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ELCA Pastor Tackles Minimum Wage

​It is no secret that many workers in the fast food industry are not paid enough to support themselves and their families.  A recent report found that 52% of front-line fast-food workers receive some form of public assistance, nearly twice the proportion of all workers who receive public assistance.quote.JPG

It is also no secret that the pulpit often has been a platform for prophetic voices, from John Chrysostom decrying excessive wealth in the Fourth Century to Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., indicting segregation with the Word of God in the Twentieth Century.  This year, Rev. Annie Edison-Albright of Redeemer Luther Church (ELCA) in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, brought her voice and faith to bear on the plight of workers struggling for a living wage.  Her prophetic sermon was recognized by The Beatitudes Society, which awarded Rev. Edison-Albright its 2014 J. Philip Swander Brave Preacher Award!

Her poignant words call us to see our neighbors differently and to strive for justice in accordance with our baptismal vocation.  You can read the full sermon here, but below are some selections.

Rev. Edison-Albright reminds us what is at stake when workers are mistreated or ridiculed for their efforts:

“What it comes down to is this: the person you degrade, and dehumanize, and call names … that person is Jesus.  That person working at McDonald’s is Jesus.  And she’s Jesus regardless of how smart she is, or what life choices she’s made. The stone the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. The person you reject is the cornerstone: an essential, important, beloved child of God.”

She declares to people of faith that our hope is well-founded and calls us to carry that hope into the world:

“When it comes to big issues like poverty, it’s easy to get cynical, to get angry and judgmental, to be apathetic and try to ignore it, to get overwhelmed and feel like there’s nothing we can do. But if Jesus Christ was born, lived, died and rose from the dead, then anything is possible. And we truly are empowered to be God’s hands and feet and voices in the world.”

Powerful words from a powerful preacher.  Congratulations, Rev. Edison-Albright, and thank you!

Follow these links to learn more about the ELCA’s commitment to a living wage:

Playing the “Hunger Game” in the United States: When the odds are NOT in your favor

This weekend the “beginning of the end” of one of the most popular book and blockbuster film series of the decade hits the big screen. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 will no doubt lure fans of Suzanne Collins’ best-selling dystopian trilogy to movie theaters in droves across the country. People of all ages will be on the edge of their seats to see whether Katniss will prevail in the fight against the Capitol, how the love-story will unfold and, of course, whether or not the movie is true enough to the book to appease the most loyal fans.

While I must admit that I have read all three Hunger Games books, and did so in perhaps what was near-record time, my interest this week in anticipation of the movie release lies more along the lines of the connections we can draw between the perils of Panem – the fictitious setting of the novels – and the culture of food, class and justice in the United States. A quick Google search of “The Hunger Games + real life” reveals everything from conspiracy theories to blog rants about how the United States of America IS the Capitol. Although I don’t take quite the extreme view, I do find several specific connections compelling:

1) the rising role of food as a marker of social class in the U.S., and 2) the outrageous excess and waste of our consumption we too often fail to recognize.

From the outset of the series, a vast food gap is depicted between the Capitol and the various districts of Panem. Vignettes of extreme gluttony and extravagance – Capitol residents are able to take a pill to make themselves throw-up some of their food in order to continue indulging in elaborate meals – are contrasted with desperation, as Katniss revels in the acquisition of a single burned loaf of bread. The food gap in the United States may not look the same as that portrayed in the Hunger Games, yet food is nonetheless becoming an increasingly prominent marker of social class. In the United States the food gap reveals itself more in the type of food consumed. The well-off continually seek out healthier, fancier, more ethically produced foods. Those struggling financially often have little access to choices other than the empty calories of inexpensive, processed foods. In September of this year, the Harvard School of Public Health released a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association Internal Medicine[1. http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/u-s-diet-shows-modest-improvement-but-overall-remains-poor/.] tracking the eating habits of just under 30,000 Americans between 1999 and 2010. The study revealed that over the last decade “diet quality has improved among people of high socioeconomic status but deteriorated among those at the other end of the spectrum.”[2. http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/09/access-to-real-food-as-privilege/379482/ This article also notes the study’s conclusion that diets in the US have improved overall when socioeconomic status is not accounted for, but one of the researchers notes that “the growing gap between the rich and poor (is) ‘disturbing.’… There can by no tenable ‘overall improvement’ when there is growing disparity around a point so critical to preventative medicine, or when there is deterioration among any such sizable marginalized population.”]

