At the edge of the vast Pacific Northwest lies the Olympic National Park, home to the largest unmanaged herd of Roosevelt Elk in the world and the Elwha River Restoration Project. Since the early 1900s the Elwha has been a residence for two dams, and the river that is home to all five species of Pacific salmon, altered. Current runs of salmon have dwindled to just about 3,000. A new life, however is about to return to this river system.

The Elwha Dam

Glines Canyon Dam

After nearly 100 years the Elwha’s two dams are up for removal. Slated to be the largest dam removal project ever in this country, it is estimated that salmon runs of 300,000 will return to over 70 miles of river and stream over the course of 30 years. Salmon, a common food in the Pacific Northwest, are an essential part of both local culture and biodiversity. For starters, salmon are an important part of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe’s culture and consequently, the tribe is a major contributor to dam restoration efforts. Removal will allow them to once again recognize age old traditions. For the larger forest, however, salmon provide a food source for multiple animals, including bears and eagles. Additionally, “after spawning [salmon] carcasses supply the ecosystem with nitrogen and phosphorus” (Popular Mechanics). According to the National Park Service the project is also good for other parts of the ecosystem. They offer that, “Removing the dams will reestablish the natural flow of sediment from the mountains to the coast—rebuilding wetlands, beaches and the estuary at the river’s mouth.”

Removing a dam is no small project; in fact this one is nearly 30 years in the making. In addition to the initial planning, multiple projects have been undertaken over the past couple of years including water treatment facilities, engineered log jams and the planting of native vegetation. These are each essential parts of the process, ensuring both the success of the project, and the river’s ability to continue to supply clean water to local people. After all that, the dams themselves could take up to three years to remove fully.

As a Washington native, lover of salmon, and a Christian always looking to be more involved in caring for God’s amazing creation, I cannot help but to be excited about this project. As we restore rivers, habitats and ecosystems a more bounteous creation emerges; stronger salmon runs, increased wildlife, renewed beaches and a tiny bit of return to balance. For me, personally, the bigger picture of hunger is not just about what a single person eats, but about how creation interacts such that native food exists, thrives and supplies the nutrients for our lives.

You can learn more about the Elwha River Restoration Project here (these are the sites I used to write this blog):

• http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/water/2294301
• http://www.nps.gov/olym/naturescience/loader.cfm?csModule=security/getfile&pageid=360254&bypasswarning=1
• http://www.nps.gov/olym/naturescience/elwha-ecosystem-restoration.htm

~ Lana Lile

Last summer, my favorite Mexican sandals got new soles and a new life thanks to a resourceful friend at Holden Village. This summer, scrambling up a rocky mountain, the sole of my hiking boot peeled away from the rest of the boot. My hiking partner and I wrapped the boot in first-aid tape so I could safely descend. (With duct tape, I could have gone on!) A resourceful Villager glued and clamped both boots with extra-strength hose glue so I could finish out the hiking season.

A couple weeks ago, my comfy left Keens shoe opened up. A shoe repair man explained why he couldn’t sew it back together, and offered to glue it for $8.50. I accepted, knowing repaired shoes would buy me time to replace them more thoughtfully and carefully.

“How long have you had these shoes?” he asked.

When I said two years, he laughed. I figured that was because, as a shoe repair guy, he kept his own shoes in such good condition that he got five or six years out of them. But no! “Two years? I get new shoes every six months!”

I always wondered how the shoe man in my old neighborhood paid his rent when he seemed to be in the business of refusing to repair shoes. And now I meet a shoe guy who doesn’t wear his shoes long enough for anything to go wrong.

Looking into this, I discovered that many shoe and podiatry web sites recommend replacing athletic shoes every 350 to 500 miles to prevent tendonitis, shin splints, and other maladies I’ve never suffered. For me, with no car, that would mean new shoes every four months.

Other websites say that shoes are the problem, and we should all be walking or running barefoot, like our correspondent Lana.  (Here is a really fascinating article exploring the shoes-versus-barefeet question.) The only web site that thinks old shoes aren’t a problem is Kiwi, the shoe polish manufacturer! The more we invest in polishing and repairing our shoes, the better their bottom line.

