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

In this first post-Hunger Leadership Gathering blog, I want to share with you about one of the most interesting experiences from the weekend for me — the field trip. For these field trips, five small groups of participants and staff each went to different sites in the city of Detroit to engage in the community, learn about specific challenges facing the city, and see the good and hopeful work that’s going on there, too. We learned about and even got to participate in the work of programs and ministries supported by ELCA Domestic Hunger Grants and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (LIRS) in Detroit.

I participated in the field trip with MOSES – Metropolitan Organizing Strategy Enabling Strength. MOSES is a congregation-based and faith-organized community organizing initiative.

Detroit, a city of 900,000, has zero typical standardized grocery stores. There are no major grocery stores in the entire 140-square-mile city! There are, however, over 400 liquor-based “grocery stores.” The reality is that in the city of Detroit it is easier to get a variety of liquor than a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables. Venus Chapman, MOSES’s Project Director, told us about the Detroit Food Justice Task Force, which works to ensure that grocers meet the standards of providing good food for customers. As a group, we got to participate in food availability campaign that MOSES is conducting.

We visited a corner grocery store in downtown Detroit where nutritious food availability is in question. We actually walked through the store with a checklist to assess the conditions of the store, restrooms and food. We looked for things like dirty floors, poor lighting, refrigeration units that were too warm, evidence of insects, expired food, meat and dairy products that weren’t refrigerated, decaying fruit and vegetables…and were amazed at what we found. Overall I’d say the store was not as bad as many of us expected, but we definitely saw meat and milk past their expiration dates, decaying produce, raw meat that wasn’t refrigerated, and other food products that would not be safe or good for consumers.

The experience made me very thankful for the work that many in Detroit are doing to improve food equity and access, bring retail food back to the city, develop more just, alternative local markets, and support food marketers and distributors.

For example, on our field trip we also got to visit the Detroit Eastern Market. Every Saturday the six-block space is transformed into a vibrant public market with hundreds of open-air stalls with independent vendors and merchants processing, wholesaling, and retailing food. During our visit with the staff person from Eastern Market, Randall Fogelman, he told us about cool projects Eastern Market supports for alternative food distribution methods, like MI Neighborhood Food Movers, a project that empowers people to start food trucks, and The Greening of Detroit Market Garden Project. I learned that Michigan is the second-most agriculturally diverse state (after California) – it just has a short growing season! Plans are underway for expansion of the Eastern Market, including a community kitchen, a market hall for production, retail and wholesale of food, as well as an education center with teaching kitchens and a restaurant.

It was incredibly encouraging to learn about this amazing, thriving market. I was also encouraged by what Randall shared with us as we were finishing our tour. He said that while Detroit is the most segregated city in the United States, the 40,000 people who come to Eastern Market every Saturday are incredibly racially, socially and economically diverse. He said the environment fostered by the natural community of Eastern Market was something really special.

Julie Reishus

Tonight is a treat. It may be late for dinner, but I am certainly not complaining. I just got home from coaching a soccer game and I am sitting at the kitchen counter, blogging, while my brother and his friend are frying tortillas and my family is eating homemade chocolate. Our chef this evening is from Mexico, and so our dinner is blessed with an international flair.

Our appetizer tonight is the homemade chocolate I referred to earlier. Our guest/chef/friend is Ruth, and she is visiting us from Mexico. She made the chocolate with her mother at home and brought it to share at our table. This is an extra special experience because cacao beans are native to Mexico. In addition, she is currently hand-making and pressing tortillas from scratch for tacos tonight. I love tacos and I cannot wait!

This experience reminds me of how incredible of a cultural experience food can provide. It is a way that we are able to share our home and culture with others. Food allows us to smell, taste, see and touch a different culture such that in my Pacific Northwest kitchen, I can be transported to Mexico for an evening.

I am thankful that Ruth wants to cook for us, share her culture with us, and gather around the table with us.

~Lana Lile

As the summer came to a close and fall kicked into full gear, I transitioned from my summer internship position to an extension of my time with ELCA World Hunger — something I am very excited about! The past couple weeks have kept me quite busy, and the next few are equally packed full of new opportunities and experiences. I’m excited to report and reflect on all these wonderful things via Hunger Rumblings. So here’s a preview of future entries based on what’s been going on with me, and what’s coming up!

