A Catholic Response to Hunger

One of the surest ways to test the quality of our walk with God is to examine the way we respond to the needs of others. In June, the community of Risen Savior is responding to our brothers and sisters who are hungry.

Hunger is the most extreme form of poverty. Most contemporary American church-goers are “wealthy” in comparison to much of the world’s population and most – thanks be to God – never experience hunger.

The United States Conference of Bishops issued a pastoral reflection in 2002 titled “A Place at the Table.” This document says that “A table is where people come together for food. For many, there is not enough food, and, in some cases, no table at all…In our world and nation, many of our sisters and brothers live in poverty.

The causes are complex, but the results are clear. They cannot find decent work, feed their families, educate their children, secure health care, or find adequate housing … Millions of families cannot live in dignity because they lack the conditions worthy of human life.”

Catholic Social Teaching recognizes that all people, by benefit of their status as children of God, are entitled to an equitable share of the benefits of society. The two areas of Catholic Social Teaching are charity and justice. Charity is a call to share what God has entrusted to us. Justice involves efforts to bring about systemic change. Addressing hunger from a faith perspective is not an “either-or” proposition when it comes to justice and charity: it is “both-and”.

Locally, one out of six New Mexicans are at risk of going hungry everyday, and so our “Love Your Neighbor” initiative for June is collecting non-perishable food items for Roadrunner Food Bank of New Mexico. Roadrunner Food Bank collects and transports over 22 million pounds of food yearly. Food comes from a variety of sources including national and local manufacturers, supermarkets, and food drives. Since its inception thirty years ago, Roadrunner has distributed more than 200 million pounds of food statewide. Donation barrels will be all around the church for the entire month of June.

The bishops remind us that “As Catholics, we must come together with a common conviction that we can no longer tolerate the moral scandal of poverty in our land and so much hunger and deprivation in our world…Our faith teaches us that poor people are not issues or problems but sisters and brothers in God’s one human family.”