And that’s what bugs me: the bottom line. Yes, feet should be healthy, and businesses need to survive. But how much “advice” is a thinly cloaked suggestion to spend more? An intentional campaign to goose consumption?

To win a bet, this high school student wore the same pair of shoes four years (maybe a little TOO long!) Click on the image to see what he learned about the assumptions people make based on the shoes you wear.

You know how baking soda is our idea of a green cleaning product? How we use it to clean sinks and keep refrigerators and drains smelling fresh? In an earlier part of my career, I read a marketing case study about how the geniuses at Arm & Hammer took a baking product whose market universe was limited by the annual number of cakes baked, and identified new uses that convinced millions and millions of people to literally THROW THEIR PRODUCT DOWN THE DRAIN.

It bugs me that a lot of our economy is based on throwing stuff down the drain—especially when others have so little. Especially when the environmental impact of harvesting/manufacturing the materials that go into our shoes—rubber, plastic, polyurethane, acetate, nylon, suede, and cloth—may be devastating. And instead of objecting to injustice or waste, we say oh well, what can I do, and buy another pair. After all, it’s recommended.

Anne Basye, Sustaining Simplicity

I had a professor in college who liked to tell students, “Communion is not a snack.” ‘Of course it’s not a snack,’ I thought the first time I heard his mini-lecture. ‘It’s you know, communion.’ Equating the Lord’s Supper with a snack was a humorous way for my professor to introduce what he was trying to communicate, but in truth that understanding was not a far-off stretch from what many of my friends and classmates believed, including myself. For I could sit there thinking, ‘it’s you know, communion,’ but struggle to put into words the depth and breadth of meaning and character of the holy meal that makes comparing it to a snack absurd.

In the time since then I’ve come, and am still coming to, a much richer, fuller, and truer understanding of the sacrament of holy communion. I could write a lot about that process, all the influences that shape it, my current convictions and what I’m still working through, but that would become a very long blog post! Instead, I’ll just share from a recent influence, the thoughts Dr. Samuel Torvend shared with us at the Detroit Hunger Leaders Gathering.

The Rev. Dr. Samuel Torvend presented a workshop, “The Spirituality and Practice of Eucharistic Ethics” and plenary session, “Who Benefits from Keeping the Hungry Poor Both Hungry and Poor?” at the Gathering. I loved what he had to say. (Torvend won me over in part by reminding me of my professor’s communion/snack distinction with his likening of individual communion wafers to fish food — “It takes more faith to believe its bread than the body of Christ,” I believe is what he said. Ha!)

But in all seriousness, Torvend said some very powerful things about the ways in which eucharistic practice shapes a spirituality of social commitment with, to and for people who are hungry and poor. There is an environmental ethic in every part of eucharistic celebration. Socioeconomic class is always invoked. Celebrating the eucharist always sends us out into the world to serve all in need and give ourselves away as bread for the hungry, to actually become what we eat and drink. Torvend made clear the “seamless flow between the table of the Lord and the table of the poor” and shared the conviction that sacrament and social action are coextensive, like breathing in and breathing out. For me, the connections between receiving the bread of life and feeding those who are hungry are undeniable.

I continue to think about the various ethical imperatives and questions that Torvend raised for us in Detroit, and hope you could gain something from my brief and humble attempt to reflect on them. I encourage you to check out Torvend’s thoughts yourself!

Julie Reishus

The church of Christ in every age,
beset by change but Spirit-led,
must claim and test its heritage
and keep on rising from the dead.

Across the world, across the street,
the victims of injustice cry
for shelter and for bread to eat,
and never live until they die.

The let the servant church arise,
a caring church that longs to be
a partner in Christ’s sacrifice,
and clothed in Christ’s humanity.

For he alone, whose blood was shed,
can cure the fever in our blood,
and teach us how to share our bread
and feed the starving multitude.

We have no mission but to serve
in full obedience to our Lord:
to care for all, without reserve,
and spread his liberating word.

May we have the courage to live into this ideal.

David Creech

This is the fifth in a series of posts highlighting hunger-related activities that happened over the summer at ELCA Outdoor Ministry locations with the help of Education/Advocacy grants from ELCA World Hunger. The following is from Pine Lake Camp in Waupaca, Wisconsin.