The paradox of this situation is that the push to improve overall health of Americans – from easing the obesity epidemic to lowering health care costs and incidence of diet-related diseases – seems to be a ubiquitous value. Yet, what is considered “healthy” is often only accessible to a relatively small portion of us. Healthy lifestyles are not solely determined by the foods we eat, but also by the ways we use our bodies, the air we breathe, the water we drink. Families and individuals who struggle to feed themselves healthy food because of financial limitations are unlikely to have the time or energy to exercise regularly.[3. http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/08/22/3474767/poor-people-use-diet-supplements-more/.] All of these problems compound rising healthcare costs, which can be an added burden, especially for families with children. Furthermore, the widening food gap promises to have cyclical consequences; as people fail to afford healthy food, their health is susceptible to deterioration, which can then intensify and deepen income inequality, and so on.[4. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/rich-poor-dietary-gap-widening-in-u-s/.] It just goes to show, when you don’t play fair, nobody wins – especially in the real life “hunger game.”

Food’s role as a marker of class has been recognized and discussed for some time, as The Washington Post notes in their article about the 2014 Harvard study.[5. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/09/02/americas-growing-food-inequality-problem/.] (See this piece in Newsweek from 2010). So if the problem has been known for the last half a decade or more, why has the gap just kept on growing? It would be nice if the food gap could simply be closed by single solutions, like taxing junk food at increasingly greater rates or building a Whole Foods in every low-income neighborhood.[6. Whether or not introducing health foods stores in low-income areas improves diet is debated. http://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperInformation.aspx?PaperID=42342 This study actually takes an analytical look at the impact of health foods stores in gentrifying neighborhoods and reveals that this would actually probably not work at all. Other research suggests there are myriad benefits to their introduction from diet quality to economic boon. Policy Link and The Food Trust state, “Living closer to healthy food retail is among the factors associated with better eating habits and decreased risk for obesity and diet-related diseases.” http://thefoodtrust.org/uploads/media_items/executive-summary-access-to-healthy-food-and-why-it-matters.original.pdf ] But the reality is that, like most things, this problem is multi-faceted.

What we eat is an incredibly personal part of our lives, and whether we recognize it or not each of us has a relationship with food. Research reported on by Policy Link and The Food Trust “reveals that healthy eating is embedded in a complex set of relationships…[including] transportation options, quality and price of produce and other healthy food options, marketing of unhealthy food to children, and cultural appropriateness of neighborhood food choices.”[7. Ibid.] The food gap is stretched by income inequality, education inequality, food access inequality and limited choice, differences in taste and tradition, and the fact that often times it seems like what is considered “healthy” just plain old keeps changing faster than most people can keep up with! While this cacophony of policy problems is inevitably frustrating, I like the takeaway of a response to the Hunger Games’ themes of food and power written a few years ago. The author says: “Those of us with so much, we need to share.”[8. http://www.agriview.com/news/regional/the-real-world-hunger-games-not-so-far-fetched/article_4a6bc506-a537-11e1-9244-0019bb2963f4.html.]

And the thing is, we DO have plenty to share here in the United States. A report from the USDA released in February 2014 suggests that we waste approximately 1,249 calories of food per person, per day in the United States.[9. http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/02/27/283071610/u-s-lets-141-trillion-calories-of-food-go-to-waste-each-year.] Much of this food waste is fruits, vegetables, and other healthy foods that “spoil” or are discarded due to irregular appearance. I find this startling. Perhaps the American food scene is more akin to that in the Capitol than I first suggested. The enormity of our waste is captured eloquently by National Geographic: “More than 30 percent of our food [in the United States], valued at $162 billion annually, isn’t eaten. Pile all that food on a football field and the layers would form a putrefying casserole miles high.”[10. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/10/141013-food-waste-national-security-environment-science-ngfood/.] So maybe that isn’t so much eloquent as it is disturbing. The good news is that reducing food waste, along with encouraging healthy eating, is a trend people are tackling more and more (football pun intended). Globally, new storage methods are being introduced. Here in the US businesses are innovating to cut down on waste. Farmers and producers are innovating to lessen food loss. [11. Ibid. ]

There is no doubt a long way to go in righting food distribution injustices of waste and inaccessibility. In all we do to eradicate food loss, we should always keep an eye to how we can help those who don’t have enough food or enough good food, have more on their table. We should remember just how much abundance there really is in the world, and that there is always something – resources, knowledge, compassion – to share.

(The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 isn’t your only option for a food-centric movie-going experience this weekend. Food Chains, a documentary about a grassroots movement for farm workers’ rights, will be released nationwide on November 21st. More information about the film and the movement at www.foodchainsfilm.com.)

Gina Tonn is a Program Assistant with ELCA World Hunger through the Lutheran Volunteer Corps. While an avid reader, she rarely makes an effort to see the latest films. “I just can’t sit still that long!” she says, when pressed about the fact that it took her approximately a month to watch “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.” She is still working up the wherewithal to start “The Two Towers.”

 

Welcome to the team, Kelly Winters!

​November 18, 2014

My name is Kelly Winters, and I am excited to join the ELCA World Hunger team as the Assistant for Constituent Engagement! My role involves responding to inquiries and communication from our wonderful constituents, and I look forward to talking with many of you about how your congregation can learn more about ELCA World Hunger.  I am also eager to hear about your ideas on how to raise awareness around hunger and poverty.