Class: Last Wednesday I started a Christian Ethics class at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. The class is called The Church in Society: A Lutheran Perspective. We’ll be exploring the nature and meaning of social ethics, specifically the tradition of Lutheran social ethics. I’m still figuring out what that means, but I am anticipating a classroom learning experience that brings together social ethical theory and the practical dimension of how Lutheran congregations and faith-based organizations engage problems in the world. The class meets for the second time tonight, and I’ll be blogging soon about some of the cool things I’m sure I’ll be learning once the class gets rolling.

GMGs: Last weekend I attended the Glocal Mission Gathering in Lexington, South Carolina. I also get to travel to Grand Forks, North Dakota in the beginning of October for another Glocal Mission Gathering. In South Carolina learned a lot, saw some cool things and had great workshop and conversation time with really interesting people! Stay tuned for more GMG reflections.

Hunger Leadership Gathering: This weekend I get to be a part of the ELCA World Hunger Leadership Gathering in Detroit, MI. I’m excited to get on the road tomorrow and join many of my colleagues who are already in Detroit, setting up for this awesome weekend event. I’m really looking forward to meeting ELCA World Hunger leaders from across the country and participating in the plenary sessions, workshops and field trips planned. I lived in Michigan nine months out of the year for four years while I was in college, but only ventured to the east side of the state one time. I think it’s going to be incredibly interesting to explore some of Detroit’s unique issues related to hunger and poverty.

All this going on means I have a lot to blog about! I’ll be sharing more soon!

Julie Reishus

This is the third 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. Today’s post comes from El Camino Pines in Frazier Park, California.

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The game begins. The clock starts counting down. 120…119…118. We only have two minutes! I grab a ball and throw it across at the other team. I’m dodging items as if my life depended on it. I never thought a simple game of dodge ball could be so intense. I’m dodging, ducking, and jumping all over the place. In an open room, there is nowhere to hide. If I catch the ball, the person who threw it is out. But if I am hit I am out, and I am asked to leave the court. Sounds simple. But then more is added to it. We have stuffed mosquitoes flying around the room. If a mosquito hits me, I am told that I can continue to play, but I must play sitting. This rule seems a little odd, but I continue to play. 10… I notice that there aren’t many people left in the game. 9… All the sudden I feel like I am a deer in headlights. 8… I run and jump as if this is the last seconds of my life 7… I pick up a mosquito and aim for my opponent’s ankles. 6… I missed. 5… I look up. 4… 3… 2… 1. I was hit.

But it’s not the fact that I was hit that is really disappointing me. It’s that that one hit represents malaria infection rates. I had become a statistic. We play two more times, both of which we were able to heal ourselves with slips of papers that represent money or medicine. Once, my team had an abundance of money and medicine, and the other game, we did not. This showed us how much something like money and medicine can make a difference. It’s something that I don’t think about often. But I am blessed to live a life where I know that if I get sick, that I have the resources to take care of myself, and I don’t have to worry too much. This game helped to show me that not everyone is that fortunate.

After playing dodge ball, we processed the game, and learned a lot about the Lutheran Malaria Initiative. Some facts were shocking, such as that a child dies from malaria every 45 seconds. But other facts were helpful! Knowing that there are very simple steps that can be taken to help control malaria is a very positive thing. And even though I am young, we talked about ways that I can make a difference! Here at camp, we make many friendship bracelets. We usually make them for the friends we make at camp, and we trade them away as a reminder of our week here. But camp is doing this really cool thing where we can make friendship bracelets to help with malaria in Africa! The program is called Knots for Nets. What we can do is make friendship bracelets, take them to our friends, families, neighbors, and congregations, and ask them for a $10 dollar donation towards Knots for Nets in exchange for a friendship bracelet! The $10 will go towards buying a bed net for our friends in Africa, so that they can sleep at night, without having to worry about being bit by a malaria infested mosquito. And in return, they will have a bracelet as a continual reminder of the Lutheran Malaria Initiative. I’ve already started working on my bracelets! Have you?

For more information: www.knotsfornets.net

Sierra Ronning
El Camino Pines

Editor’s Note: The Lutheran Malaria Initiative is a 5-year campaign within ELCA World Hunger. It’s goals are to expand the work of the church in addressing malaria, to provide an opportunity for current ELCA World Hunger supporters to deepen their engagement, and to invite new people and congregtation into the work of ELCA World Hunger.

Summer is over, and there is too much stuff in “Potty Patrol,” Holden Village’s used-clothes-and-shoes exchange area.