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Crossways Camping Ministries, located at three sites in northeastern Wisconsin, brings people together in Christ so that lives are changed and communities enhanced.  Campers between third grade and high-school grow in their relationship with God and learn to incorporate Christian principles into their daily lives.  This summer we have two hunger education focuses.  The first focus is to learn about hunger by discussing our own eating habits.  The second focus is to learn about hunger as we raise money to combat hunger in other countries. 

At Pine Lake Camp we use our World Awareness time to share the importance of making responsible food choices.  Counselors lead campers through one of three games which we created and/or adapted from other resources.  One opportunity is Food Mile Rummy.  Campers play a traditional rummy card game collecting one card of each food group, as well as a card indicating the number of miles the food has travelled, and a card indicating the number of fossil fuels used in transportation.  The winning camper is the one with a card in each category, the lowest miles travelled, and the lowest fossil fuels used.  Discussion after the game focuses on ways we can reduce the amount of miles our food travels, including, growing our own, and buying food in season.  Campers connect this conversation with our “local food chalk board” hung in the dining hall.  Here campers learn that some of the vegetables on the salad bar are from our camp garden and much of the dairy they are eating is from a nearby dairy.

Another game the campers can play helps them understand the balance between their needs and wants.  Campers choose pictures of things they own or value, like ipods and CD’s.  Then they choose what animal they’d like to buy for a family in need in another country.  The objective is to balance the cost of animal the with the proper amount of items they would need to give up in order to buy the animal.  Campers discuss how much we have in comparison to people in other countries, as well as their own definition of need and want and how they can change their lifestyle so that others may gain from their wealth.

Our second focus this summer is to encourage campers to raise money for ELCA Good Gifts – God’s Global Barnyard.  During Mission Project Time campers first learn from our international counselors.  Then they learn about God’s Global Barnyard and how buying animals for people in other countries helps to combat hunger.  To facilitate learning the campers gather in small groups with information about animals that can be purchased through ELCA Good Gifts.   They design a skit to share with the rest of the campers how a cow, for example, can help nourish a family and community in another country.  Then on Thursday the campers can donate money from their canteen cards towards the mission project.  At closing worship on Friday parents and campers alike find out how much money was raised that week and what animals will be purchased with the money.  As a way to tie into our summer Bible study we’ve put up a huge ark in the chapel to which we adhere the animals purchased throughout the summer.  The weeks we’ve been able to purchase a cow for $500 have been particularly exciting, but we’ve celebrated every animal with lots of applause.  We expect that our focus on hunger education this summer will be change lives and enhance communities once campers leave camp.

Erika Page
Camp Director
Crossways – Pine Lake Camp

Last week my assignment for class was to read the ELCA Draft Social Statement on Genetics. In case you’re not a social statement expert (I was pretty clueless myself) or just need a reminder, ELCA social statements are teaching and policy documents that assist members in discernment for action and in forming judgements on social issues.

During my time working here I’ve had the pleasure of rubbing shoulders on the ninth floor with some of my Church in Society colleagues who work in Studies, the department responsible for overseeing the development of social statements and social messages. I believe the work they’re doing is incredibly important, and I’m glad that I am finally taking the time to read and think about our church’s social statements. (Nothing like a homework assignment to get you to make time for something you’ve been meaning to do!) This past week’s assignment was the Human Sexuality Statement, and I’m looking forward to some good discussion tonight.

But back to Genetics — one of the three social statements currently in process. I was surprised by how often issues surrounding world hunger were addressed in the draft or brought to mind as I read it. There was a disconnect in my thinking about how the root causes of and solutions to world hunger could be related to genetics, but there are many connections! When we talked about it in class last Wednesday, my discussion group highlighted the section of the draft statement about “the global context of genetic developments” as some of the most crucial material in the statement. The statement addresses agricultural, environmental and justice problems. Many passages plainly spell out these connections and the stand our church can take on them:

“The decision whether to use genetically modified seed affects not only the contents of U.S. breakfast cereal but also what kind of seeds become available for African farmers” (13).

“Inequalities limit who is included and who is excluded from discussions and evaluations of genetic developments. Some in the U.S. and others in the global village do not have access to, and likely will not benefit greatly from, the fruits of genetic research” (13).

“Many resource poor countries have critical needs that do not require genetic solutions. These include infrastructure, food distribution, clean water, housing and basic health care” (13).

