Greetings Fellow Hunger Rumblings Blog Followers,

It’s been a while, but if you sift back through the records, you’ll find some old posts by me, Mikka. Since my time as an intern with ELCA World Hunger, I’ve finished college and worked with the ELCA doing gender justice advocacy, spent some time with ELCA Global Mission and now have returned to ELCA World Hunger as program director for constituent engagement and interpretation.

Re-introduction aside…on to my short post for the day.

Though I’ve been living in Chicago for two years now, it’s only been recently that Chicago has become “home.” Now, I’m working on three things: 1. Finding a church home. 2. Making more friends. 3. Getting better acquainted with the community, politics and life here in Chicago.

This brings me to an article on a topic that’s been in and out of the local news here in Chicago.

Have you heard of Asian Carp? It is a species of fish that is invasive to the Great Lakes. This is a fish that does not belong here in the Great Lakes ecosystem. According to the article, Illinois officials have hatched a plan and hope to “kill two birds with one stone.” The idea is to harvest the carp from the lakes and provide the fresh meat to local food pantries and food shelves to help reduce hunger and provide nutritious, fresh food.

From the article: “We are in unchartered water here,” said Illinois Department of Natural Resources spokesman Chris McCloud. “Why remove them and put them into a landfill when you can take them and use them for good? If we can get past the name ‘carp’ and the perception … we can prove this is going to be a highly nutritious, cheap meal.”

As the article goes on to state that an average of 1.8 million people rely on the state’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program each month, according to figures from earlier this year. That’s up from 1.2 million people monthly in 2006.

Hunger—like the invasive carp—does not “belong” here in the human ecosystem.

What do you think? Carp, please?

Mikka McCracken

It has been quite the eventful summer!  A PhD in May (I’m that much smarter now, which means you should be even more skeptical of my claims), a move in June, a baby in July (yes, the two are related, and welcome Dylan James), and a serious influx of new staff in August.  Time now to get back in the blogging saddle (thanks to Karen Ward, Jessica Nipp, and the other World Hunger staff who kept this afloat in my absence!).   Since this is my first post in a while, I think I will make a quick return to my comfort zone–the Bible and theology.  For future posts, I would love to hear from you what topics you would like me to explore.  Leave comments or drop me an email and I will offer my best thinking in my weekly post.

Last Sunday’s text (Matthew 20:1-16) offered a serious challenge to our sense of fairness (curiously, the junior member of the pastoral staff had to preach in my church…).  In this parable, Jesus describes how those who worked all day were paid the same wage as those who only worked for an hour.  We have all heard the well-worn (and often enough baseless) justifications for apathy towards poverty—people are hungry or poor because they are lazy, don’t manage money well, or somehow deficient.  Their hunger and poverty is their fault.  Aside from the fact that claims such as these are woefully imprecise, this parable invites us to rethink notions of justice.  God gives freely to all, as God wishes.  Might the people of God have the same call when it comes to hunger?  Even if the above-mentioned biases prove true, are we still called to share?  Does this parable speak somehow to the widespread poverty and hunger we face in our day?  Let me know what you think!

David Creech

The time is now! That’s what we keep saying about the ELCA Malaria Campaign.  The ELCA is proud to be a part of a global movement, a movement that has been picking up speed for the past ten years.

At increasing speeds in the past ten years, mosquito nets have been distributed to affected communities. Technologies have been researched and circulated. Educational programs have taught countless households. Medications have been administered. And at an increasing pace in the past ten years, the incidences of malaria have gone down!

When I began my position at the ELCA Churchwide office a little over a year ago, we often used this statistic: every 30 seconds a child in Africa dies of malaria.

But this year? This year it’s every 45 seconds. Correct me if I get the math wrong, but I think that means that global efforts to roll back malaria have resulted in saving the life of an African child every two minutes.

That’s amazing work. But we know that as long as even one life is threatened by a preventable and treatable disease, we must keep working.

This article from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation says a little more about the progress we’ve made as a global community in rolling back malaria in the past ten years. And we’re glad to be a part of the work in the next years.

-Jessica Nipp,
ELCA Malaria Campaign

As it closes its doors, Walter Reed Hospital has been featured in several NPR stories over the past few weeks.

Here’s a fascinating and well-written story about malaria research that’s happening there, on live volunteers, with the hope of finding a vaccine.  It also includes some interesting information about how malaria has affected the course of military history.

Check it out, and let me know what you think!

Jessica Nipp,
ELCA Malaria Campaign