Christians Fighting Hunger, One Potato at a Time

There were over fifty of us, standing in a field full of potatoes on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. Mr. Black, a farmer, had invited us to harvest his potatoes for our ministry. So we took our red bags and filled them up with potatoes all morning. The sun was beating down our backs, we were sweating like crazy, and I needed someone to help me carrying the extremely heavy bags to the end of the row. But, I did not mind. It was for a good cause. Around lunchtime a truck from the Food Bank of Southeastern Virginia came to pick up all the potatoes we bagged, and I imagined that night people would be eating those same potatoes. I was glad to be a part of such an amazing experience.

This experience was part of my active participation in a mission program called Harvest of Hope, where teenagers fight hunger with their hands and through education. In the five events I participated in, I gleaned produce such as potatoes, corn, green peppers, and apples. We also met in small groups to discuss hunger, such as reasons to why it exists and ways we can stop it, once and for all. A tradition of Harvest of Hope is to watch a short film called "Remember Me" (1979), an Academy Award-nominated documentary of the lives of different children from all over the world who live in poverty. Even though I have seen it many times, the film still touches my heart. Harvest of Hope inspired me to do something about hunger - and that is what I am asking of all of you. We can all do something about hunger. It is not only the right thing to do, but it is something we are called to do as followers of Christ.

As Christians, God calls us to help those around us. Jesus tells the "righteous" in Matthew 25:40: "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me" (The Holy Bible). For that reason alone we should not ignore this terrible problem that is rampant around the world. When we ignore the hungry around us, we are in fact ignoring Christ. We cannot turn our eyes away from the people we are called to help. We must all do something about hunger.

Harvest of Hope is a program of the Society of St. Andrew (SoSA), an ecumenical organization whose sole purpose is to fight hunger in the United States. Yes, there are hungry people in our own country. In the United States, according to Bread for the World, "one in 10 people in the U.S. lives in a household that experiences hunger" (SoSA website). SoSA was founded in 1979 by two families who wanted a simpler life. What started out as a personal cause became a fight against hunger. From 1983 "until 1990, the ministry operated out of a converted sheepshed on the farm in Big Island [Virginia]" (SoSA website). They eventually moved into a new office building across from the sheepshed, built new regional offices in four states, and have made a huge impact on the fight against hunger. In the year 2004 alone, 40,010 volunteers gleaned 32,506,956 pounds of produce for SoSA, which comes out to 97,520,868 servings of food that would have otherwise gone to waste (SoSA Report 2). While the numbers are amazing, there is still plenty more we can do. There are still Americans living on the streets. There are still Americans who do not get enough to eat. Believe it or not, there are probably hungry people in your hometown. Our fellow Americans, our fellow human beings, should not be starving. It does not have to be this way - we can all do our part in the fight against hunger.

Earlier I mentioned gleaning. If you have never heard of gleaning, it is the act of taking produce that is left behind by farmers. While the food may not look good enough to sell at the grocery store, it is still perfectly good to eat. Deuteronomy 24:19, in the New International Version, states that "[w]hen you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that the Lord your god may bless you in all the work of your hands" (The Holy Bible). Gleaning the "leftovers" for the impoverished is important, because otherwise the food goes to waste.

I would like to give you a definition of hunger. While all of us experience hunger in some way, where we have "a strong desire or need for food" (Dictionary.com), the hunger I am talking about is more serious and even deadly. Dictionary.com's other definition says it is "the discomfort, weakness, or pain caused by a prolonged lack of food." I have not experienced that kind of hunger, but many people in the world experience it everyday. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN states that "more than 840 million people in the world are chronically malnourished" (SoSA website). According to the United Nations,

the number of chronically hungry people worldwide is increasing at the rate of five million annually. But even here in the United States, richest of all nations, hunger and food insecurity (limited access to nutritionally adequate foods) have been steadily rising over the past few years." ("Food, Shelter" par 1)

However, some youth in our country experience first-hand what it is like to be hungry, through a program called 30-Hour Famine. Adam Briftten participated in the program at his church: "[w]e finally settled down and slipped into our sleeping bags. Before long, our stomachs were growling, and we couldn't help but talk about what we would eat at the end of our 30-hour break from food" (22). Imagine going to bed at night on an empty stomach. Now imagine going to bed every night on an empty stomach. That is what over 800 million people experience all the time. Would you let your neighbor to suffer like that? Or would you do something about it?