I come to ELCA World Hunger from Grace Lutheran Church of La Grange, Illinois, where I served as the Administrative Assistant.  Before moving to the greater Chicago area in 2010 I worked around the country in Outdoor Ministry.  Camping has always been a huge part of my life and spiritual growth, and continues to be important to me as I currently serve on the board of the Lutheran Outdoor Ministries Center in Oregon, IL.

Originally, I am from Ohio where I lived near Lake Erie, enjoying summers hanging out at Lakeside or Cedar Point.  I went to college at Capital University in Columbus, OH, and received my degree in Communications.  It has been many years since I lived in Ohio, but I still think of myself as a Buckeye at heart.

Now I am happy to continue to work for the ELCA; where we value always being made new, while staying rooted in our rich history.  ELCA World Hunger is an amazing mission of our church in the way it takes a comprehensive approach to the topics of hunger and poverty, and partners with Lutheran connections around the world, in order to assist communities where they need it most.  I am just grateful to have the opportunity to be a part of a team that is so passionate about the work they are doing!Kelly

Some fun facts about me:

  • My hobbies are quilting, glass art (making stained glass, kaleidoscopes and glass beads) and anything outdoors (hiking, kayaking, etc).
  • I love listening to folk & bluegrass music, and frequently go to concerts at the Old Town School of Folk Music. I am also learning how to play the upright bass – bluegrass style.
  • Though I haven’t done much international travel, I have been to Australia three times.  I just love it so much I keep getting pulled back!

Kelly Winters is the Assistant for Constituent Engagement with ELCA World Hunger. You can hear her friendly voice on the ELCA World Hunger telephone line.

Homelessness: A “Both, And” Issue

Gina Tonn

​November 17, 2014

This week is national “Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week.”  The recent arrests of several activists in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, over public outdoor meals served to people experiencing homelessness has brought homelessness to the fore of media coverage in recent weeks.  This year, Fort Lauderdale passed a series of restrictions aimed at moving feeding sites indoors.  These include requirements that all feeding sites have toilet facilities and that any feeding sites be located at least 500 feet away from each other.  These new regulations were passed in response to residents’ complaints about crowds of homeless people in public parks.  The Fort Lauderdale’s Women’s Club was a particularly vocal supporter of the restrictions, telling Mayor Jack Seiler that the use of one park as a site for feeding people in need made it problematic for them to hold weddings and yoga classes.

Fort Lauderdale is not alone in criminalizing the public provision of food to people facing hunger.  In the spirit of raising “awareness” during “Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week,” I want to share with you some information about where restrictions on serving meals have been implemented and what the restrictions are.

The passage of laws making it more difficult, or even impossible, to serve public meals to people was first brought to my attention when my colleague shared this article from National Public Radio with me. My interest was further piqued and motivation to put together this blog post heightened when, a few days later, the sidebar of my Facebook timeline informed me that the arrests in Fort Lauderdale were “trending.”

A report cited in the NPR article mentioned above, compiled by the National Coalition for the Homeless and just released in October called “Share No More: The Criminalization of Efforts to Feed People in Need” provides an overview of laws enacted  during 2013-2014 throughout the United States. These laws are categorized in several ways: restrictions on public property use, food safety regulations and community actions to relocate food-sharing events. The report also notes cities that repealed laws of these sorts during the last year, and places that attempted to pass laws but failed. I invite you to read the report for yourself in order to gain a full understanding of the regulations at hand and investigate whether your community imposed or repealed any restrictions.

Looking ahead, homelessness promises to be an issue that continues to demand the attention of federal, state and local governments, as well as non-profit and social ministry organizations. Just last week, Community Solutions, a national organization whose tagline indicates their mission toward “strengthening communities” and “ending homelessness”announced a new campaign to end veteran and chronic homelessness in the next two years. The campaign, called “Zero: 2016” will launch in January 2015 in 67 communities across the country. Many of these communities, listed in the press release, overlap with the communities imposing restrictions on meal programs. The “Zero: 2016” campaign is an attempt to accelerate housing efforts, connect people experiencing homelessness with available housing options and create public accountability around the issue of chronic homelessness.

ELCA World Hunger is a comprehensive approach to recognizing and fighting the root causes of poverty and hunger in our communities near and far. One takeaway from my time with the ELCA World Hunger team so far is that we are each a piece of a puzzle and all of the pieces are needed in order to make a dent in hunger and poverty. Yes, we need to change societal structure to eliminate homelessness through more accessible job programs, education and supportive housing, and more robust welfare programs. This is, in fact, the stated goal of many laws against feeding people who are homeless.  Meals, some argue, create dependency and do little to help people gain access to long-term financial independence.

