A place at the table

I was raised in a family where central to our being together was a table where we gathered daily, frequently, and with great intention and purpose. One glance, and you can tell that I come from a family of great cooks. My mother was one who held the belief that at our table there was always room for one more. You could stop by her house at any hour of the day or night and one of the first questions you were asked by my Mom was, "Are you hungry?" If you answered yes or even hesitated slightly, she would, in a manner of minutes, present you with a full meal that included a meat, a starch, a vegetable, bread, and, yes, dessert.

I share this reflection, because although we were not a wealthy family, and in the many years she lived as a widow on a very limited income, we never once lacked for food or had to worry about what we would eat. That lead for us to be able to take having a meal for granted.

On this WORLD FOOD DAY, what we took for granted, is not the norm for a majority of persons in our world. A shocking number of American citizens live in what is called a "food desert" which is when persons living in povety do not have easy access to a large grocery store or supermarket.

On this WORLD FOOD DAY, far too many farmers living in third world countries exist in a feudal land state where the majority of the food they grow must be shipped to the other wealthy countries in order to pay off decades of debt. And, we wonder how in a world of such abundance there is still so much hunger and why far, far, too many children in the wealthiest country in the world will go to bed hungry tonight.

On this WORLD FOOD DAY do not wait until Thanksgiving to pack the annual bag of food. Do something today --- deliver a bag of food to your local food bank; make a financial contribution; commit monthly to actively do something that addresses the hunger crisis in our communities, our nation, our world.

We can have a world where everyone has a place at the table and enough to eat. The question is do we want it enough to act justly?

sj;