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We Can Eradicate Hunger By Working Together

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 3, 2008

I don't remember the last time I had this much fun shopping.

Sunday after church, we headed for Sweetbay, loaded the cart with groceries, then gave them all away before we even left the parking lot. It was a great way to prepare ourselves for Thanksgiving and put the coming Christmas celebrations in perspective.

The occasion was "Feed the Bay," the day 20-some Brandon area churches pooled their efforts to stock area food pantries. Congregations from almost every denomination participated, with several thousand members donating some 250,000 pounds of food.

The genius of the plan was in its simplicity. Months of planning, weeks of publicity, countless days of legwork - but only four hours of actual participation from church members responding to the call. One day, one goal, one purpose, one God.

Participating congregations sent worshipers directly from church to the stores, with grocery lists in hand. Trucks waited in Publix and Sweetbay parking lots, with volunteers ready to load the food directly from our shopping carts.

What made an impact with me was the shockwave effect of maybe 20,000 Jesus followers, unified in spirit, saturating the community with generosity and goodness in action, preaching the gospel loudly and eloquently, without needing to use many words.

It's not that churches aren't already doing something about hunger. Most congregations have a variety of ongoing initiatives in place.

Christians feed the homeless, stock the food pantries, serve at soup kitchens, deliver meals-on-wheels and send aid overseas in a constant river of generosity.

But last week's Feed the Bay phenomenon wasn't about replacing the day-in day-out love and care with one convenient gesture.

Feed the Bay simply guaranteed that no hunger ministry in our community will come up empty this winter.

Most importantly, it brought the Christian community together in service and joy.

The effort also said something loud and necessary about God. Feed the Bay said that our Creator cares, and acknowledged the fact that God has chosen to deliver a direct line of intervention through us, Christ's followers.

It turns out that God has confidence that we will eventually get beyond our petty differences and figure that out. And we're going to have new opportunities to honor that confidence every day.

Derek Maul can be reached at derekmaul@gmail.com.

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