But we also need to support people who are suffering now. I believe we are called to be advocates of both serving meals to those who are hungry and finding ways to prevent hunger and homelessness moving forward. People who are hungry have a need for food, yet laws such as these are also borne out of need, such as residents’ safety. What does it say about who is part of a community when some neighbors are treated as threats to safety or decorum? How are we called to balance different needs within a community?

 

Gina Tonn is a Program Assistant for ELCA World Hunger through the Lutheran Volunteer Corps.

AGAPE* campaign supports ELCA World Hunger

Gina Tonn

​Agape dave

We all know music feeds the soul, but music can also help feed the hungry. Last year, musician and songwriter ​Jonathan Rundman donated a portion of the proceeds from his PledgeMusic campaign to ELCA World Hunger.  This year, Christian rap and hip hop artist AGAPE* (aka Dave Scherer) is also pledging 10% of proceeds from pre-orders of his new album to ELCA World Hunger.  Visit AGAPE* on PledgeMusic to watch a video about the album, get some great new music and support the work of ELCA World Hunger!

AGAPE* went on the road with fellow artists Rachel Kurtz and Lost And Found for the “100 Wells Tour” following the 2012 ELCA Youth Gathering. He talks about his commitment to raising awareness about water access issues as well as his support for ELCA World Hunger in a blog post featured on his website. He says, “The reason I chose ELCA World Hunger is because they don’t solve problems for communities, they allow the community to come up with their own solution to this crisis.” As excitement builds toward the next ELCA Youth Gathering this summer, ELCA World Hunger continues to be committed to partnering with communities around the world to solve issues of water access through your gifts and participation during ELCA World Hunger’s Walk for Water.

AGAPE* brings the word of God to his listeners through relational ministry called “Hip Hop Outreach.” His work doesn’t stop with the music. In addition to performing on stages across the US and in eight different countries, AGAPE* is co-founder of JUMP (Joint Urban Ministries in Praise), a program for urban youth. He’s also the founder of AMP (All Metro Praise), a youth-led worship service in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area. To learn more about the music and mission of AGAPE*, visitwww.hiphopoutreach.com. ​​​

Gloria Dei Lutheran Church supports ELCA Good Gifts with “Backpack Buddies”

Gina Tonn

​Special thanks to Kris Schultz of Gloria Dei for sharing the story of Backpack Buddies.

Over the summer Gloria Dei Lutheran Church posed a simple yet exciting challenge to its congregation: Read Books, Help Children.

The Downers Grove, Illinois, congregation holds a Summer Reading Program to encourage members, particularly children, to continue to visit the Memorial Library at Gloria Dei over the summer months. The Memorial Library is dedicated to providing resources for spiritual growth and to enriching the work of the congregation. This summer, however, the Summer Reading Program took on a new dimension with the addition of an ELCA Good Gifts matching challenge. Gloria Dei’s Library Committee and Mission and Justice Committee partnered to envision “Backpack Buddies.” Through the Backpack Buddies challenge, each participant in the Summer Reading Program was asked to set a reading goal of a certain number of books from the library, and adults were asked to sponsor them by pledging to give one dollar per book read. The money raised would go toward the ELCA Good Gifts program to provide schools supplies for children in need:

Ten Books = Ten Bucks = School Supplies for One Student

35 children, who ranged in ages from 3 to 12 years, enthusiastically made their pledges at the start of the summer, and 32 sponsors signed up, some sponsoring multiple readers.

Each Sunday that summer, the Memorial Library was busy with families returning books and checking out new ones. Each challenge participant had a reading progress chart to keep track of the books they read. The charts were hung up in the church’s gathering area for the whole congregation to see and celebrate.backpack buddies

By the time Sunday School began in September, 185 books had been read through the Backpack Buddies challenge. The Mission and Justice Committee collected $430– well beyond the $1 per book promised!

The Backpack Buddies challenge was a success. The Memorial Library met its goal of increasing use over the summer, new connections between adults and children in the congregation were established, and 43 children will benefit from the donations for school supplies through ELCA Good Gifts.

Thank you to Gloria Dei Lutheran Church for sharing their story of a creative way to encourage summer reading and avidly support the educational efforts of ELCA World Hunger to help combat poverty around the world!

Interested in donating $10 for school supplies for a child? Click here to visit the Good Gifts Catalog!

 

Gina Tonn is a Program Assistant for ELCA World Hunger through the Lutheran Volunteer Corps.

Treasure Mapping – From Charity to Justice with the CICBA Program

Kathee Forrest

At a recent congregational meeting of MacArthur Park Lutheran Church in San Antonio, Texas, a corny skit about a treasure hunt triggered memories of all the “treasures” we’ve discovered through our work this past year with the Southwestern Texas Synod’s pilot Congregation-Initiated Community Based Advocacy (CICBA) program. It’s often tempting to look at what lies ahead in our journeys without reflecting on and celebrating where we’ve been and what we’ve learned along the way.

