by Kathryn Sime

I could hardly wait to tell friends and family about my new job. I had been asked to serve as the director of the ELCA World Hunger and Disaster Appeal. It was a dream job —working for the church with a ministry that does such good things for so many people. Offering their congratulations, many friends and relatives followed with an unexpected afterthought: "Won’t it be depressing to hear all those stories about extreme hunger and poverty?" Good question. After nine months of living into my new role, I can better articulate my reaction to the tragedy of hunger in our world. Depressing? Sometimes. Hopeful? Always.

I can certainly understand those initial concerns about my new job. After all, statistics about domestic and international hunger and poverty are heartbreaking.
 

These numbing statistics are hard to comprehend. Most of us have never experienced real hunger. We all know the uncomfortable feeling of an empty stomach when our next meal is late. I’m embarrassed at the number of times I’ve complained "I’m starving!" when forced to wait an extra few minutes at a busy restaurant. But real hunger? Few of us have experienced it, and so the statistics and news about hunger in our world lull us into complacency. So, why am I hopeful? Because I’ve learned that we can eliminate hunger.

Finding the beginning of the end
Most of us assume that hunger is inevitable; that food scarcity means some will eat tonight and some will not. We’ve grown up hearing about hungry children in the world and have accepted that hunger is just one of those terrible facts of life. But actually, writes the Rev. Craig L. Nessan of Wartburg Theological Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa, "the world currently produces enough grain to provide a diet of 3,500 calories a day for every human being on the planet." We have enough grain so that everyone could be sufficiently fed today. Even more amazing, when we include the wide variety of other foods available, everyone in the world could have 4.3 pounds of food to eat each day. Not only would we all be well fed, we all have enough food to make us fat.

My first reaction to Nessan’s claim was: What a wonderful reminder of God’s abundance. We don’t live in a world of scarcity. Just as God’s love for us exceeds understanding, the abundance of food in our world is far greater than I imagined.

But my second reaction was shame. What does the fact that six million children will die needlessly from hunger this year say about us? That is a powerful indictment against humanity that I cannot assign to someone else. I cannot defer that shame to government officials or to global economic systems. Knowing that my prayer, "Give us this day our daily bread," can be fulfilled not just for my family, but for all families everywhere compels me to take responsibility and action.

Moving from shame to action, however, requires acknowledgement that some of our previous assumptions about hunger may require updating. Offering "daily bread" to our hungry neighbors around the corner and the world may take different forms: tortillas, sewing machines, fairly traded coffee, family dinner table conversations, and emails to elected leaders are all paths toward eliminating hunger. Enlightening ourselves about hunger helps broaden our understanding on steps we can take to end it.

The World Hunger ministry of the ELCA has been taking this approach toward ending hunger for 30 years. Through relief, development, education, and advocacy, our church has played a role with other governmental and non-governmental partners in helping to decrease the overall amount of hunger in our world, although we still have miles to go. The four-pronged strategy of our world hunger ministry points out steps we can each take to join this fight against hunger.

Relief
The relief model of hunger ministry is the one we all know best. We’ve probably all raided our cupboards for canned foods to support a local food pantry. Relief ministries are critical because they ease hunger pangs immediately. We see hunger relief programs throughout our church. For example:
 

Development
Hunger relief programs alone will not end hunger; we must also examine ways to break the cycle of poverty that causes it. Women and children are the most common victims, and the developmental damage caused by severe hunger at birth is irreversible. Helping women gain skills to be self-sufficient enables them to feed themselves and their families for a lifetime. Many successful stories of development ministries exist. For example:
 

Education
It is all of our responsibilities to educate others about how they can help end hunger. The Lutheran church, spearheaded by the Women of the ELCA, exceeded a challenge to buy 90 tons of fairly traded coffee last year. If we continue to inform others about how purchasing fairly traded products can help farmers earn sufficient wages to meet life’s daily needs, we are taking steps toward eliminating hunger. Perhaps we should challenge each other to break the habit of buying more than we truly need or have conversations about teaching our children the importance of understanding and confronting world hunger.

Advocacy
Advocacy is not as scary or complicated as it sounds. We all practice it daily, for example, by advocating for wise financial decisions that allow us to give some of our money to help others. Additionally, we can ask our local, state, and federal officials to make wise policy and budget decisions that help alleviate poverty for people in this country and around the world. Getting the ear of government officials is easier now than ever, thanks to email. Visit ELCA advocacy Web site  to learn how to voice your concerns or issue compliments to your elected representatives through email. I recently sent an email thanking my representatives for their efforts in highlighting the humanitarian crisis in Sudan and urged them to take further action to end this tragedy.

Living into a hopeful future
Through relief, development, education and advocacy, Lutherans have helped change the lives of our neighbors — around the world and around the corner. Statistics about hunger are depressing, but other stories offer greater hope.

In Uganda, 11-year-old Monic witnessed both her mother and father die last year from AIDS. Left with no family, Monic had few resources for school fees. And without an education, she would find it difficult to escape the cycle of poverty that has such a tight grip on her life. However, thanks to the ELCA World Hunger Appeal, Monic and other orphaned classmates receive assistance for school tuition and uniforms. At school, they receive a good education and at least one good meal each day. Our church helped change the life of this young girl and others like her. Because Monic has a future, I have hope.

Hannah, 9, of Nebraska also offers hope. She asked her grandmother for a birthday gift that would help other kids. So her grandmother made a donation to the ELCA World Hunger Appeal in Hannah’s name. Hannah knows already what many of us will struggle a lifetime to learn — that the needs of the world outweigh our drive to consume and to own more stuff.

These young girls are my reminders of God’s abundant love. Their stories, and those of Catherine and Hawa, compel me to look to the promise of the good news. Gifts to the World Hunger Appeal bring immediate comfort to people in poverty and crisis, and in turn, enable our church to play a part in creating justice for those who lack the basics of life.

What ways can we end hunger? Pray without ceasing for daily bread and water for all who hunger and thirst. Give generously. Advocate for those who are unable to speak for themselves. And find hope in the knowledge that together, with God’s help, we can end hunger.

Kathryn Sime is director of World Hunger and Disaster Appeal for the ELCA.

References
All hunger statistics from Are We On Track to End Hunger? Hunger Report 2004. Bread for the World Institute. 2004.

Nessan, Craig L. Give Us This Day: A Lutheran Proposal for Ending World Hunger. 2003: Augsburg Fortress.

Want more? To read The Lutheran magazine's March 2005 hunger coverage, click here: www.thelutheran.org/0503/page48.html