Why Are They Hungry?

A few weeks ago I published a column about the death penalty. As often happens, I inserted a side remark that had nothing to do with the column. My daughter, Beth, is a nurse in New Orleans whose vocation is basically serving older people. Here was her response to that column:

“Although it is not really this column’s focus, I think you said one of the most profound things ever in this simple statement: While we are called to offer food to those who are hungry, we must also ask why are they hungry? “In a smaller focus (meaning my personal life), why are so many people in a first world country hungry? Why are there hungry people within a 5 minute drive of my home (and I’m not talking about the panhandlers on every corner of this city; that’s a different conversation), but families? Why are they hungry? Twenty-six schools in New Orleans fed the children breakfast, lunch and dinner and on Fridays sent them home with 4 meals. Due to Covid that lifeline has been eliminated. The school kitchens are still open and meals are getting delivered but only one meal a day per student. Why are they hungry? Again, as a white women I beat my chest and do what I can. I make 50 meals a week and then try not to acknowledge a lot of that is white guilt. Ah well. Keep stirring up good trouble and I will continue to be the Bean Queen of PigeonTown.”

Claremont is a small city of about 37,000 people, many of whom are related to the five colleges, a graduate university and the numerous senior residential communities. It is neither Beverly Hills nor skid row, and most residents live comfortable middle-class lives. Even so, there are the homeless who live in our parks and on our streets. Many mornings on her walk Wendy takes oranges to a man who is thankful for the nutritional supplement. Los Angeles County reports that it has almost 60,000 homeless men and women. They exist under bridges, in parks or in tents on streets in the inner urban area. Even among the properly housed, hunger is a real concern.

One of the basic obligation of religion is to feed the hungry, and that we do. But why in this prosperous nation are the elderly, children, the unemployed and migrants malnourished? How can the United States claim to be the finest most benevolent nation in the world when hunger stalks our city streets and rural communities? One often hears conservatives complain that if someone is hungry it is his/her own fault. That response is the opposite of the religious piety that holds that if anyone is hungry, we are all responsible.

David Brooks holds that the essence of religion is to consider every person as sacred. Among other things that must mean organizing society in such a way that no child or adult goes to bed hungry.

Nicolas Kristof observes that liberal Christians are slowly rising from a very dark religion that believes that to be a Christian is to be anti-choice, anti-gay, pro-gun and reduced taxes for the rich.” William Barber, head of the poor peoples campaign, calls that “theological malpractice.”

Daughter Beth regular takes multiple meals to a community food locker for distribution to those who most need them, but also asks why they are hungry. My guess is that through her church that question will be given wheels. Honest Biblical religion not only asked that question, but then forms alliances with other community structures committed to reorder a society that not only asks the question but also seeks to answer it.