Turnover in staff is one reason for the high inventory. So is forgetfulness. Socks of all colors, forgotten in dryers, drawers, and on clothes lines. Shoes, sweatshirts with Holden logos that cost $25, shampoo, sunblock, sunglasses, bug spray, toys, swimming suits, all kinds of stuff, left thoughtlessly on shelves, under beds, in shower stalls.

Up here in the Cascades, garbage is expensive. Everything that can’t be burned or composted has to be trucked out to the dock and then barged down Lake Chelan to be recycled or landfilled somewhere else. Generous Holden guests can be convinced to take a box of good stuff to their local Goodwill, or a box of old running shoes to a Nike shoe recycling facility (which grinds up running shoes into playground surfaces). But no Goodwill needs 200 single socks or shredded jeans, so as a dutiful Holden housekeeper, I volunteered to look into alternatives.

Googling “recycling textiles” uncovered discouraging statistics: Per capita, Americans throw away about 68 pounds of clothing and rags each year. New Yorkers alone discard 193,000 tons of textiles annually. (No wonder New York City has the country’s best textile recycling program.) While some clothing is resold locally, about 145 billion pounds of recyclable clothing a year end up in landfills.

It is possible to sort fabrics into different grades (usable/non-usable, cotton scrap, cotton blend scrap and synthetics) and sell it for reuse as clothing, linens, wiping rags, or fiber for car seats and insulation. But this is not a large market. Most “textile recyclers” end up bundling our clothes in containers and shipping them to countries in Africa and Asia.

That’s problematic. Countries like Kenya place tariffs on imported used clothes—and Kenya has considered banning them altogether—because they weaken the local clothing industry. (For similar reasons, NGOs like Lutheran World Relief won’t take clothing donations. After a disaster, it’s fairer and more efficient to connect affected people with in-country folks making and selling clothes for their own country and culture than it is to flood a local economy with teeshirts we’ve grown tired of!)

And what about the carbon footprint of sending those containers across the ocean?

Sit tight. Here comes my usual refrain about our incredibly debilitating and unsustainable addiction to stuff. If our system for recycling fabrics is dumping them in another country, then isn’t our best option to own fewer clothes, wear them to the end of their lives, and try to turn them into rags or rag rugs?

One of the nine steps to financial integrity recommended in the classic text Your Money or Your Life is to take an inventory of every single item you own. Most people who do this are surprised to find out what’s lurking in their closet.

Have you counted your clothes lately? Give it a try. See how many teeshirts you own. How many socks, coats, and pairs of shoes. And figure out how you feel about your wardrobe.

From energy to waste to water to justice to your bank account, consuming less is the first step to real change. It will take years to ramp up alternative energy sources to the same level as gas, coal, and nuclear power. Cutting way back on power use can lower carbon emissions until the grid catches up. Gutting your clothing budget can lower the demand for landfill…and maybe reduce the pile of socks at Holden.

Anne Basye, Sustaining Simplicity: A Journal

This week’s TueSpot asks our fans to share a recipe from their culture, heritage or location. It stems from our vast amount of fans that come from all over the world and across the USA. So my plan tonight was to also blog about a recipe and how it connects to where I am. I am still going to do that, but I am also going to talk about food as it relates to me in two specific ways: as fuel and as comfort.

I have recently started coaching a soccer team, and tonight I am exhausted. In addition, I have a sore throat thanks to some crazy weather this week. So tonight when I got home from practice I knew exactly what I needed: fuel and comfort. The meal I made was classic, chicken noodle soup and melted cheese on a hamburger bun. (Okay, grilled cheese would be more common.) While I considered this meal to be a prime example of my culture’s food, I also thought about my relationship to what I was eating.

Relationship 1: Fuel

Dinner tonight gave me calories, protein and other nutrients to keep my body moving. My body requires fuel for my everyday functioning, not to mention exercise.

Relationship 2: Comfort

Hot soup felt so good on my sore throat and the meal in total reminded me of being taken care of as a child. In this case, food functioned to protect and heal.

What about people who have very limited access to food? Their bodies also require food to function and their lives and health also require food to protect and heal. Plus, everyone needs comfort from time to time. Tonight’s meal made me think about the different functions of food. Those functions made me consider what I would feel like if I could not refuel and if I could not receive comfort. I would be a mess. Right now, over one billion people are undernourished and they need fuel and comfort just as much, if not more, than I do.

