A Place at the Table
"A large family is seated at a dinner table. They bow their heads and together acknowledge that the food set before them and the life it sustains are gifts from God. They say grace. After the prayer, a few children quickly scoop up most of the food. Others at the table go hungry. Gaunt looks on several faces indicate that this happens regularly. Grace at the table has been violated by an injustice that contradicts the goodness of the Giver, for truly to thank God is also to share the gift of food with everyone at the table."
Unfortunately, this scene is a snapshot of the human family today because more than 800 million people in the developing countries still suffer chronic under-nutirtion. About 31,000 children under age five die each day in developing countries, half from hunger-related causes. In the U.S. 49 million people live in families that are food insecure. Yet widespread hunger is no longer necessary. Wars and tyrants will cause some people to go hungry, no matter what we do. But the resources, technology and knowledge needed to end the sort of routine, pervasive hunger the world now tolerates are readily available.
God is giving us an opportunity to reduce human suffering dramatically. Hunger, though complex, can be overcome. The key is for each of us to help change the politics of hunger. Hunger cuts across religious lines and invites a response from all people of good will. Given the fact that humankind has the means to end hunger, its persistence in God's world is a scandal. It's a scandal not only in the sense of moral outrage, but also because it causes despair and alienates people from God. This is an abundant world. Yet, while much of the world is feasting, part of the human family has no secure place at the table.
This Sunday, Feb. 8th at 11:45am in Fellowship Hall Montview's Community Organizing Ministry (MCOM) invites you to lunch and the viewing of A Place At the Table documentary that makes the connection between hunger in America and advocacy for public policies and programs that assure a place at the table for everyone. A Place at the Table examines the ongoing crisis of hunger in the United States and shows us how hunger poses serious economic, social and cultural implications for our nation, and that it could be solved once and for all, if the American public decides - as they have in the past - that making healthy food available and affordable is in the best interest of us all.
Please join MCOM and Kathy Underhill, Executive Director of Hunger Free Colorado as she leads us through this important film and conversation.
