A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about how much food is wasted because we supermarket shoppers prefer “attractive” produce. Ugly, misshapen, blemished produce doesn’t even make it in the doors of most large grocery stores. In fact, it often doesn’t make it out of the field! Not having been previously aware of the scope of this type of food loss, I had lots of questions about it.

So I was quite delighted to read this post from the Sierra Club on the same topic. It includes lots of great links to related information. In particular was a link to this report from the USDA’s Economic Research Service about food loss in the United States. It explains so much! Admittedly, some of their data is quite old, and the report itself is from January 2007. But even so, even adjusting for the possibility that the numbers have improved, much of what the report describes is still valid. It explains, in very understandable language, how both edible and inedible food is lost at each step of the food chain, beginning with the farm and ending with us throwing away moldy leftovers from our refrigerators.

A few statistics that caught my attention in the report:

“…about 96 billion pounds of food, or 27 percent of the 356 billion
pounds of the edible food available for human consumption in the United States,
were lost to human use… in 1995.” (pg. 3)

“If even 5 percent of the 96 billion pounds were recovered, that quantity
would represent the equivalent of a day’s food for each of 4 million people.”
(pg. 3)

“From foods forgotten and spoiled in the refrigerator to the uneaten
vegetables tossed in the garbage, consumer and foodservice food waste is the
single largest source of food loss in the marketing chain. Estimated at 91
billion pounds, this food loss accounted for 26 percent of the edible food
available for human consumption in 1995.” (pg. 6)

What astounding statistics! 91 of the 96 billion pounds of food lost each year in the United States is lost during and after it is prepared for eating! If those figures are accurate, imperfect produce is a significantly smaller problem then the food we leave on our plates at restaurants, the uneaten salad bar items, and the food we purchased with good intentions but failed to cook before it went bad.

It seems so recoverable! (See second statistic above.) It feels like something each of us could really act on. What would happen if we all started buying only what we could realistically prepare and eat in a given time period? What if, instead of leaving half our “supersized” meal on the plate at the restaurant, we took it home – and then actually ate the leftovers rather than just throwing them away a week later? Think of how many people the “extra” food we don’t buy or throw away could feed! And as a side benefit, think how much money would we save if we bought only what we actually ate!

I understand that this topic is really much more complex. There are many, many issues surrounding it, not the least of which is how this “extra” food would even get to the people who need it. But still. I love the closeness of these numbers. It’s not only what some distant farmer is deciding about his crops. It’s about what I’m doing with the food in my refrigerator, and what I’m doing at the restaurant on Friday night. It illustrates that my daily life is part of both the cause and solution of ensuring everyone can eat. And in that, I find power and a great source of hope.

As in my previous post this week, I’m still thinking about consumerism. My daughter is already asking for things for Christmas (the catalogs have begun arriving). And she loves practically everything she sees having to do with Halloween. Of course, Halloween things will be forgotten by Christmas and we certainly don’t need any of it. But that’s hard for a child to grasp while looking at all the glittery, cool stuff. It can be hard for adults, too.

So I found the following article helpful in this year’s copy of Who’s Birthday Is It, Anyway? from Alternatives for Simple Living. It is written by Sandi Baete from Henryville, Indiana, and quoted here with permission from Alternatives for Simple Living. Full disclosure: I’m on the board at Alternatives. If you like the message, I encourage you to order a copy of the publication. It’s full of reflections and ideas on how to keep the Christmas season simpler and more meaningful. And with the catalogs in my mailbox, I know it must be near December and time to start thinking about this.

The Best Gift I Didn’t Get
by Sandi Baete

As Christmas approaches, I know I will be asked, “What do you want for Christmas?” Now, if I think about it, and look around on the Internet, check out magazines and catalogs, and window-shop at the mall, I am sure to come up with a long list of things that I really want. Most of which I probably didn’t even know exist until I started looking for things to “want.”

