‘Tackling hunger is a moral challenge to each of us and it is also a threat to the political and economic stability of nations,’ Brown said.”
[Article from the Associated Press by David Stringer on April 22nd, 2008 “World Food Program Warns of ‘Silent Tsunami’ of Hunger]
Often when the subject of hunger is discussed, it is discussed in broad, global terms. Nonetheless, even though people use the term “global” what they actually picture in their minds is normally limited to the developing world, specifically Sub-Saharan Africa. Perhaps it is easier to consider a lonely child with skinny limbs and a bloated stomach far away in Africa versus the kid down the block who looks like one’s own child in the developed world. The former image is certainly easier to sell when attempting to raise support and push for action. Due to this, developed states’ government policies often reflect the resultant farsightedness in regards to the issue of food insecurity. This is demonstrated not by the existence of policies to combat hunger in developing countries because these do exist and are of critical importance; instead, the farsightedness gets played out by the relative absence of policies to decrease the number of food insecure people in their own developed countries.
Yet, this situation is labeled global for a reason, and the discussion of hunger is an essential one to engage in during the present. Food insecurity is one way in which millions of people are excluded from the prospect of a prosperous present and a better future. It has many people still trapped in invisible handcuffs. Yet, hunger does not only affect those whose stomachs are empty. The effects of it creep across society in numerous forms. Some of these consequences are direct while others are more indirect. In some areas such as finances, both kinds of affects exist. Directly, hunger has an affect on the pocketbook of developed countries through the added medical cost that comes as a result of hunger. When people are hungry, their immune systems cannot function properly since they are not getting all of the proper nutrition that they require. Therefore, society ends up bearing the financial costs of hunger related hospital bills including problematic pregnancies, childhood anemia, and more. There is also an indirect financial cost. In an age when the West’s population is growing older and more people are leaving the work force and relying on the government to provide living pensions, hunger further reduces the workforce due to absenteeism from work, disabilities from poor nutrition, health deterioration due to stress, and premature death from starvation. Not only does this further reduction in the labor force reduce the number of tax dollars coming into the system but it increases the demands for those same diminishing stocks of financial capital. Also, thousands of jobs remain undone which decreases the overall productivity of the state. Another indirect affect, is the social unrest that hunger causes. There is a correlation between hunger and crime that cannot be ignored. In addition to an increase in crime, there are other forms of social unrest that are demonstrated through riots and protests. If we want to build a truly great future for our world, our answer to the people’s implicit and explicit cries for food cannot mirror one historical predecessor who infamously replied, “feed them cake.” Ignorance did not work then nor will it suffice now.
There are food insecure people on every continent and in every state in the world. Even in the West. Even in our cities. Probably even in our neighborhoods. It is time we stood up, claimed responsibility, and walked in the truth. The Scriptures tell us about the Lord’s heart concerning the hungry:
6[Rather] is not this the fast that I have chosen: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every [enslaving] yoke? 7Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house--when you see the naked, that you cover him, and that you hide not yourself from [the needs of] your own flesh and blood?
8Then shall your light break forth like the morning, and your healing (your restoration and the power of a new life) shall spring forth speedily; your righteousness (your right relationship with God) shall go before you [conducting you to peace and prosperity], and the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. 9Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and He will say, Here I am. If you take away from your midst yokes of oppression [wherever you find them], the finger pointed in scorn [toward the oppressed or the godly], and every form of false, harsh, unjust, and wicked speaking.
10And if you pour out that with which you sustain your own life for the hungry and satisfy the need of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in darkness, and your obscurity and gloom become like the noonday. 11And the Lord shall guide you continually and satisfy you in drought and in dry places and make strong your bones. And you shall be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters fail not. 12And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of [buildings that have laid waste for] many generations; and you shall be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
[Isaiah 58:6-12, The Amplified Bible, bold and italics added]
To “pour out that with which [we] sustain [our] own [lives] for the hungry and satisfy the need of the afflicted.” That is our calling. That is the answer. It is us.
WE are the answer.
“All I have is a voice
To undo the folded lie,
The romantic lie in the brain
Of the sensual man-in-the-street
And the lie of Authority
Whose buildings grope the sky:
There is no such thing as the State
And no one exists alone;
Hunger allows no choice
To the citizen or the police;
We must love one another or die.”
[W. H. Auden’s “September 1, 1939,” bolded added]
[W. H. Auden’s “September 1, 1939,” bolded added]
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