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MacArthur Park Treasure Hunters (L to R): Brenda Krueger, Jeanette Pierce, George Pierce, Lisa Hooter and Jean Schriever

 

What is CICBA?  Well…it’s a mouthful!  Congregation-Initiated Community Based Advocacy.  As one of six congregations in this three-year pilot program, we are on a journey as people of God to develop skills to identify systemic (real and permanent) causes of poverty in our communities using the tools of community organizing.  We are engaging in conversation and action with community partners and people living in poverty in our neighborhood.

Our group of congregations is diverse in settings and contexts, and each has their own unique CICBA journey – border ministry, mission start, rural and urban congregations among them.

But all share one goal: to  move from charity to justice and to know the difference between the two.

As we started out over a year ago, most of the CICBA team was new to advocacy and community organizing. So our first retreat was a “Community Organizing 101” intro from Sue Engh, ELCA Program Director for Congregation-Based Organizing. The retreat focused on power analysis (Who has power in our community?  What power do we have?) and cara-a-cara. Cara-a-cara, or “one-to-ones,” are relational meetings with each other that give the space for natural, yet uncommon conversation; this paradox emerges as we speak candidly about the parts of our everyday lives we often ignore or cover up. This type of conversation is at the heart of connecting with community leaders and our neighbors to identify assets, priorities and hopes of our community.2

We also began to use new language – the vocabulary of community organizing, including concepts such as “problems vs. issues” and strategies to cut big problems into “bite-sized” action items.  Team member Bee Moorhead, Executive Director ofTexas Impact, talked about public policy and “issues,” along with important data, including the fact that Texas ranks in the bottom half of the states for political action and electoral participation!  This is pretty disappointing, but it also presents a real opportunity for this kind of work here.

After the first retreat, our team practiced one-to ones with each other and the congregation, gaining confidence in the process and learning about gifts, values, passions, and concerns in our midst!

Listen, God Is Calling! – At the second retreat, we kicked the “treasure hunt” into full swing. The stages of community organizing are much like a treasure hunt. By digging deeper into one-to-ones, power analysis, and community partner identification, we unearth riches.  In this retreat, we practiced listening as a form of spiritual hospitality and as an opportunity to find out what God is already up to in our neighborhoods, connecting with Jesus’ great commandment to love God and our neighbors as ourselves (Matt 22:27).

At this retreat, we put on our Grace Goggles.  Mikka McCracken, Program Director of Constituent Engagement and Interpretation with ELCA World Hunger, accompanies our CICBA program.  She spoke about the ELCA’s method ofaccompaniment, reminding us to always listen through a lens of grace amidst cultural and economic differences.  So, we all put on “Grace Goggles,” seeing each other as beloved children of God, created in God’s image.

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Haven for Hope – Retreat number 3!  We listened to a one-to-one conversation of “holy curiosity” between Sue Engh (see picture at right) and Ruth, a woman who, over the course of several months, went from middle-class to homeless due to a series of unexpected health and family events. CICBA groups asked Ruth and her husband questions, which were answered in a friendly and candid way, embracing the “natural, yet uncommon” essence of cara-a-cara. Ruth and her husband shared their journeys into and out of homelessness.  The couple met at San Antonio’s Haven for Hope, whose mission is “to offer a place of hope and new beginnings…by providing, coordinating and delivering an efficient system of care for people experiencing homelessness.” We heard their hard truths.  Ruth offered us advice when talking to people in poverty: “It’s okay not to be perfect, but [at least] be honest. Walls may be put up – it depends on the day – don’t take it personally.”

The Time Has Come to Act! – At Retreat #4 we are called to action – to keep this at a level of crisis.  The crisis is clear:  1 in 6 families live in poverty.  1 in 4 children live in poverty.  We have the resources, yet there is the risk of doing nothing because the task is so big.  And what happens when we do nothing?  Who benefits when we do nothing?  We were challenged by a question posed by Dietrich Bonhoeffer:  “Are we still of any use?”  We then worked to develop a 6 week action plan and Collaborative Table Team, to include new members with gifts to help us identify emerging patterns and clarify the actions of an ongoing Organizing Cycle:  LISTEN, RESEARCH, DEVELOP LEADERS, ACT! 

What’s Next? 

Our conversation and learning do not end here. We continue to seek more community conversation partners. CICBA Team members have talked with an apartment manager, riders on the local bus, a neighborhood barber, pharmacist, pastor and elementary school counselor. We are also looking for ways to further engage in conversation with people experiencing poverty within our neighborhood.

Here are some of our other ideas:

1) Community Partner Program – We are also exploring the possibility of becoming a resource to assist the community with online applications for services such as SNAP food benefits, CHIP health care benefits, Medicaid, Medicare, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).  We heard about the need for application assistance through Texas Impact and will explore working with a neighboring church.

