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               Dear St. Matthew’s, I was disturbed this week hearing that the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture cancelled a $250,000 food order for the Chester County Food Bank, as a part of the federal government’s ongoing spending cuts. You can read the story here. Included in the $1 billion that the USDA cut (yes, a billion with a “b”), was also a program that connects food agencies with farmers within their state, the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement [read here]; the CCFB lost $145,000 from that program last week. The CCFB helps feed 40,000 people a year. Grace Crossing Food Pantry also receives food from the CCFB. St. Matthew’s has supported the Food Bank a lot in the last several years, through food collections and our community garden, and in the last year has formed a partnership with Grace Crossing. Caring about food insecurity has become one of “our things.” So… what are they going to do? Are me and you going to make up the difference for agencies affected close to home? Should we? some might ask.  Who’s going to be the one to judge that a recipient of charity should just “get a job”? I can’t do that. Can you?

              I know a lot of people might have different opinions on what the government has been doing to make it more “efficient,” but this hits a ministry close to us and makes no sense to me. The CCFB can’t afford to buy food at retail prices—just like it has gotten harder for regular people. For me, it “feels” like poor people are being punished—to what end? In the name of efficiency? I get someone arguing for “welfare reform,” but this isn’t reform. I get someone arguing that the government shouldn’t be in the “charity business”—in which case we become responsible to help fix those problems—but like I have pointed out recently, there are some things that the state does take responsibility for (like kids in state custody or the elderly with no family or money…). I’d love to have a conversation about what “the common good” means in terms of our faith, our society, and government. That’s not politics—to me that’s about being a good citizen of faith—with lots of room for differences and agreement. 

           St. Matthew’s is in an affluent area; you might not know someone whose kids rely on getting a backpack of food for the weekend. Or the farmer who grows the seedlings we’ll plant in our raised beds. In which case, we need to get out of our bubbles... What can we do? Become aware. Talk to each other. And be humbled by what the Holy Spirit shows us, and then let the Spirit move us.

Peace,

Pr. Christian