I think about food too much. It feels like I’ve spent the last few months thinking about little else.

As I grabbed a nut bar before rushing off to a County Commissioners meeting last week, it hit me that I’ve had two months of “on the go” eating: a grilled cheese sandwich eaten on my way out the door, a handful of almonds to last through a work night until I can get home to a delayed dinner, or an interrupted meal as I ran to the church to take baking bread out of the oven.

The month of December is our annual baking month. This year my husband and I baked over a hundred loaves of bread to share with our faith community in addition to hundreds of whole wheat rolls and cinnamon rolls. I love this tradition, but this year it felt a bit chaotic as I added to an already busy month evenings sorting food, sacking fruit, and packing boxes for the 400 Christmas food baskets distributed in our community, hours and hours working on food pantry issues here in our local community and meetings preparing for a hunger lecture by the recipient of the 2009 World Food Prize, Dr. Gabisa Ejeta, at Earlham College.

Life came to a stop last week with 3 inches of ice across Indiana. All of a sudden meetings were canceled and I had hours to spend cooking regular meals to fuel work to dig out of this huge storm. In my hours of cooking, I’ve thought a lot about families with children in our community. Some of our schools have as many as 70% of their students eligible for free or reduced meals at school and I couldn’t help by wonder how families who depend on school breakfasts and lunches dealt with having hungry children at home during unexpected days off of school.

I recently discovered in Indianapolis about 95% of assistance to people who are hungry comes in the form of Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Programs (SNAP), Free and Reduced School meals, USDA commodities and the Women, Infant and Children’s programs. Only 5% came from Food Pantries and hunger relief charities. Food Pantries are important in each of our communities, but I was surprised at just how small this piece is in the big picture of feeding hungry people in America.

For years our Community and Churches Food Pantry has been managed and maintained by a wonderful Quaker woman who just turned 90 years old. It is amazing that she still shops, interviews clients, and helps hand out food for three days, each and every week. I stand in awe of this woman. She is known in our community as the “Food Pantry Lady”. Her dedication, commitment, competence and passion for meeting the needs in our community are praiseworthy. In the past year, clients at the pantry have increased to an unbelievable number and stretched the financial and physical resources of the pantry to the limit. This wonderful woman’s 90th birthday was a wakeup call to the churches in our community. Change is inevitable. Responsibility for the food pantry’s ministry should not fall on the shoulders of a few people; it should be the work of the whole community. Change is also painful. Long, contentious County Commissioner meetings over added space for the pantry are discouraging and frustrating. Meeting the needs of people in our community who are hungry should not be a contentious issue. Finding ways to increase the quality of nutrition in our community with fresh food and more protein should be a priority for everyone.

I admit that I am drawn to concerns that are tangible. Our local food pantry is a tangible concern. But if 95% of all food assistance to the hungry comes through government programs, then it makes sense a good portion of my time and energy should focus on lobbying the government on behalf of those who are hungry. This was probably why Bread for the World, a Christian lobby voice on behalf of the hungry, was awarded the 2010 World Food Prize.

Every month a group of Friends gather in our meeting to fast a noon meal and to write letters to our legislators advocating for the hungry in the United States and in the world. That hour every month has become sacred space for me and I start a new year with renewed passion to fast with compassion for those who don’t have enough to eat and to pray for those who hold the power to feed them. Jesus’ care and compassion for those who are hungry led to the feeding of the 5,000 in the countryside of Israel over 2,000 years ago. I will fast and pray for some form of this miracle to happen in Winchester, Indiana today.

Maybe I think about food too much. Then again…..maybe not.