”The Kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground…when the grain is ripe…the harvest has come.” Jesus, in Mark 4:26-29.
“If you can’t feed a hundred people then just feed one.” Mother Teresa.
Donations from Harvest Festival this year are in support of the Oswestry and Borders Food Bank, part of Trussell, the Christian Charity that supports around 1,400 food bank locations, many run by churches. Formerly known as the Trussell Trust, it was founded in 1997 by Paddy and Carol Henderson using a financial legacy left by Carol’s mother, Betty Trussell. At first, the money was used to help street children sleeping at Sofia Central Railway Station in Bulgaria but in 2000, the charity began work in the UK and was contacted for help by a family in Salisbury so their first food bank began there.
How to feed those who are unable to feed themselves is a concern the world over for many different reasons but in Britain around 1 in 7 people faces hunger and is unable to manage on social security in the face of the rising cost of living although the UK is the fifth richest country in the world. Last year, 760,000 people contacted a food bank for the first time in addition to those already using them but as the need increases, donations are diminishing due to the difficulty so many have in making ends meet currently. Despite this, Trussell gave out nearly three million food parcels in the last financial year – the highest amount ever and more than double the number five years ago. Now, many of the food banks and their volunteers are themselves under increasing pressure and running on reserves as they try to cope with the need for their services. Food banks are a lifeline but not the solution and as Mother Teresa suggested, there may be smaller practical ways in which support can be offered in local communities, whether or not through a food bank.
Trussell has published the comments of John, who came to Hope Baptist Church in Somerset: “I felt welcomed, a peace and calm… The church offers more than to pick up your parcel and go, you are offered a cup of tea or, if preferred, are welcome to make one yourself. There is also a garden to rest in, or get stuck into – helping grow flowers, fresh fruit and veg. I noticed that people walking into Hope are not alone. I couldn’t tell the difference between those who were church members, volunteers and people receiving food. Some people are all three! Sitting and chatting, gardening together is as valuable as handing out parcels and issuing vouchers.”
In asking for help, donations and support, Trussell also asks for your prayers and has circulated various, amongst them this one taken from A prayer for the Tired, Angry Ones by Laura Jean Truman:
God… Grant us the vulnerability to risk loving our difficult and complicated neighbour, rejecting the lie that some people are made more in the image of God than others.
Keep our anger from becoming meanness.
Keep our sorrow from collapsing into self pity.
Keep our hearts soft enough to keep breaking.
Keep our outrage turned towards justice, not cruelty.
Remind us that all of this, every bit of it, is for love.
Keep us fiercely kind.
Amen.
With my prayers; pob bendith,
Christine, Priest Guardian.