“Genetic knowledge and its application will give particular attention to the needs of the most vulnerable” (18).

“Human deliberation should give special regard to the voices of those who work closest to the land and with living creatures” (29).

“The principle of solidarity…calls for weighing the needs and desires of relatively affluent populations in light of the most pressing needs in resource poor nations” (27).

“The ELCA has called for scrutiny as to “how specific policies and practices affect people and nations that are the poorest.” This raises the question, for instance, of whether genetically engineered food, and the practices associated with it, increase the availability and equitable distribution of food for people who are hungry in the short-term and increase the ability of people to feed themselves in the long-term” (24).

Have you read the Draft Social Statement on Genetics? What do you think? The deadline for responding to the draft before the process continues is next Friday, October 15. Respond online here!

Julie Reishus

It has been a busy summer, but I am ready to get back at it in the ol’ blogosphere!  Some projects I’ve been working on:

• Two new Toolkits: Gender and Hunger (set for a November publication date) and Water and Hunger (due out in January).
• An Ethics of Eating event in Minnesota (lotsa thoughts on food production and distribution and a reflection on the Eucharist soon to follow).
• Some new adaptations of our hunger education curriculum, Taking Root, including an overlay for adult forums, an outline for a Jr High lock in, and a guide for using it in a VBS.  These all should be posted to the Web site before the end of the year.
• A J Term course to be taught this January at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at  Gettysburg in Pennsylvania.  As the shape of the course continues to develop I plan on sharing some ideas here.  Also, if you want to join me, sign up for the course!

I look forward entering into the dialog again.  What do you want to talk about?

David Creech

Two weekends ago I visited a local creamery with my siblings, friends and our significant others. There were six of us in total and after tasting multiple delicious cheeses and taking pictures of the cows behind the fence, we were lucky enough to visit the milking room. We stood in a line along the wall, not seven feet from three huge cows being milked by one of the family members who runs the farm. As we asked him questions about the cows, the taste of the milk and the creamery in general, we were in for a very “natural” surprise. As three cows transitioned out of the milking room, three new ones came in, and without time to react we were all splattered with the brownish green leftovers of the cow’s lunch…if you know what I mean. (Don’t worry, everything collecting milk was completely clean and sanitary!) At first I bolted out of the room, saving myself from more splatters (it had already hit my forehead), but then I laughed and thought about the reality of the milk I drink and the cheese I eat.

Cows are animals. They live and breathe and eat and, well, splatter the milking room.  I couldn’t help but smile, knowing that that day I had come a little closer with my food and drink. Everyday people all over the US and the world milk cows and goats for milk, cheese and other dairy products. Everyday they feed their animals and prepare to sell their nutritious foods at market. Everyday we play a role in consumption and conservation through our food choices.  Are we buying local, organic and/or fair trade? Are we aware of where our food comes from and how it is made?  I know that I now have a greater respect for my cheese and the farmers who see it through from grass, to cow, to cheese cave.

~Lana Lile

Wednesday, September 22 was World CarFree Day.  It was a big yawn.

Besides a bike ride in Chicago, not much happened. It never made the news. NPR paid it no attention. Since nothing really happened, commentary in the blogosphere debated the premise: the idea of being carfree.

As someone who hasn’t owned a car in nine years, I read with great interest why cars are so popular. Cars, says Loren Lomasky of Competitive Enterprise Institute: Free Markets and Limited Government, help us learn, travel, earn money, and enjoy privacy. They give us control over immediate environment, unlike buses (very true, I found myself nodding.)  They promote autonomy. They let us choose where we will live and where we will work, and they let these two be separate.

People want cars, says Greencarreports.com—but small cars like the Tata Nono, because in places like Lagos and Mumbai, American-style cars like Camrys (much less SUVs and trucks) won’t do.

World Carfree Day images showed healthy young people walking and biking in perfect weather. What about rain and snow?, the CEI asked. What about lugging groceries and children? (For the answer to that one, check out BusChick’s NPR essay, which aired last Saturday) What about folks with disabilities? Instead, the CEI recommended, protest World CarFree Day by taking a drive!

