30 Nov A Call to Action: The CAA Hunger Challenge Initiative

Photo taken at Urban Patchwork Farms during a volunteer work day with students from the Odyssey School.  The first paragraph below are the words of Rabbi Neal Blumofe:

During this first week of November, we will eat for a week on $31.50 — the average amount that one enrolled in the Federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) spends for food — one in seven Americans — and nearly 25% of our children — averaging about $1.50 per meal, per day. Let us pay attention to our own hunger and also the feelings of struggle and difficulty that may arise when participating in this challenge. Let us help each other as we keep each other accountable, sharing how limiting our food spending and intake tests us, and also as we are affected by our experience.

This was the Hunger Challenge.  Suggested by Rabbi Blumofe for many reasons, I imagine. As Congregation Agudas Achim’s spiritual leader, was he striving for unity, a joint sense of purpose?  Was he hoping for a broader sense of empathy that his congregation might now share with a larger population of Austinites, some not so fortunate?  Could he have merely posed the Challenge so that as a congregation we grow more aware of struggle and depravation?  He wisely asked that we hold each other accountable, because he knows a Buddy system works more effectively in any new goal pursuit such as weekly work-outs or smoking cessation.  Did we use each other to lean on? Were some of these lofty goals reached?  For those that participated, were we affected? 

I remember a Thanksgiving almost nine or ten years ago, when I heard the story of a food drive for Calvin and his Mom. Calvin was a special education student of mine at Webb Middle School, about 20 minutes by car down the road from Agudas Achim but as different economically as Haiti is to Dubai.  Food drives were commonplace at this school around the holidays, where teachers brought in turkeys for the kids.  Calvin’s family’s requirements were greater.  His Mom was struggling with a crack addiction, and Calvin at 14, didn’t have many home-making skills.  He could open canned food.  As teachers we couldn’t tolerate this, so this particular Thanksgiving, Cyndi the Hall Monitor, went to work.  She collected three grocery sacks stuffed with all the traditional Thanksgiving fixings, plus socks, new T-shirts, and 2 dozen boxes of macaroni and cheese.  Cyndi dropped off the groceries, cooked the turkey, and taught Calvin how to prepare, with milk and butter, a boxed Kraft culinary delight.  

As human beings, what does motivate us to acts of kindness for others?  Does it require a challenge or an abrupt tragedy like a hurricane or wildfire to wake us up and shake the cobwebs of complacency?  Although we give, do we need to walk the walk too?  I admit, I sometimes feel like a hypocrite volunteering with Mobile Loaves and Fishes for an afternoon, only to go home later to my larger than life beautiful home nestled on the hills of Austin’s northwest. 

I believe for me, the challenge was not so much a call to attention, but a call to action.  Contrary to what we may have heard, “Sustainability” does not mean growth, but actually the opposite.  It’s about getting along with less, so that others may have more.  

While grocery shopping today, I was relieved to spend more than $30.50. I am more grateful today for this luxury and much more mindful of meal planning and transportation costs.  I bought apples from Texas instead of Oregon, and skipped fruits not in season.  It won’t change Austin’s  footprint much, but it’s something I can do.  Just like Cyndi, we all do what we can do. If we all do that, it will be enough.