Then a Miracle Occurs

Do you believe in miracles? And did you ever wonder exactly when does a miracle occur? Something happened late last week. It was the culmination of years of work by many people. What was the miracle? Were there more than one? When did it happen? I'd like to hear what you think!

There is a cartoon called "Then a miracle occurs" in which a "rubber meets the sky" type of person has drawn a flowchart with a box that says "then a miracle occurs" to make his vision happen. [if you want to see this, you have to google it] Next to him is a "rubber meets the road" guy who says, "I think you should be more explicit here in step 2." Having been a "rubber meets the road" type who works for a vision of something better, I always appreciate when miracles occur. A miracle happened last week when the Coalition of Imokalee Workers signed an agreement with Burger King to improve farmworkers' wages and enforce human rights standards in the fields.

And I think it's worth celebrating that Monmouth Presbytery helped to make it happen. About 50 people who attended meetings at the Presbytery Center added their signatures to a petition that was delivered to Burger King headquarters last month. Plus there were all those students at Rutgers University who signed up at a table I had at their Tent State University. And, of course, PC(USA) leaders like Clifton Kirkpatrick and Linda Valentine. We are part of that miracle!

May 23, 2006 – Today, the CIW and Burger King Corporation signed an agreement to improve farmworkers’ wages and enforce human rights standards in the fields!

A signing ceremony and press conference took place in Washington, D.C. at the U.S. Capitol, hosted by Senator Bernie Sanders.

Your prayers, your participation in marches, the incredible number of signatures you garnered in the petition campaign, and your ongoing letters and emails to Burger King made this victory possible.

We read in Hebrews 11:1 that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Through faith we know that this agreement is a harbinger of that soon-coming day, when the entire fast-food and grocery industry will embrace these human rights standards, and farmworkers will enjoy a fair wage and humane working conditions. As we celebrate this human rights victory, let us also renew our comittment to keep walking together with the CIW until we see that day dawns.

• Read a related story by the Presbyterian News Service: Burger King and CIW strike deal – PC(USA)-backed farmworkers will receive higher wages, improved work conditions

Cents-Ability Grants in Monmouth Presbytery

The Cents-Ability Grants Committee—a group made up of representatives from every congregation that participates in the program—had done its homework. There was a committee charter, guidelines for grants, an application form, and requests for funding from hunger ministries within the bounds of the Presbytery. They lit a candle to remind them of Jesus’ presence, prayed for guidance, checked on how much money was available, and discussed each application with care. By the end of the meeting, a consensus had been reached and grants totaling $4,250 ma de to The Christian Caring Center, Forked River Hunger Action Team’s Summer Program, the FoodBank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties, Lunch Break, The Center in Asbury Park, St. Gregory’s Pantry in Point Pleasant, Jamesburg Presbyterian Church Deacons Food Cupboard, and the Samaritan Center. We thank God for the faithfulness and stewardship of the committee, for the gifts that came from so many, and the ministries that will be made possible from all those pennies!

The Christian Caring Center –Pemberton: $1,000. This program serves Continental breakfast and a hot cooked lunch 6 days/week. They also go out to the woods on Wednesdays and Fridays to a population that lives there. They bring lunch, talk to them about services available to them and offer support. In 2007 12, 976 meals were served. In addition, this program offers homeless survival kits: pop top can goods, non cooking foods, fruit juices, crackers, etc. They are also working to help individuals escape from welfare dependency and achieve economic self-dependency; as well as reduce the incidence of Hunger in Burlington County caused by lack of adequate food and nutrition.

Forked River Presbyterian Church – Hunger Action Team Summer Program: $400. This is a new program at Forked River, aimed at providing fresh produce to the hungry and breakfast/lunch bags for children – once a month from June-September. They have identified a specific need during the summer months – the children who normally receive free or reduced breakfast/lunch at school, are without that supplement during the summer months. They hope to expand this program as time goes on.

Food Bank of Monmouth and Ocean County - $500. The Food Bank distributes to food pantries throughout Monmouth and Ocean Counties. As such, they are affiliated with America’s Second Harvest, a program which not only addresses hunger, but also waste of food products, and the root causes of hunger, and how we can begin to alleviate them.

St. Gregory’s Pantry (Point Pleasant): $1000. An emergency food pantry, which operates year round, serving families in need in the greater Point Pleasant area. St. Gregory’s gives temporary aid (a 4 day supply of food and personal items) to approximately 1200 individuals annually. 200-250 additional families are assisted during the holidays. They serve the elderly, young single mothers, persons with illness or disability, and low-income working families.

Lunch Break (Red Bank): $300. Monmouth County’s first “soup kitchen” this organization provides free hot and nutritious lunches Monday-Friday to 60 – 100 men, women and children. More than 20 lunches are taken to the homebound. Social, Medical and legal services are available on site. Clothing, baby supplies and special food baskets are also offered throughout the year. On a yearly basis, Lunch Break serves over 24,000 people.

The Center in Asbury Park: $300. The Center serves over 50 hot lunches to those afflicted with HIV/AIDS living in Monmouth and Ocean Counties. The Center also houses 25 formerly homeless individuals on site. Their volunteers offer love and support to these neediest of people.

Jamesburg Presbyterian Church – Deacons Food Cupboard: $250. The Food Cupboard is currently expanding its operation to a handicapped accessible facility. The grant will assist in completing the relocation.