2) Economic Justice Workshop – We have recently joined with other faith-based groups, schools and non-profit institutions to launch a community-wide Living Wage and Economic Security campaign in San Antonio.  The rallying cry is “Si, se puede!” – “Yes, we can!”  Our team made a commitment to talk to our congregation, city councilperson and county commissioner about the issue, and to bring more people to a large, city-wide rally this November.

3) The Cross Marks the Spot – Okay, back to the corny skit.  We had some fun pretending to search for exotic treasure as we introduced our congregation to the Community Treasure Hunt which consisted of twelve important community topics paired with challenges and field trips for further digging.  Each month, we will have a congregational conversation based on Matthew 25:34-37 on issues that matter within our community: employment, education, homelessness, food assistance, etc.  The topics and challenges were created by Texas Impact and can be used for any community, so check it out! Throughout the treasure hunt we learned that “the cross marks the spot.” It is always Jesus’ commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves and Jesus’ love on the cross that informs our commitment to justice.  As people of faith, we should know our community.

 

Our final retreat is planned for February 2015 at Texas Lutheran University, opening with a conference event on Faith-Based Organizing:  Our guest speaker will be Alexia Salvatierra, ELCA pastor and co-author of Faith-Rooted Organizing: Mobilizing the Church in Service to the World, and Dr. Ray Pickett, professor of New Testament at Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, will be our guest preacher.  Ray is currently working on a resource to look at the work of Jesus through the lens of community organizing.  We will also be among Texas Lutherans at the First Annual ELCA Legislative Event in Austin, Texas in February 2015!

Live the Gospel.  Change the World.

Yes, this is a bold vision statement for MacArthur Park Lutheran Church in San Antonio, as the CICBA team and congregation celebrate treasures of community organizing – those already identified and those yet to be unearthed.  But we know through faith that we, and the people in our community, are being called “to ventures of which we cannot see the ending…through Jesus Christ.”  And with the tools we’ve gained through CICBA, we are ready to start the adventure!

 

RESOURCES YOU CAN USE

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Dr. Ruby Payne’s book A Framework for Understanding Poverty, was especially helpful in understanding the culture of poverty, specifically noting the differences between generational and situational poverty and the “hidden” rules, behaviors and language gaps between those in poverty, the middle class and the wealthy. The book is full of case studies, examples and comparative charts.  For example, one of the quizzes asks readers if they could survive living in poverty or living in wealth with a checklist of life situations in each economic level.  The exercise was very eye-opening!

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Hope at Work – This comic book is about, well…not Superman or Batman…but superheroes of community organizing!  “Hope at Work” is an imaginative, fictional cartoon story about a couple from Hope Church who are called to move beyond canned goods drives to “feed God’s sheep”, and the excitement of working with a community group appropriately called “MISHPAT” (Metropolitan Initiative for Strong, Hopeful People Acting Together).  The Hebrew term “mishpat” refers to acts of justice in societies and is an important quality of godly communities in the Old Testament.  “Hope at Work” was written by Sue Engh, ELCA Director for Congregation-Based Community Organizing and the CICBA leadership team.  (The comic book is available at http://www.elca.org/Resources/Congregational-Based-Organizing.)

 

ELCA Social Statement – A social statement on economic life: Sufficient, Sustainable Livelihood for All – an important resource as we work on the “Living Wage and Economic Security Campaign”  http://download.elca.org/ELCA%20Resource%20Repository/Economic_LifeSS.pdf

With thanks to Vi Lien, Mary Lou Walther, Pastor Herb Palmer, Pastor Charles Fredrickson, Sharon Wiggins and the Southwestern Texas Synod for the CICBA Pilot Program.  The CICBA program is supported in part by your gifts to ELCA World Hunger.

Advocacy, Accompaniment, and HIV/AIDS in Colombia

Ryan P. Cumming

As many as 140,000 people in Colombia are living with HIV/AIDS, according to the United Nations.  The challenges they face are significant.  Because of the disease’s association with sexuality, many people who are HIV-positive face prejudice, fear and discrimination.  The stigma of HIV/AIDS in Colombia carries legal and medical consequences, as well.  Individuals can be denied disability benefits, scorned by employers or denied medical care for their disease.

Knowing the harsh reality of stigma and the consequences it carries, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Colombia (IELCO) is committed to supporting HIV/AIDS-positive Colombians.  In addition to educating Lutherans about the disease, the Asivida ministry of IELCO supports Caminando Juntos (“walking together”), a group of HIV/AIDS-positive men and women who support each other emotionally, spiritually, mentally, and legally.  With the help of Rosemary Rincon, a social psychologist on staff with IELCO, Caminando Juntos has successfully advocated for the right to disability benefits and medical care for its members.