A chronic state of hunger can lead to malnutrition, where the body is in a poor state of health due to a lack of food. Michael M. O. Seipel, PhD, professor of social work at Brigham Young University, states that "malnourished children [are] more susceptible to infections and diseases and [will] eventually die from them" (420), because the body's immune system is weakened when it is malnourished. Malnutrition can also cause stunted growth in children (Seipel 420). According to researchers at Cornell, "one in five American children live in poverty, the highest level of childhood poverty among developed nations... 4 million children live in homes where at times, due to lack of economic resources, there is not enough food" (Lang par 5). Statistically, that means if there is a classroom of twenty-five children, five of them suffer from poverty and possibly hunger. If you have a child, would you want their friends to continue living in this way? Would you ignore the problem, or do something to fix it?

Malnutrition is not the only problem caused by hunger. Cornell did two studies, which "found that young people [in the United States], ages 15 to 16, in homes where there is not always enough to eat, are five times more likely to attempt suicide, compared with well-fed adolescents" (Lang par 3). An article in the Economist says "[t]hose who are ill-fed tend to end up both physically shorter and less mentally agile than they otherwise would have been" ("Empty bowls" par 1). Brain development is also affected by malnutrition.

But children are not the only people affected by hunger. According to an article in America, "[e]lderly people account for some of the sharpest increases in emergency food requests - an overall jump of 73 percent" ("Food, Shelter" par 5). Many older people take medications and have to face the choice of either paying for their prescriptions or paying for dinner. What if your grandparents were in this position, would you let them starve, or would you give them something to eat?

Stanley Karombo, correspondent with Inter Press Service and Voice of America Radio, talked with a 14-year-old girl named Tanya in Zimbabwe, who lived on the streets and sold her body to get money. Tanya had this to say:

We scavenge in the rubbish bins for food and beg for money... It is bad on the streets. Sometimes it is very cold and wet. We cannot eat properly. We often get sick. We eat junk food from the rubbish - what you call leftovers. We go through bins when the shops close. You often get chips in the bins - sometimes a bit of old salad. But we go very, very hungry and we have no proper clothes to wear." (15)

Would you want your children having to live like this? Many children have to live in those kind of situations in order to survive. Tanya says that "if [she] cannot have sex with [the] men, eventually [she]'ll die of hunger. It is better to die of AIDS than hunger" (Karombo 15). If hunger was eradicated, Tanya could live like a normal child instead of selling her body. Are you going to ignore her plight?

Which brings me to the question: is ending hunger really possible? Yes! There is an abundance of food on this planet, yet there are millions of starving people around the globe. Some countries have famines while here in America food is wasted every single day. One of the reasons why hunger is rampant is because of distribution. David Beckmann, President of Bread for the World, states that:

reducing world hunger is [not] an impossible dream... the United States could cut hunger in half in this country within two years and do our part to cut hunger in half worldwide within two decades. At $6 billion per year, doing both would take less than one third of 1 percent of the federal budget--costing us only pennies a day." (24)

So how can we get food to the people who need it? There are many ways of doing so. First, there is doing something like I did: being the hands that feed the hungry. In addition to programs like Harvest of Hope, there are food banks, soup kitchens, and other organizations just in the United States. There is even a National Hunger Awareness Day. On June 7th of this year, people all over the country will join in "an effort to raise awareness of - and donations to help end - hunger in America" (National Hunger Awareness Day). There is a national event in Washington, DC as well as local events all across the country. The event encourages people to write to their Congress representatives, donate money, or volunteer in the fight against hunger. Get involved with National Hunger Awareness Day. Tell your friends and family about it. What better way to get involved with it than on a day when the whole country is?