Samaritan Center, Inc.(Manalapan-Englishtown): $500. This food bank serves working poor families by providing supplemental weekly groceries, as well as school supplies for children, and holiday food baskets. The program provides basic needs for approximately 83 families – 70% of whom cannot get help from other social services organizations because they make too much money.

Food for Thought: "The Eyes of All . . . "

The food crisis is very much in the news these days. An article on the Presbyterian Hunger Program website begins with this: “The food crisis has reached violent extremes. Yet food riots are like flare-ups from the hot coals of widespread, preventable hunger.” With rising food prices, in addition to the approximately 854 million people in the world who go hungry, another 100 million people are at risk of starvation, while a billion of us are overfed. Denial, helplessness, and fear of not being able to do anything are common reactions to such numbers—but we are called to something better.

Each year on Pentecost we read Psalm 104:24-34, 35b. It tells us that God’s wisdom abounds in all of nature and that all creatures are made by God and all belong to God. But verse 27 gets at the crux of the matter: “The eyes of all look to you to give them their food in due season.” Which seems to imply that when people are not fed, when 1 child dies every 5 seconds, God is somehow absent—or seems to be absent, perhaps in an especially heartbreaking way to women who already suffer disproportionately from hunger (70% of hungry people are women and girls). It also gives us a warning, in the first part of verse 35 (now why is this cut out of the official lectionary reading??): “Let sinners be consumed from the earth, and let the wicked be no more.” We are accountable.

Recently I visited three locations with Derrick Boykin, the Northeast Regional Organizer for Bread for the World. We wanted to talk with people and see if there was interest in starting a Bread for the World chapter in central and southern New Jersey. Derrick gave a persuasive presentation on hunger, mentioning many of the statistics we are so familiar with. Then he drew a chart with two columns.

On one side was a list of all the things churches do to fight hunger. We named the usual: food pantries and soup kitchens and fund raising. Churches do these things really well. On the other side we listed the causes of hunger. We came up with things like poverty, natural disasters, war, agricultural policies, food policies, and environmental degradation. He didn’t need to say any more; the message was clear: much of what we do is necessary and we must do it—but it is only a Band-Aid that alleviates hunger, when what we really need is to eliminate its causes.

The Presbyterian Hunger Program (PHP) works to alleviate hunger and eliminate its causes. Direct Food Relief is just one of five program areas; others are Development Assistance, Lifestyle Integrity, Education and Interpretation, and Influencing Public Policy (we do a lot in partnership with Bread for the World).

On Pentecost, the church was born when the Holy Spirit came and breathed new life into everyone and gave everyone the gift of bold speech. In this season after Pentecost, please add your voice to the chorus of those who speak out and seek justice for the world’s hungry people. Learn about the issues; hold an Offering of Letters; send e-mails, make phone calls; meet with your senators and representatives—they need our encouragement, they need to know we’re there. It’s a good time to claim the gifts of the Holy Spirit for ourselves to move from fear and helplessness and denial to a life that is truly abundant—for everyone. Perhaps God’s eyes are waiting on us!

Wishing you traveling mercies and many glimpses of redemption on your journey with Jesus

Another way to help hungry people

I received this from Laura Stubaus, the Church Administrator in Hightstown. There may not be any such thing as a free lunch, but this is a way to get free rice donate to the World Food Program and improve your vocabulary. Laura writes:

I saw the attached article in People magazine (March 17 issue) recently. What an amazingly easy way to help support a hunger program! I've added the website to my saved folder in my email, along with a couple of others that I visit daily (such as the Breast Cancer Site that allows for free mammograms for women without insurance when people visit the site and click on the icon for the free mammograms). I plan to take a few minutes each day and visit the Free Rice site as well.

Hungry people need our help right now--we have the power to make a difference!

Following is a message from Bread for the World about the current crisis. It's easy to feel helpless when you watch people around the world suffering for lack of food. Please sign up for the Recipe of Hope campaign and be part of the solution.

It's in the news nearly every day: Food prices are soaring worldwide and hunger is rising. More low-income people in the United States are making trips to food banks, where stocks are quickly depleting. For the world's poorest people in developing countries—who spend up to 80 percent of their income to buy food—the situation is even more devastating.

But you have the power to make a difference in this global hunger crisis. Bread for the World is launching an emergency Recipe for Hope campaign which will run from Mother's Day, May 11, through Father's Day. We will help hunger activists raise awareness and take action. Each week, an email from Bread will offer the ingredients for a:

• Recipe for Despair—more information on the causes of this crisis
  
• Recipe for Hope—specific actions you can take to help end it

It’s easy to feel helpless when you watch people around the world suffering for lack of food. Join Bread for the World's Recipe for Hope and be part of the solution.

Mother's Day Recipe: Ingredient for Despair: Rising Fuel Prices You've likely felt the impact of rising fuel prices at the gas station. The cost of a barrel of crude oil has doubled in a year, reaching a new record. Higher oil and energy prices affect the entire chain of food production, from fertilizer to harvesting to storage and delivery. People in the United States are seeing these increases in their grocery bills. Poor people in developing countries are hit even harder, since these countries must import food to feed their citizens. The Washington Post put it well in a recent special series, "As prices skyrocket, those who can least afford it are squeezed the most as the world confronts the worst bout of food inflation since the Soviet grain crisis of the 1970s." Read Rising Food Prices: Impact on the Hungry by the World Food Program. Ingredients for Hope: Join the campaign and sign up to receive weekly emails and tell-a-friend.

Thank you for your efforts,

David Beckmann
President
Bread for the World