ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½

Available for over a year

Good Morning, It seems tasteless to express angst about shopping for food in supermarkets when there are people who can’t afford to shop in supermarkets in the first place. To do so is to be found guilty of what are now being called ‘First World Problems’ – such as worrying about what kind of milk to get or whether or not to buy organic honey. The phrase suggests an acknowledgement of guilt at having too much of a good thing compared to others; a new version of ‘count your blessings.’ But it’s been given added bite this week by The Archibishop of Canterbury saying that he was more shocked by the food banks in Britain than at the handing out of food in the Congo – if only because it was so unexpected. His comment was prompted by the release of the all-party report on food banks that warns that Britain is being stalked by hunger. When faced with walls and walls of brightly lit, beautifully displayed food, it’s hard to believe that people are going hungry in a country that offers several types of focaccia bread, and hard to accept that there isn’t enough to go around. You’d think all this produce would eventually find mouths and stomachs. But a massive waste of left-over food (4.3 million tons a year going to landfill) and people’s increasing reliance on food banks suggests that it doesn’t. From a position of comfort it’s easy to question this reality. But my own doubts were directly challenged by getting a call from a friend who’s been out of work for a year after experiencing what he called ‘a perfect storm of difficulties.’ He told me he’d eaten nothing but digestive biscuits for a week. When I asked him what he needed beyond a more balanced diet, he said he’d be okay as a new food bank had opened at a local church. But some work would really help. This report on hunger has sparked a debate about the root of the problem and what to do about it. Some will attribute it to family breakdown, or to individual idleness; others will say that it’s about debt, benefit sanctions or plain bad luck. There will be calls for creative ways to distribute left-over food. And others arguing that lower rents and better paid work will help people escape the poverty trap. All these viewpoints contain truths but the essential truth is that while we argue about these things people are going hungry. Biblical responses to the problem of hunger prove this issue isn’t new. If Deuteronomy’s unusual economic model of sharing savings every three years with those in need is too much for us, the call to defend their cause seems to be non-negotiable. Scripture has a bottom line about those at the end-of-line; and it starts with the vulnerable receiving a basic provision of food. Working out how best to tackle this complex problem requires creativity and intelligence but whilst looking for solutions, let’s make sure the hungry get fed whether they’re in the Developing World or The First.