So last year, before the question was asked, I did a little soul-searching. And the truth that I found was this – I didn’t really want anything. On top of that, there wasn’t anything I needed either. So, this was my answer to the “What do you want for Christmas?” question. “I want you to take the money you were going to spend on me and find someone who truly has a need. I want you to help that person, and then on Christmas, tell me what you did. That will be my gift.” The more people I told, the more I meant it and looked forward to seeing what I “got.”

This is what I “received” – $50 donated to Habitat for Humanity, $20 given to a homeless woman looking in a dumpster for food, towing service paid for a stranger whose car had left them stranded, Christmas gifts provided for a Salvation Army Angel Tree, and a yearly gift made in the form of a monthly pledge to the ASPCA, a group dedicated to ending cruelty to animals.

Not everyone heeded my wishes; I still received some “real” gifts. But the funny thing is, I was more excited with what I didn’t get. I can truly say I was filled with joy, knowing that others have been blessed. I guess I had a small glimpse of what Jesus must feel when we do the thing He wants us to do.

I know that even as adults we can get caught up in the excitement of getting gifts at Christmas. I’ll admit it’s fun to get a present. But really, do any of those things bring lasting happiness and joy? If the truth be known, I bet most of us can’t even remember what gifts we received for Christmas last year. So what do you have to lose? Just give it a try. I bet you’ll find a whole new meaning in the season.

This year, I am praying earnestly that I receive nothing. After all, my Heavenly Father has already given me everything I need.

Today is the first day of fall. Technically yesterday was still summer, though the temperatures have been significantly cooler and the days noticably shorter for a few weeks now.

But inside certain windowless stores, there’s no telling what time of year it is. Well, maybe you can tell we’re in the back half. The clothing section included both short and long things, but darker shades indicate fall. September? A “Back-to-School” section implied August, but across the aisle were Christmas ornaments. November? December? A bit farther down were the Halloween costumes and lawn decorations. Ah, October! But wait – Thanksgiving-themed dishes. Back to November. I could safely narrow the time of year down to a 5 month range.

All of which had me thinking about how much stuff is available, how much we buy, and how we are tempted to do so by such appealing and long-lasting displays. You weren’t thinking about Thanksgiving here at the tail end of summer and beginning of fall? Well, let us remind you and offer you a lovely selections of things you might need in a couple of months…

I’ve written before about consumerism, and I’ve previously linked to The Story of Stuff, which provides an exellent explanation of some of the effects of consumption. It’s a topic that matters to ELCA World Hunger because our consumption patterns disproportionately affect those living in poverty. From the Global Policy Forum:

According to the World Bank, the 2.3 billion residents of low-income countries
accounted for less than 3% of public and private consumption in 2004, while the
1 billion residents of high-income countries consumed more than 80% of the
global total (See Figure 1.) In this same year the United States accounted for
4.6 percent of the world’s population and 33 percent of global consumption.

This matters because as we rich nations happily shop away, we are using a huge share of the world’s resources. As we exceed the ability of our own country to provide goods at a price we’re willing to pay, we look elsewhere. We buy minerals, fuel, crops and consumer goods from countries anxious for the income and willing to lower prices and regulations to get the business. Poor countries grow tobacco for Western markets instead of food for themselves. They offer cheap clothing at the expense of their employees. They accept shipments of garbage and even toxic waste into their countries because it’s a source of income. The result is often degradation of land and people, making it that much harder for them to succeed. We, in the meantime, wear the clothes for a season and then discard them for something new. In the process, we use even more resources, create more trash, and demand more from the world.

There is a capitalist argument that this is the global market. Whoever can produce an item most efficiently should. Not everyone should grow corn or tobacco or sew clothes. Countries should produce what they’re best at and trade for the things they can’t do as well. It’s good and right that some countries produce coffee beans and many more don’t. And this argument has merit – to a degree. But it requires that governments are functional and acting in the interests of their citizens, not just themselves. It requires that regulations exist and are enforced. It requires educational systems that adequately prepare people to participate in those economies. It requires equity in access to those educational systems. And it requires thoughtful management of resources – both natural and human – to ensure their sustainability. Until those conditions exist, people living in proverty will continue to work in deplorable conditions and exploit their environment because it’s how they can survive. And many of them will continue to live in poverty and to be hungry.

