or the disabled. The average recipient gets less than $200 in benefits monthly--that doesn't go far at all at the grocery store these days. Despite stereotypes of lazy, undeserving people using the system, the truth is that SNAP provides minimal and necessary nutrition to the most vulnerable among us.
The current government shutdown has shown a light on the SNAP program as benefits have been suspended for the first time ever due to a shutdown. Predictably, politicians are blaming each other for the situation. Knowing what to believe about all the political noise is beyond my capacity as a simple small town pastor. What I do know is this: Jesus tells Christians to feed the hungry.
James 2:15-16 says that if a person has faith and does not feed the hungry, that person's faith is dead. In Matthew 25, Jesus describes final judgement and says that those who failed to feed the hungry sent him away hungry and will be rejected from eternal life, while those who fed the hungry fed him and will be received into eternal reward. Jesus himself famously fed the hungry, most notably in the miracle of multiplication. That story ends with Jesus providing for all, but it begins with Jesus telling the disciples, "YOU give them something to eat."
John the Baptist teaches that repentance is inseparable from mercy towards the needy when he is asked what those seeking mercy should do and he says, "Anyone who has two shirts should give one and anyone who has food should do the same." The New Testament is consistent with the Old, where Isaiah says, "Share your bread with the hungry (Isa. 58:7)," Proverbs 22:9 says the righteous will be blessed when they share with the poor, Deuteronomy requires farmers to leave produce available for the poor to glean. These are a sampling of hundreds of passages in which godly living is described consistently in every part of the Bible as being expressed through making sure the poor have something to eat.
Especially, scripture teaches over and over again, we must open our hand to children and the elderly in need: "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained from the world (James 1:27)."
Our community has a number of ways that people of faith reach out to tend to the needs of the hungry. Chipola Family Ministries is an agency of the Southern Baptist Church through the Florida Convention. I'm not a Baptist, but I'm a Christian, and they serve the poor in Jesus name, so I support them and my church supports them very generously. CFM's primary way of helping the poor is through giving food. Food assistance is always important, but more especially so through the current crisis. CFM is able to purchase food through distributors that sell to them at much lower prices than a grocery store, so giving them money is a much more efficient way to get as much food to as many hungry people than buying the food and donating it. Still, food drives and food donations are extremely helpful and make a difference. One of the reasons I support CFM is their ability to track those who receive help so that they can carefully distribute resources to those who need them the most. I have learned the hard way over the years that this kind of accountability is necessary.
A number of churches also distribute food through their own food banks. First Presbyterian Church has a house next to the church near Madison Park and they distribute food on Wednesdays at 9am. Farmshare is a program that collects produce from farmers that is perfectly good to eat but not pretty enough to sell. Our community often holds Farmshare distributions at Madison Street Park. If you want to find a way to support those who are hungry, perhaps the best way to start is to ask your pastor, because Marianna's clergy tend to be great people who care about people in need and are closely connected to the most efficient means to help.
It's probably not a bad time to start being more aware of your neighbors, too. Do you know a family with children who are struggling? Perhaps you might find a gracious way to fill their pantry. Is the person near you in the grocery line figuring out what to keep in the cart and what to put back? Maybe you might consider offering to lend a hand.
I'm grateful to God that although I am not wealthy, I'm comfortable enough to go to the grocery store and buy food for my family without wondering if my debit card will run. It hasn't always been that way. Through lean years as a struggling young pastor with a little one at home, I have had many a nervous moment at a check-out line. At this moment in my life, it's a joy to me to be able to help others and to be part of a church that helps others.
I've often held in my heart a story my mother told me of a season when she was a young single mom struggling to survive, how some gracious saints from an Episcopal Church knocked on her door one day with hands full of groceries, who she wept while they filled her cabinets. I was too little to remember that day or appreciate what it meant, but whenever I give, I do so not because I am particularly generous, but because I am indebted to the generosity of and kindness of the Body of Christ.
The present crisis will soon pass. The government will soon re-open. SNAP benefits will be restored. But the need for God's people to express their faith through gracious generosity to those in need, especially through food support, will persist until we all have enough at the table of the Lord in the New Jerusalem. Jesus once said, "The poor you will have with you always," quoting Deuteronomy, which continues, "therefore open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and the poor, in your land (Deut. 15:11)." My prayer is that this challenging moment will reawaken the Body of Christ to open its heart and its hand to find fresh vitality and joy in living out a generous, active faith in service of Christ through the needy among us. Will you do something to feed to feed the poor in Jesus's name this week?