feed the hungry

This mission really calls to me. I’m not sure how I am supposed to answer it, but have been collecting food for the Food Bank in Alameda, hosting small fundraisers, etc. A little bit helps. $11 can buy $100 worth of groceries—so I think in $11 increments. I recently gave the food bank a rolling cart I had gotten off Freecycle.

I have bigger plans—but not clear on what they are just yet.

Chapel of the Cross, Chapel Hill, NC
An Episcopal Parish

Johnson Intern Program

I would like to take time to update parishioners on several exciting happenings in the Johnson Intern Program. The Exploratory Committee continues their planning process as we move toward the 501-c-3 not for profit status of the program. The committee is currently involved with restructuring the board to include broader community representation, continuing dialogue with our partner Public Allies, and developing a short- and long-term financial strategic plan. The primary foundational pillars of the program will remain in the Episcopal tradition aligned and rooted in core Christian values and historical Christian spirituality.

While the task of creating a revitalized program is exciting, it has been through several recent transforming experiences that have concretized, for me, the tremendous potential of the Johnson Intern Program. These experiences also offered me insight into the reason I believe JIP continues to provide a life-changing opportunity for young adults to be engaged in social justice issues of the world.

Over the past several weeks, I have been involved in a leadership training opportunity at the Legacy Center in Morrisville, NC. While being a part of secular training, I have had a profound spiritual awareness of the power of human ability for creating a better world. One Sunday afternoon our team gathered to challenge ourselves to make difference in the world in a spectacular way through an activity of feeding the poor. It was our task to decide what method we would use and the manner in which we would carry out our plan. The only parameter given was that we could not donate our own money and we could not directly feed anyone. As I began, I thought about the scriptural story of Jesus feeding of the 5,000 with a few loaves of bread and several fish. My experience as our team set out was perhaps similar to that of the disciples, a bit skeptical and critical of the whole situation. Without giving away the details of how we accomplished the feat, at the end of 2½ hours we had fed 69,000 people! (Yes, I did intentionally place three zeroes at the end of that 69)! My family fed 3500 and I never stepped foot out of the training room. In the moment we tallied our results I realized how small I had held my God-given ability to effect change in the world. I then thought more specifically whether the work of programs like the Johnson Intern Program might be the most important work of the Universal Church. Perhaps we have only brushed the surface in realizing the potential impact of young adults on the world. I asked myself whether I believed it feasible to consider that, a Martin Luther King or Gandhi would be drawn to such a program in their earlier formation years. Lastly, if we did believe God gives such a powerful potential to individuals, what investment would we then make to the 20,000 such Johnson Intern Programs of the world in response? Just thinking…

I have figured out a new entry point for this goal, so I am going to start doing this soon.

I have started donating money to various organizations to help families for the holidays, and I just donated some necessities for a specific family. Though I’m not feeding them, I’m still trying to help some people out. It’s not for me, it’s for them, and whatever I can do will help.

I gave a homeless man five bucks and he was thrilled, told me he was going straight over to “Chicken Filet” to eat. (I actually prefer Chicken Filet to the place’s real name.) As I was stuck at a red light, I had the chance to watch him walk over to Chik-Fil-A and I was happy he’d told me the truth instead of walking to the gas station and buying beer, which the cynical part of me had expected.

Orlando homeless (with um, internet access?) are welcome to a snack at my place! Any starving folk worldwide (again, with internet access?) I will happily send you food if you give me your address!

I go and click on a link on www.thehungersite.com. It’s easy, free and you get to help people (1.1 cups of staple food is donated for each click). I make sure to go there everyday.

Did you ever feel that something was pulling at you and would not let go? Well, that is what I feel my life has been moving at. I worked at Westinghouse in a small transformer plant until they shut down. At that time I was unemployed so I had a chance to go to school. Chef’s school. A new one opened in Pittsburgh so I went. I was in the first class there. What school does is to give you confidence. I have always enjoyed cooking and this fit right in. I ended up owning a partnership in a restaurant. It was small but still was 100+ hours a week. I learned to cook to say the least but I feel that deeper was something that was really working at me. To open a soup kitchen or to feed the hungry. There are places around that give meals a couple days a week but no place here has a running kitchen. I got out of the business because of a disability but I still think that I could manage it.

Last night my fiance and I volunteered our time to package meals that were being shipped to starving children around the world. It was part of our church’s “50 days of service” program that encourages members of the congregation and community to serve in some way during Lent. In 2 hours we packaged enough dry food to feed 54 children for one year! It felt so good in my heart knowing I did something that helps us move toward ending world hunger.

I was in Oxford on Friday, the day before new years eve. I was driving around with my best friend from school days and we were talking about poverty and homelessness in general. Then we had an idea – why don’t we find someone homeless and feed them right now! It took us about 10 minutes to find a young girl sat on her haunches with a paper cup in front of her. I pulled down the car window and asked her if she was homeless, to which she replied ‘yes’. I asked her if she wanted some food and again, she replied in the affirmative. ‘What would you like to eat’, I asked her. She said, “anything, I haven’t eaten for days”. I looked at my friend and we sped of to the nearest 24 store (it was 11pm). My friend went in and bought £10.00 worth of fresh food – sandwiches, drinks, snacks, fruit. We got back to her laden with 2 shopping bags and she was just totally overwhelmed.

I asked her about her plans for the night – she was just trying to get enough money to pay for a bed-n-breakfast. So although we’d solved her food problem, we were unable to solve her accomodation issue – which bothered me.

We spoke for a while – and it turned out she was exactly the same age as us – 36, and we had some people in common. How she ended up on the street I don’t know. We did not pry and did not ask questions. We are not there to judge.

We just wanted to feed a hungry stomach. Before we left some of her friends turned up – also homeless. So we think she may have shared her food with them also. So three hungry stomachs filled.

This took no longer than 45 minutes, and it did make a difference. I asked my friend to look out for her and help her again if he could. He has pledged to feed someone hungry in Oxford once a week.

Its not about just feeding a stomach. You talk to them, offer a smile, a kind word – and this kindles hope and hopefully one day a better life. Also, its not about making myself feel good. How could I feel good after giving her food, but still knowing that she had another 2/3 hours to save money for her accomodation? We can only do so much, but we start with small steps. Feeding them gives themk energy and hope that will hopefully get them through comfortably right now.