I did drive on September 22. Instead of being car free, I’ve been enjoying a free car as I house and dog sit for friends in Seattle. Last Wednesday I drove an elderly cousin up to Skagit County to see my visiting parents, and then drove all the 80-somethings to a restaurant for lunch. Had we done this by public transportation, it would have taken all day, and my elders and their aging joints would have had to walk miles and miles. Not possible.

I was grateful to get to use a car. I’m glad they exist. But I wish we owned fewer cars and shared them more. I wish we biked and walked more often, especially on trips under a mile. I wish our public transit systems were stronger and more convenient and bike lanes and sidewalks were wider and safer.

Others feel like I do. CityFix includes cars and buses in its vision of sustainable urban mobility. And Chicago’s Active Transportation Alliance’s mission statement sounds like mine:

The mission of Active Transportation Alliance is to make bicycling, walking and public transit so safe, convenient and fun that we will achieve a significant shift from environmentally harmful, sedentary travel to clean, active travel. We advocate for transportation that encourages and promotes safety, physical activity, health, recreation, social interaction, equity, environmental stewardship and resource conservation.

“Carfree” isn’t a practical goal for the United States, with zillions of rural communities and only a handful of cities (like Chicago) dense enough for get-anywhere-anytime-you-want public transportation systems. But “car lite” is possible. Instead of railing against cars, the ATA is building a movement around active transportation. Cars will still exist, but the ATA’s goal is for Chicagoans to make half their trips by active transportation. And because they are working to reduce pedestrian and bicycle crashes by 50 percent, those trips will be safer. Think how slim and healthy those Chicagoans will be, and how pleasant and safe walking and bicycling will be.

So I’m glad I skipped Carfree Day. I’m going to celebrate the active transportation movement by walking, biking, taking buses, trains, and ferries, and borrowing or renting a car when I need one. I like strengthening  and expanding alternatives instead of shaming drivers and stoking disagreement. For heaven’s sake, let’s unite around something for once, instead of clashing.

I’m still going to celebrate Buy Nothing Day, but that’s another post.

Anne Basye, Sustaining Simplicity: A Journal

This is the fourth in a series of posts highlighting hunger-related activities happening at ELCA Outdoor Ministry locations with the help of Education/Advocacy grants from ELCA World Hunger. The following is from Lake Wapo Lutheran Camp in Wisconsin.

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The new opportunities that our ELCA World Hunger Education/Advocacy grant has provided have been extremely beneficial to Ox Lake’s program this summer.  We have been able to use these resources to further Ox’s commitment to being thoughtful of how we live in and care for our world and its resources.  One of our projects has been focused on water.

We purchased two rain barrels and constructed a rainwater collection system on one of our dining halls.  After the first rainstorm we were amazed to see how much water can be collected!  We installed the second barrel closer to the garden, and connected it to the first barrel with a 100-foot hose. Water drains from the first barrel into the second, which we use to water the garden. When the second barrel is full, the first barrel then fills. We use water from the first barrel in the kitchen.  Because of the rainy summer we’ve had at camp and because the system works really well, we’ve been able to water our garden entirely from our rainwater collection system.  We’ve also been able to challenge campers to think about the resource of water and how – and how much – they use it.  Activities designed to illustrate the difficulties many people face distributing and transporting water have further challenged our campers to think about access to clean water.

We also wanted to show the cycle of food, and to discuss the problem of waste and pollution.  We were able to purchase materials to build two different types of compost systems.  Each system shows kids the benefits of composting.  We built a barrel-compost for organic waste from meal preparation and table scraps.  It’s been neat showing kids how organic material breaks down over time.  We empty the broken down material back into the garden.  Explaining to kids that the nutrients from the broken down compost helps our garden grow brings them full circle.  We also constructed a fenced-in, pile-compost used primarily for lawn clippings, garden material, weeds and vegetation etc.  We’ve been able to ask kids about where their waste goes.  We’ve been able to challenge them to think about alternatives to discarding their waste (esp. organic material) in trash cans.

Overall, these additions to the Ox Lake Village Program have challenged campers and staff alike to see that how we live affects our neighbors that live next door and people across the world.  As we seek to love our neighbors as ourselves, we believe that it is essential to think about how we can be better stewards of all that God has given us, and these projects have helped us do that.

Tony Schaden and Sam Pertz