The ELCA accompanies its companion churches in many ways.  One important form of accompaniment is support for vital ministries within local communities.  Asivida – with its education, outreach, and support of Caminando Juntos – is just a part of the many ministries of IELCO, supported in part by gifts to ELCA World Hunger.  Together, we can be part of IELCO’s powerful witness and action in Colombia!

Watch the video below to hear Rosemary’s powerful story! (A transcript of the video is below for readers who do not speak Spanish.)

 

 

TRANSCRIPT:

My name is Rosemary Rincon. I’m a mom.

I’m a psychologist.

I’m a good daughter, a good friend, a good employee.

I’m a woman, I’m happy and I live with HIV.

We usually think, “It can’t happen to me. This may happen to others, it happens to other people, but not to me.” First off, I’m a housewife; I only have one sex partner. My boyfriend of eight years was my one and only boyfriend, my sole sex partner in my whole life… and I married him. It may affect loose women, sex workers, homosexuals, people who lead an immoral life, and the like, but not me…

And I entrusted my sexuality and my health to my husband, my partner. Perhaps my love for him prevented me from seeing myself in risk.

…I’ve been living with it for 14 years and it hasn’t tainted my life. Instead, I think you live with more intensity, with dreams. In my opinion, living with the virus is not disabling, quite the contrary. It’s a decision that changes your life but it should change it for the best.

We have an individual role to play in society. But we need to take the initiative and not just stay there like some people do.

Obviously, the easiest approach is to say, “I’ll die.” Then you also see that time passes by, because nowadays this is a chronic, treatable disease.

So, how much time will I have to spend waiting for death? It could be 10, 15 years… by the way, it’s the same time I’ve had it so far: 14 years. Had I taken a different approach, I wouldn’t be alive today and wouldn’t be enjoying the privileges and opportunities I’ve given myself and that life has also granted me.

I think that, in a certain way, God, and even the universe have placed the right people and provided me with the means to help me move forward. And I think he does this for all of us. We may live in the last corner of the world, but if we face life with a positive outlook and our dreams overpower our circumstances…

You should also start your own research, give yourself the opportunity…. that the virus is not transmitted by casual contact, that we need to take some precautions, that we need to be responsible, but also, the fact that being HIV positive does not restrict my entitlement to maternity, to love and be loved, and many other dreams. The means and the appropriate conditions already exist, see?

I gave myself the opportunity, just as any other woman with HIV could; the opportunity of becoming a mother… obviously educating myself…

There’s the support from the interdisciplinary team. They provided me with integral care and all the appropriate conditions… and here’s the result, my daughter. She’s now three and totally HIV free… and we keep striving just like any other family in our country.

Whether or not we are HIV positive, we are women in essence… and I think that this is what makes us valuable. It’s that difference.

It works the same for guys. But we make a perfect team, men and women. And we need to respect each other and love each other in spite of the differences.

Women with HIV or without HIV, we’re equally valuable.

VISUAL TEXT

I’m a mom

I’m a psychologist

I’m a good daughter, a good friend, a good employee…

I’m a woman, I’m happy and I live with HIV

“It can’t happen to me”

“I only had one sex partner”

“It happens to people who lead an immoral life”

“My love for him prevented me from seeing myself in risk”

Rosemary has lived with the HIV virus for 14 years. Her husband and only sex partner caused her to become infected…

“You live with more intensity, with dreams”

“Living with the HIV virus is not disabling”

“The easiest approach is to say, ‘I’ll die'”

“Life has given me privileges and opportunities”

“We have to give ourselves the opportunity”

“I can love, be loved, live”

“I gave myself the opportunity”

“My daughter is HIV negative”

LIVING POSITIVELY

An introduction: Gina Tonn, Lutheran Volunteer Corps

Gina Tonn

​​Gina Tonn

September 17, 2014

 

Greetings, ELCA World Hunger blog readers! My name is Gina Tonn, and I am happy to introduce myself as the newest member of theBlog pic dynamic ELCA World Hunger team in Chicago! I will be serving as a Program Assistant for the next year through a placement with the Lutheran Volunteer Corps (LVC). I am honored to be the first LVC member to work with ELCA World Hunger and am excited about all the year has in store. I will be working with Education and Constituent Engagement.

In addition to my work with ELCA World Hunger, my year with LVC will consist of living in intentional community with four other corps members, learning about and working for peace with justice, and striving to live simply and sustainably. I anticipate embracing all the challenges and learning opportunities I will face this year.

I come to Chicago from Brooklyn Park, MN – a suburb of Minneapolis – where I have lived my whole life, with the exception of residing in Northfield, MN, for the last four years while attending St. Olaf College. I graduated from St. Olaf in May 2014 with majors in economics and religion. I sang with The St. Olaf Cantorei and participated in a variety of extracurricular activities, including working with the Student Activities Committee and the Office of Alumni and Parent Relations.