What functions does food serve for you? How would you feel if food was not available to you?

~Lana

Climate change is an issue I have generally shied away from in the past.
Climate change is an issue I’ve been comfortable with not having firm convictions about.
Climate change is something I once thought was untrue. A trustworthy and reputable professor in the biology department at a local community college convinced me of this during a summer class I took.

One awesome aspect of the work I participate in and observe at ELCA World Hunger is that coupled with educating me, it also pushes and stretches me to internalize what I’ve learned about an issue, articulate a position, and then hold to those beliefs. Climate change is one of those issues. I’ve learned through conversations with my colleagues, interaction with many of our resources, like the Hunger and Climate Change Connections Toolkit, reading numerous blog posts, observing the serious care with which this organization approaches its commitment to environmental stewardship, and most recently, through preparation for intentional engagement with people attending the South Carolina and North Dakota Glocal Mission Gatherings on the topic of climate change and its relation to hunger and poverty.

My conclusion is not something radical or new. It’s old news to many of you who’ve been here longer than me. It’s simply this: climate change is happening and is impacting the most vulnerable people in the world. Those who are poorest and most vulnerable have the fewest resources to adapt and cope, and are at the greatest risk of suffering and hunger. This issue that seems to be unrelated to hunger actually is, in a very real way.

My favorite plenary session from the Urbana09 student missions conference (I hope you are not getting tired of reading about this!) was an address from Denise-Margaret Thompson on the evening focused on the environment. Denise-Margaret Thompson is a professor at the University of Trinidad and Tobago. Her work has focused on technology innovation, entrepreneurship and economic development. Hearing her passionate and compelling assertions about climate change was the beginning of a journey away from my reservations about the issue, and an excellent primer for all that I’ve learned at ELCA World Hunger.

Here are some of her remarks:

“This issue of climate change and the environment disproportionately affects the poorest, most vulnerable, and disenfranchised in our world who have no voice and had nothing to do with it in the first place.”

“Sustainability, climate change and the environment is not a new issue. It’s an old issue. But it will require each of us doing what we’re called to do to care for the earth.”

“The informed, deliberate, careful Christian worldview is too often absent because not enough of us have followed Jesus into this neighborhood.”

And my favorite: “Education is derived from the Latin educo, ‘I lead out.’ Nothing more succinctly describes our role in our societies today.”

Until recently, climate change is something I have been hesitant to “lead out” on. But that has changed. And even if I’m way behind the times are haven’t said much new in this post, I hope my honesty contributes something, and maybe encourages you to think about matters of injustice you might be hesitant to lead out on.

Julie Reishus

This is the second 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. Today’s post comes from Mar-Lu-Ridge in Jefferson, Maryland.

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As I write this, we are receiving the first rains in 4 weeks. Our temperatures in Maryland have been as high as 100 degrees, but all is well and our campers have happily watered our new garden every day. The idea for our Garden of Hope sprang from our summer curriculum, Keeping the Earth, and from our desire to involve our campers in hands-on activities as they learn more about how food grows and eventually ends up on their plates. Playing in the dirt seemed like the perfect fit. Funding from the ELCA World Hunger’s Education/Advocacy grant allowed us to establish a garden in our day camp area. We installed a 7.5 foot high deer fence, so that any veggies grown could make it to the local soup kitchens, not into the bellies of our resident deer population. Despite the heat and lack of rain, we have some tomatoes, beans, cucumbers and squash coming on the vine. While our harvest will be small this first season, our campers have had the chance to plant, tend and learn about their food. We encourage them to take these lessons home, and help their families establish similar gardens. Painting boards to decorate the garden is another favorite activity – it’s looking good!

Twirling the compost tumbler has become a daily activity for our campers in the mountain-top section of our property. There is no good soil for a garden here, but these campers see the garden when they hike to Area 3 each week for a sleep-out. Lessons about composting are taught in Nature each week as well. The coolest thing that is happening in this area of camp is the daily opportunity to contribute a quarter to ELCA World Hunger when they visit the store each day. A running tally is kept, groups try to outdo each other, and when the weekly total is announced, they are all amazed at what they have done. So far this summer, we have raised $200 in quarters!

As we learn to care for our brothers and sisters in need, we remember one of our summer verses: “I have come that you might have life – life in all is abundance.” John 10:10b

Sarah Lefler
Director of Operations
Mar-Lu-Ridge