It Is Time For a New Diet

Okay……I have a confession. I have a bad habit.

I try to be discrete. When I’m in the line at the grocery store I work hard to avert my eyes to the latest tabloid headlines about which celebrity had a meltdown or what superstar gained weight. But to be honest, my attention is always closely focused on the people ahead of me or behind me...and the items they have in their grocery cart. This is a horrible habit. It is none of my business what people buy and how much they spend for food. But I’m worried about the world I live in and the possibility that we are making it worse by what we put into our grocery cart. So I admit...I’m consumed by watching what people buy and eat in our world.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not a food snob, but I often pay way too much for what I buy at the grocery store and I buy things I probably shouldn’t buy. Not any more. Our world is changing. Gas prices are unbelievable. The cost of food rises with each trip to the grocery store. Food pantries, soup kitchens, and aid agencies are unable to meet the demands made upon them. And people in my community, in our country, and in our world are going hungry. All of a sudden, what I put into my grocery cart matters in a way it didn’t matter before.

For the past 6 years the Missions and Social Concerns Committee in our church has worked to educate our Monthly Meeting about missions and peace and Christian social concerns. July through December each year the committee focuses on one Friends United Meeting mission. Then each year from January to June, the committee chooses a social concern on which to focus. That list includes (among others) the environment and conservation, an in-depth look at aid agencies in the aftermath of the Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina to encourage well-informed and intelligent giving, and a 6 month period of education and information about HIV/AIDS here in America and around the world. The first half of 2008 is focused on local and international hunger issues and ways to feed a hungry planet.

Dealing with the issue of hunger this year has been incredibly timely. The nightly news reinforces the crisis facing our nation today. A new Farm Bill is currently before the President and it deals with providing help for those who hunger in addition to helping those who grow our food. Presidential candidates are talking about the pain of gas prices and rising food costs. Food pantries and soup kitchens are crying for much needed help to meet the rising food costs and the increased demand for their services. A recent political cartoon had two thieves breaking into a house saying “Skip the money and jewelry…go straight for the pantry”. It is easy to be overwhelmed with the needs in our community and in our world. What is a Christian to do in the face of such need?

Our faith community is doing a few things that give me an opportunity to DO something to meet the needs within our community. One is our monthly Food Pantry Sunday. Several years ago a concerned friend spoke up in meeting about the power of one. If each person would bring just one food item just once a month, our church could generate an extra 1200-1400 food items per year for the food pantry. The power of that challenge has generated much more than 1200 items for the pantry. I rarely see anyone bring just one food item. I am blessed at the consistent, sacrificial giving each month to those in need. There are many within our church who know if they are going to be absent for Food Pantry Sunday will make an extra trip to the church to make sure their food gets put into the food pantry box.

In addition to the physical gift of food, 9 Friends churches in our Quarterly Meeting have joined together to participate in a fasting project. Over 125 people have agreed to fast once a month (FOAM). This project encourages Friends to forego one meal each month, offer the cost of that meal to the FOAM fund for hunger relief, advocate for compassionate public policy towards the poor and hungry, and to meditate and pray for God’s help to all who are hungry. This project has gives me another hands on opportunity to DO something for hunger, but more importantly to voluntarily feel hunger for those who feel hunger involuntarily.

Participating in the FOAM project has heightened my awareness of fasting. I read recently a newspaper article reporting fasting is gradually gaining favor as a way to cleanse the body and the soul. I recently met a Greek Orthodox woman who spent Lent religiously fasting from all meat. I’ve heard reports on the radio and television that say fasting from beef one day a week could make a huge difference in greenhouse gases. It is hard to believe a country with a fast food restaurant on almost every corner, a country where you have the ability to buy food 24 hours a day, a country that offers food delivered to your home any time of the day and night and a country that spends billions for fast food advertisements on every television program to entice us to eat their food tolerates even the thought of fasting from anything!

In the middle of a country like this, I’ve discovered the power of fasting. Fasting accomplishes something in my heart, mind, body and soul. It causes me to look for opportunities to do something to meet the needs of the hungry in our community and around the world. During my hour of fasting I write a letter to my legislator on a hunger issue. I long and pray for a world where no one goes to bed with an empty stomach. Participating in the FOAM project makes me aware that I have power over what I eat. A recent Vegetarian Times article reminded me that every time I eat, I have an opportunity to choose food that is friendly to my body, to my community and to our earth.

And given my bad habits at the grocery store, I decided it was time for a new diet. It is time that my grocery cart is a witness to what I believe is important to God, to all God’s children and to God’s planet. I am trying to place more real food in my cart; food items with very little processing or packaging. I am trying to boycott corn syrup. Organic food is expensive, but I can buy at least one thing organic from my grocery list. I am looking for ways to buy real food locally (I thank God our Farmer’s market is a block and a few weeks away). I am making more of my own bread. And I have a choice of where my meat is grown, where it is processed and who handles it (that in itself is a whole story…..) I am more serious about meatless Mondays and purposely plan meatless meals during the week. I am planting fewer flowers and more vegetables this spring in my back yard. And maybe I’ll actually break my bad habit of checking out other people’s grocery carts by paying more attention to what goes into mine...