My commitment to social justice became more than an underlying inclination during the summer of 2013 when I interned at the University of St. Thomas Interprofessional Center’s Legal Services Clinic with the Immigration Law Practice Group. During my internship, I developed a deeper appreciation for how important it is to fight for justice by listening to other people’s stories and working in partnership to improve quality of life. My experience there is a large part of what drew me to a year of service with the Lutheran Volunteer Corps after graduation. I’m grateful to be with ELCA World Hunger because of the holistic nature and integrity of the work this organization does in relationships with companion synods and local partners. Furthermore, I believe in our baptismal vocation to love and serve our neighbors. I am energized by the opportunity to live into that vocation even more fully this year – in the workplace and in my intentional community.

Some fun facts about me:

  • While at St. Olaf I was a costume sewing assistant for our international dance troupe – I know my way around a sequin!
  • I’ve been a summer soccer referee for ten years.
  • My hobbies include running, photography, and singing hymns in four-part harmony.
  • I love to read. I especially enjoy popular non-fiction, like the work of Malcolm Gladwell or a good memoir.
  • One of my favorite foods is coleslaw. While on a road trip with some friends this past year I ordered coleslaw in just about every city we visited, so I like to think myself a bit of an aficionado!

 

Gina Tonn is a Program Assistant with ELCA World Hunger. This is her first post to the ELCA World Hunger blog and she looks forward to sharing many more stories with the ELCA World Hunger community over the next year.

241 miles. 7 days. This is the Hunger Ride

Guest blog author: Matt Bishop

​241 miles. 7 days. A couple of bicycles. This is The Hunger Ride:  Feeding People, Feeding Souls.

Many of us will never know what it means to be chronically hungry. And yet too many of us will. A lot of us would like to suppose that, if only more people knew about this and thought about this, then we’d get something done! But there’s another story to tell—the story of all of those who do answer the call to serve, and are working hard every day to feed their neighbors and to help their neighbors feed themselves. This story goes untold too often, so the Northwestern Minnesota Synod created The Hunger Ride.

Educating people about hunger and poverty is a trivial chore if we don’t give those people somewhere to use the energy these stories create. So six Hunger Ambassadors suited up, stretched out, and peddled their way across the synod to connect people to the stories of the hungry and the stories of those who accompany them. The riders stopped at events along the way, planned by hosting communities, to raise awareness about hunger locally and abroad, and to start conversations.

See for yourself:​ ​​​​​

HungerRide from Hope Deutscher on Vimeo.

Lin​da Eickman, a licensed social worker working in Christian resource development and one of the Hunger Ambassadors, said that the best part was meeting so many new people. “[I] loved discovering the great services and organizations we have in our communities that support our hungry families.”

The Hunger Ride was the synod’s opportunity to celebrate with those who strive to relieve the weight of hunger and poverty in its communities and across the world, including the Bemidji Community Food Shelf, Meals on Wheels (through the local Wadena Area Seniors Bag Program), and—of course—ELCA World Hunger. Or as Pr. Frank Johnson, another Hunger Ambassador put it, “we were able to string together the stories of organic farmers in Sebeka, the hungry and homeless at Peoples’ Church in Bemidji, the youth volunteering at Calvary of Park Rapids, and the students in Wadena who were growing food for their own school lunches.”

But the real power of The Hunger Ride comes in Frank’s subsequent realization. “These are not independent efforts; they are people working together, who often do not even know that one another exist, but they have a common purpose. These are people concerned about eating and eating well.”

Frank made a more sophisticated reflection than is possible here on his blog—check it out.

The Hunger Ride culminated with a day ride around Moorhead in anticipation of Synod Assembly. Riders stopped at congregations along the way for refreshment and to learn more generally about hunger issues and ELCA World Hunger as a response. Finally, those who were left, including the Hunger Ambassadors, rode their bikes right up to the stage at synod assembly to share some of the stories from the week prior.

The Hunger Ride brought with it a few lessons. First, it’s fun and life-giving. Lisa Winter, another Hunger Ambassador, said “I feel like I received a special grace of the Holy Spirit on this ride.” Second, it’s hard to measure the impact of educating people. This isn’t a new lesson, but the buzz around the entire event was contagious. While the goal was to raise awareness for hunger issues, build recognition for those responding in our communities and give people an opportunity to connect to those responses, the results of the offerings along the route are suggestive. By the end of the week, The Hunger Ride raised over $15,000 for hunger and poverty ministries, including ELCA World Hunger. Well, sort of. This total doesn’t count one congregation, Calvary Lutheran Church in Perham, which used The Hunger Ride as the focus of its Lenten hunger fundraising. It’s nearly impossible to attribute particular dollars to The Hunger Ride, but the bottom line is the same:  another $13,000 for ELCA World Hunger.

And the final lesson is perhaps the most important of all. Will there be a Hunger Ride next year? Lisa said most eloquently what everyone agreed:  “Absolutely!”

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