Food security is a relatively new term to me. I first heard it about four years ago while talking with a church leader whose work it was to provide more food for people in Haiti. Underneath the rather clinical term was a raw reality -- people are hungry. They don't have enough food. Especially in places like Haiti. Jesus had something to say about that: feed them.
We have been challenged for over two thousands years to feed people who are hungry. A core value of the Christian faith is to feed people -- spiritually and physically. And for over two thousand years we have tried to do that -- with varying degrees of success.
And now we have food security. I can't help but think that the change in metaphor -- from feed the hungry to food security, will get more food to more people. The numbers tell us that we have enough food to go around. It just isn't. Years ago, schools provided free lunch for kids who qualified. That was a good -- and necessary, thing. Now we have school breakfasts. Another good and necessary service. Yet a lot of kids who qualify for free breakfasts aren't getting them. The food is there. It is secure. What seems to be lacking is the relationship -- and the hospitality, between the ones who serve -- and those who eat.
Jesus had a lot to say about that too.
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