Should Churches Support Food Banks?
I recently wrote a post suggesting that supporting a local food bank would be a good outreach that a church of any size could do. But is this something that a church should do?
One concern that some, Christian and non-Christian, may have is that it is enabling the poor. Why should they seek to get a job or be more careful with money if people are just going to give them money for free?
One thing that needs to be clear is that the existence of food banks do not mean every poor family can get all the food they want for free. Food banks have limited resources and they have strict guidelines on how much food goes to what family.
How do I know this? Our family was one of those that received food from the food bank. This food was a supplement to the food that we were able to purchase with our own resources. There were many times when the food bank meant that we had something to eat that day. But there was still motivation for me to seek more employment.
When people are concerned about enabling, they imagine adults who would rather spend their money on cigarettes or alcohol. The truth is that many of those who rely on food banks are families with children. Even if the parents were being wasteful with their resources, that is no reason to punish the children. They still need to eat.
From a Christian perspective there is another reason to support food banks. The Bible, Old and New Testaments, command us to care for the poor and feed the hungry. We are judged not by what others do with the help we give but by what we do.
Yes, we should look at wise ways to help people. We should look for long-term solutions whenever we can. But we still need to help in the short-term crisis. We need to do it not out of assurance that it will be used well but because it is the right thing to do.
So should churches support food banks? I would definitely say yes.
What we miss, is that food banks enable corporations, like Sobeys, Superstore, Kraft, Campbells, etc. to pawn of the burden of food waste, on the poor. On top of that the corporations receive charitable receipts for this, making them more profit.
Whether we like it or not, food banks stand in the way of food justice, and food sustainability. Somehow we need to keep feeding those who need food, and working with them to provide good food to everyone. There is enough food, it’s all about distribution.