We in the wealthy nations can help by living more sustainably ourselves. We have to consume. Everyone does. But we don’t have to consume thoughtlessly. We can pay more for Fair Trade coffee and finance it by skipping the extra sweater. We can demand products made from sustainable practices (like certified wood) that are easier on the environment. Organizations like the Worldwatch Institute can help you figure out what those products are.

Consumption in and of itself isn’t the problem. It’s how – and how often – we go about it.

We all know that poverty is inextricably linked to hunger. Amoung other things, people living in poverty have less access to health care and education, both of which affect a person’s ability to get and keep a job. And as we all know, different states – and regions within a state – fare differently on the poverty scale. But did you ever wonder exactly how your state or area fare? Or even you as an individual?

Check out www.measureofamerica.org. Interactive maps let you look at different areas of the United States, and the “Well-O-Meter” will let you plot your own place on the American Human Development Index.

And if you find you aren’t satisfied with the results, consider ways to tell your elected politicians about the changes you’d like to see. One place to start is www.elca.org/advocacy.

Here is a snapshot of the most recent ELCA News Service Postings as of 9/17/2008:
ELCA Synod Bishop Calls on Public Officials to Take Action on Poverty
Lutherans Help Support the Needs of Flood-Affected Families in India
Online Registration for ELCA Youth Gathering Passes 22,000 in 36 Hours
Lutherans Mark September as ‘National Preparedness Month’
ELCA Synod Office Temporarily Relocates in Wake of Hurricane Ike

As you can see, ELCA News Service Postings are often on topics of interest to Hunger Rumblings readers. You can subscribe and receive ELCA News releases and/or ELCA News Service blog postings in your e-mail inbox.

Blessings, Sue

This is an excerpt from a blog posting on Leaves from a Lutheran Notebook. Anne is posting from Bratislava, Slovakia, where she serves the Bratislava International congregation as a Global Mission Horizon Intern. Anne’s husband, Sean, is an ELCA volunteer missionary teaching at the Lutheran highschool in Bratislava. Help ELCA Disaster Response “be there for the long haul” after flooding. Donate online at www.elca.org/giving Learn more at www.elca.org/disaster –Sue-s

Water
Posted: 15 Sep 2008 08:27 AM CDT
It is the feast day of Our Lady of Sorrows, patron saint of Slovakia and a national holiday. Sean and I are listening to Morning Edition via whyy.com at almost 3pm, getting ready for school tomorrow and still recovering from a whirlwind week (teaching, sermoning, etc.) It’s been raining lightly all day, a gentle, welcome tapping on our windows that makes me glad to be inside, warm and cozy. I love days like this, especially after it has been so brutally hot.

Water can be comforting, joyful, renewing, and such a relief. Water is also powerful and frightening. Six hours after I gave a children’s message on the joyful experience of using water to remember our baptism, Pastor Kristi at St. Luke’s in Park Ridge, Ill., responded to flooding in the United States with a children’s sermon on Noah, and God’s rainbow promise to never destroy the world.

Water has as much potential for destruction as it does for sustaining creation–it is absolutely essential to life and can be absolutely deadly. God uses this powerful sign to make powerful promises to humanity: you will not be destroyed, you are my children, you are forgiven.

Lots of prayer requests on my mind today! Let us pray for the search and rescue workers in Galveston and for everyone still waiting for them.
Let us pray for everyone trying to get the basics in Houston: power, drinking water, gasoline for generators, food. May the relief efforts reach and assist them in their times of need.
Let us pray for everyone in the South and Midwest impacted by Hurricane Ike–bless relief agencies and home and business owners who will be “in it for the long haul” for recovery and rebuilding.
Let us give thanks for God’s life-giving gift of water: water used for cleaning up after storms, to sustain the people who are in the midst of recovery, and to remind all of us that God loves us, forgives us, and gives us new life.

