Using food as a centerpiece, the Rev. Yung Me Morris took the audience at Presbyterian Women’s 2024 Churchwide Gathering on a journey Friday, beginning with the everyday hospitality of Korean people and climaxing with the universal need to show more hospitality for those going without food because of traumatic experiences such as war, homelessness and greed.
Hunger isn’t just hunger. Food isn’t just calories. The experience of hunger is intimately linked with multiple physical, emotional and spiritual needs as well as with our sense of belonging and value.
COVID-19 has ravaged the Navajo Nation, killing Native Americans at a faster rate than any other community in the country. According to a report published in early 2021, Native Americans have been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus pandemic — especially on reservations, where access to basic resources, including food and water, can be limited.
In 2013, mission co-workers Cindy Corell and Mark Hare were working with Viljean Louis, coordinator of the Peasant Movement of Bayonnais in Haiti. More than 100 people in the mountain community arrived to receive training for starting yard gardens. They were to learn the skills and then share them with neighbors.
Recently, I coached soap carving. Our church, Ankeny Presbyterian Church in Ankeny, Iowa, was throwing an outdoor block party for our neighborhood — hot dogs, a bounce castle, doughnuts made to order, even a fire truck. One of our neighbors offered to play guitar and sing, so we had live music, too.
Sharing food is one of my great joys. I know, I know … that isn’t altogether unique, and definitely not unique for Presbyterians I know. We gather around tables for myriad reasons, and in lots of different ways. But the act of sharing food can remind us of other things we share: namely a need for food — hunger — and the interdependence it takes to make a meal possible. I think it is true that we never eat alone. Not really. Even if we sit at the table by ourselves, we are eating with each and every person who finds a part to play in this interconnected food system that helps bring food to table.
Climate change, according to the rev. abby mohaupt, has made it more difficult for many people, especially the poor, to access six keys to human existence — food, access to water, rest, home, safety and love.