Speaking of donating money, all hunger-relief organizations could use more money to finance their cause. Many of them, especially non-profits, are dependent on donations. An example of a great program is Heifer International, which gives farm animals, such as chickens and sheep, to those in poverty. Heifer International, "[f]or close to 60 years... has helped well over four million impoverished families in 128 countries lift themselves out of poverty and achieve self-reliance" (Heifer International). When I was in second of third grade, our church participated in "Read to Feed," a program of Heifer International. If everyone in our Sunday School class read a certain amount of books, it would buy an animal for a family. It is a great way to get children to read as well as to feed the hungry overseas. I encourage you to get your Sunday School classes to get involved with Heifer International so your children or younger siblings can help with the fight against hunger.

But what if you do not have the time to volunteer at a soup kitchen, or enough money to pay your bills? There are other ways to help the hunger problem. Just look at what we Americans spend on every year: $20.7 billion on ice cream, $30 billion on cosmetics, $103 billion on fast food restaurants, and $45 billion on beer (Fast 9). If we limit even just a little of what we spend on ourselves, there would be enough money to eradicate hunger in the world. Instead of buying that new video game, donate the money to a local soup kitchen. You do not need that expensive Hummer. Buy a cheaper, more efficient car, and use the leftover money to donate to Bread for the World or any other hunger organization you want to support.

We can also strive to reduce food waste in our homes. Did you know that, "[a]ccording to a study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, we waste 96 billion pounds of food in America each year" (SoSA website)? That comes out to 3,044 pounds of food wasted in our country every second. It does not have to be this way! Save leftover food for a meal the next day. At a restaurant, only order what you know you can eat. Or, if you cannot finish the meal, take leftovers home to eat another day. Request that your local schools and restaurants give extra unused food to food banks or soup kitchens.

Living a simpler life like the founders of SoSA can also save money that can go to people who need it. The two families "grew their own vegetables and raised sheep, chickens, and rabbits" (SoSA website). Sell some of your possessions in a yard sale to earn money for the fight against hunger. For more information on how to live simpler, Alternatives For Simple Living is a great resource. The motto on their website is: "Living simply, that others may simply live" (Alternatives). The organization "[s]tarted in 1973 as a protest against the commercialization of Christmas" but now "equips people of faith to challenge consumerism, live justly, and celebrate responsibly" (Alternatives). While these methods may seem extreme, and certainly are not for everyone, it is a lifestyle worth considering.

Jesus Christ performed the miracle of feeding of 5,000 people, which is recorded in all four gospel accounts. He tells his disciples to "give them something to eat" (The Holy Bible, Mark 6:37). If we Christians band together and give the hundreds of millions who are hungry something to eat, we will be performing a miracle - the miracle of ending hunger.

Works Cited

Alternatives for Simple Living. 2005. Alternatives for Simple Living. 12 May 2005.

Beckmann, David. "Let's cut hunger in half." U.S. Catholic. 66.1 (2001). 4 pages. Academic Search Elite. 12 May 2005.

Briftten, Adam. "I've never been so hungry." Campus Life. 63.4 (2004). 1 page. Academic Search Elite. 8 May 2005.

Dictionary.com. 2005. Dictionary.com. 7 May 2005.

"Empty bowls, heads and pockets." Economist. 372.8386 (2004). 7 pars. Academic Search Elite. 8 May 2005.

The Fast That I Choose: A Bible Study on Hunger. Society of St. Andrew. 3 May 2005.

"Food, Shelter of Medicine?" America. 190.11: (2004). 7 pars. Academic Search Elite. 12 May 2005.

Heifer International. 2005. Heifer International. 9 May 2005.

The Holy Bible: New International Version. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002.

Karombo, Stanley. "Tanya: 'It's better to die of AIDS than hunger.'" New Internationalist. 377 (2005): 2 pages. Academic Search Elite. 4 April 2005.

Lang, Susan S. "Hunger and Poverty in Children Is linked to Depression and Low Achievement." Human Ecology. 30.4 (2002): 8 pars. Academic Search Elite. 2 May 2005.

National Hunger Awareness Day. 2005. National Hunger Awareness Day. 9 May 2005.

Seipel, Michael M. O. "Social Consequences of Malnutrition." Social Work. 44.5 (1999). 10 pages. Academic Search Elite. 8 May 2005.

Society of St. Andrew. 2005. Society of St. Andrew. 3 May 2005.

Society of St. Andrew Report. 21.1 (2005): 5 pages. Society of St. Andrew. 2 May 2005.