The picture above is of us praying at the end of the children’s message, yesterday. We had so much fun sprinkling water on the congregation! You can see the kids are suppressing giggles, here. Water is a lot of fun when it isn’t in hurricane form.

There are two opportunities to highlight from ELCA World Hunger partner Lutheran World Relief: (1) LWR’s “Virtual University” sessions, and (2) LWR’s study tour to Colombia. Blessings, Sue

LWR Virtual U is a monthly, interactive, online speakers’ series that directly connects you with LWR’s global team of experts. Each hour-long class is accessible online with audio and visuals; or with audio only by a toll-free telephone call. Expert, experienced LWR staffmembers teach each class and answer your questions.

The first class of the 2008–2009 session, “Fill the Bowl, responding to the global food Crisis” will be held on Thursday, September 18, at 7:00 Central Time.

The classes take place from September 2008 through April 2009, on the third Thursday of each month, at 7 p.m. Central Time. Participate in all or as many classes as you wish. If you can’t join the live session, the courses are recorded and posted online for participation at your convenience. Register now at lwr.org/university to receive updates and log-in directions, which are issued each month.

LWR Study Tour to Colombia
LWR will host a study tour to Colombia, February 11-22, 2009. While in Colombia, Study Tour participants will witness first hand LWR’s work with Latino-Mestizo, Afro-Colombian, and other indigenous communities. Participants will interact with people who directly benefit from LWR’s work in supporting the rights and interests of internally displaced persons in Colombia.

“Although U.S. policy toward Colombia has improved, the Peace Sanctuary Churches still face many challenges. Peace in Colombia is possible, but it will require the continued work of courageous people in Colombia and strong advocates in the U.S. It is our hope this Study Tour
to Colombia will help strengthen our commitment to building peace,” says Rebecca Phares, LWR’s director for public policy and advocacy.

Estimated cost for this LWR Study Tour is $3,300, which includes round-trip airfare from Houston, Texas, and lodging, meals, insurance and ground transportation while in Colombia. This estimate does not include travel to and from Houston and personal spending money.

This extraordinary opportunity to see the work of LWR in Colombia is limited to 15 U.S.-based travelers. To apply for this LWR Study Tour, or for more information, contact Rebecca Lange-Thernes at rthernes@lwr.org or 410-230-2737. The application deadline is November 17, 2008.

Statement on Hurricanes, September 12, 2008
A message from Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

“But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you…. Because you are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you….” (Isaiah 43:1-2,4a)

As I write, yet another hurricane is threatening the Gulf Coast. This one is only the latest in a seemingly endless series of storms that have brought hardship, destruction, fear and even death to brothers and sisters in the Gulf Coast and the Caribbean, especially Haiti. The relentless destruction reminds us that the rebuilding of lives continues in other areas that have been affected by floods, tornadoes, fires and other disasters.

I call on you to respond in the midst of danger and loss. While some are preparing for storms yet to come, others are fleeing from storms, and still others are rebuilding in the aftermath of disasters. I ask you to respond with your prayers, your generous gifts of time and money, your volunteer hours and skills, the open doors of your homes and churches, and your commitment to a sustaining presence for the long haul. Visit ELCA Disaster Response for updates, for downloadable bulletin inserts, and for ways to make contributions online.

These expressions of our faith remind us that we are called by name and are bound together by our baptisms into community with those who suffer. Thank you for your generous and sustaining response in the midst of the disasters.

