Food of Poverty

The Food of Poverty – by David Bowring
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    Why was it Ghandi, a Hindu, who said that there are so many starving people today that God would have to come to us as bread?  Sounds an awful lot like the Gospel of John. Oh, but that is the Bread of Life, spiritual nourishment, the Word of God!  What about “The Word became flesh.”  Does not flesh need to be fed with protein, fat, carbohydrate, water, minerals and vitamins? Have we spiritualised the Gospel so much that we find the “The Bread of Life” only in holy books, and not in food broken and shared. See Acts 27.33-38. The wording of description of Paul’s actions is clearly designed to connect the dots between the ritual of the Lord’s Supper and the meal eaten on a storm tossed freighter. Why was it was easier for Paul to see the connection between the Lord’s Supper and sharing bread with the riff raff who sailed the Mediterranean trading fleets than for middle class Christians to share their food abundance with the working poor in their neighbourhoods?  Maybe it is because we do not realise that we are in the same boat as the poor. Obesity and poor nutrition are undermining the health, learning and productivity of all classes in North America.

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   If you have a decent income, you can lay out the extra cash for fresh carrots and peaches and a loaf of bread that doesn’t melt in your mouth. If half or two thirds of your paycheque has gone for rent and clothing, it is a different story. School breakfasts were invented for low-income kids who were not learning because they were not eating healthily. Obesity is more common amongst the poor because Twinkies are cheaper than apples, and easier to find in the corner store.
It is hardly possible for urban people today to get a decent balanced diet without paying more than you would for non-nutritious food. The cheapest food is found in the inside aisles of the supermarket: the prepared cereals, the ready-made pasta meals, the cans and boxes of imported, cooked, and sweet whatever. Often they are based on corn, wheat and Soya, massaged and mixed to imitate something good for you. Then there are the chips, do not get me started on the ruination of potatoes by slicing them up, frying them with animal fat and mono….ate, poly…ite, and bicarburated salts!  Hmm, tastes good to a kid whose parents would rather give them some change than cook a real breakfast.  These food-like substances (thanks to Michael Pollen for that one) contain plenty of calories and little else that is of use to the human body.
The real food, the fresh fruit and vegetables, the fresh and frozen meats, the dairy products are around the outside of the store cost more. By gosh, they look plain and old fashioned, like Old Order Mennonites, next to the jazzy colors, rocket ships, clowns and sunny blossoms on the boxes of prepared food-like substances.

    When you talk with people who lived through the Great Depression in the 30s in North America, one theme often comes through.  “We never missed a meal.” Likewise people who have experienced poverty in the 50s stress that no matter how tough things got financially, their parents could always put a decent meal on the table. That has changed. The families that never went without food during the hard times had access to fresh food, even meat, raised on farms that were no further than a few miles away. They got delicious strawberries from a neighbour who grew and sold them for a fraction of the cost of the three-day-old fruit from California or Mexico. They ate beans that they grew in their own backyards. They picked the cobs of corn and ate them boiled a half-hour later. They weren’t worried about whether the food was grown organically, because they knew the garden it came from personally.

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I could go on about how the debased world food system is contributing to the ill health of the low-income people. I do not need to prove that a poorly nourished child is a poor learner, and a “stuffed and starved” worker is less productive than his well-nourished neighbour is.  Today low income, be it social assistance or the take home pay from a minimum wage job, often does not stretch to feed the whole family 90 meals a month.  That is why we are seeing a phenomenal growth in food banks, congregate meals, and school breakfast programs. It is part of why vegetable gardening is again become an urban occupation. Healthy eating is a first line action to break the cycle of poverty. And, Oh yes, you just might be feeding angels. (Genesis 18, Hebrews 13.2.)
       

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