God’s work. Our hands.
The Rev. Mark S. Hanson
Presiding Bishop
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

Below, find an informative ELCA News Posting about ELCA International Disaster Response in Cuba and Haiti. Learn more and give to the response effort at www.elca.org/disaster

ELCA NEWS SERVICE
September 12, 2008
08-153-MRC

Lutherans Work to Meet the Needs of People in Cuba, Haiti
CHICAGO (ELCA) — Some of the greatest needs in Cuba and Haiti are securing food and clean water for survivors of the 2008 hurricane season, according to Megan Bradfield. In an effort to respond to the needs of people in the two Caribbean islands, members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) provided funds Sept. 11 to help secure life-sustaining resources. Through ELCA International Disaster Response, Lutherans provided an initial $25,000 to support immediate relief effortsin Haiti, said Bradfield, associate director for international development and disaster response, ELCA Global Mission. The funds were sent to the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), which continues to conduct damage assessment and organize hurricane recovery efforts there.

Tropical storm Fay, Hurricane Gustav, Tropical Storm Hanna and Hurricane Ike struck Haiti this season. Action by Churches Together (ACT) reported that the storms killed 328 people and devastated the land. According to an ELCA Disaster Response alert, families in Haiti were already struggling with the “silent disaster of hunger and extreme poverty” prior to being struck by the storms, which further drove people away from life-sustaining resources.

“Receiving food from external resources is not a luxury; it is a necessity to save lives, particularly in Haiti,” said Bradfield. Because Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, the impact of disasters on its most vulnerable citizens is disproportionate. Often citizens lack access to the basics of life, let alone what is needed to rebuild, she said. “Extreme poverty and disasters create a vicious cycle of impoverishment for the economically poor. The lack of financial resources to purchase means for cooking, for example, causes people to cut down trees to use as charcoal,” said Bradfield. When multiple storms strike, the deforestation enables mudslides to occur, making communities further vulnerable. This is the circumstance in Haiti, she said.

Storms Fay, Gustav and Ike also struck Cuba. Gustav damaged an estimated 100,000 homes in the western part of the island. Through ELCA International Disaster Response, Lutherans gave an initial $10,000 to support the humanitarianefforts of Church World Service (CWS) in Cuba. CWS will usethe funds to purchase material aid — blankets, medicine, hygiene and baby kits — for survivors of the storms. The ELCA participates in the work of CWS and is a member of the LWF — a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran tradition. ACT is a global alliance of churches and related agencies working to save lives and support communities in emergency situations worldwide. It is based with the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the LWF, both in Geneva. The ELCA is a member of the WCC. Coordinated by ELCA Global Mission, International Disaster Response channels its funds through international church organizations and relief agencies. Funds provide for food, medicine, drinking water, emergency shelter and other materials for survivors of disasters.

I’ve seen him multiple times over the past 9 years—a man whose station in life could lend itself to invisibility quite easily but whose invisibility is a product of those around him, not his own misfortune. This man is blind.

He leans with his back against the wall, crouching slightly near the two lone payphones in the long corridor at the Washington El train stop here in Chicago. The muffled jingle of change in a tattered Styrofoam cup grows louder as one approaches him and then fades away as one quickly flies by, on the way to somewhere seemingly more important.

I bet thousands of other train-riding Chicagoans, upon hearing this story, would know exactly who I’m talking about. Like any other person who is homeless and whom we might encounter anywhere else, the call to action is simple. But do we listen to that call? More importantly, do we really SEE this man while whizzing by?

That is a personal question, one that I cannot answer for everyone, however Jesus expects us to SEE him–not to look in his general direction, but to actually SEE him. We must not contribute to an invisibility that grows exponentially by the throngs of people who pass him by without so much as a penny, a hello, or even an acknowledging glance cast in the direction of someone who may not even know it.

We raise money and work on behalf of those who are hungry and poor and, in some cases, living with disabilities. The ability to see is a gift and a responsibility, as is the ability to act. If we are blessed with either or both of these gifts, let us honor those gifts and resist the tendency to blend in with the masses for fear of missing the next train.

–Aaron Cooper is writer-editor for ELCA World Hunger