It’s time to end hunger in Haywood County
September was hunger action month, a time where we raise awareness about hunger in Haywood County, and commit ourselves to action with our neighbors. Recent statistics show that upwards of 18,000 people in Haywood County experience food insecurity. That is up 60% from the previous survey, and this data was taken before the mass destruction of Hurricane Helene. Our own internal research is shedding light on the lived realities of our neighbors experiencing hunger, and it tells a grim tale.
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Thanks to funding from Dogwood Health Trust and in partnership with students of UNC Asheville, we have been able to conduct a Community Food Assessment over the past year whose goal is to more deeply understand the experience of those facing food insecurity, to understand the ecosystem of food response in Haywood County, and devise key priorities in our struggle against hunger.
As this report is finalized over the next couple of months, preliminary data is extremely sobering. In interviews conducted at nonprofits, churches, and other food relief organizations, we have found that 50% of our neighbors who face food insecurity have had to skip meals or reduce their food intake because they did not have enough.
Even more staggering is that 28% of food insecure households in Haywood County report having lost weight involuntarily due to food access. That’s over 2,000 households!
Such a reality is unacceptable in our modern world. There is enough food to go around. As a matter of fact, upwards of 30-40% of food in the United States ends up being wasted, while millions of people go without.
It’s time for people of faith to speak up and to speak out. Our religious tradition is full of scriptures, teachings, and other resources we can lean on to articulate the need for equitable food distribution. One of the most meaningful verses to me of late has been 1 John 3:17-18.
“How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses to help? Little children, let us love not in word or speech, but in deed and truth.”
Jesus always worked to expand the table. He would dine with everyone. As a matter of fact, that made a lot of people very unhappy. He did not ask if someone was worthy of food, worthy of company, or worthy of healing. He simply loved everyone, and through that love challenged the world order that practiced power over others, had clear winners and losers, and built wealth for the few on the backs of the poorest of the poor.
It makes me wonder what Jesus would say if he saw us today? If he saw the extreme affluence next to abject poverty; if he saw the grocery store dumpsters full of food, while children lose weight from hunger; if he saw us building walls around our resources instead of building wider tables?
Dear siblings, let us love not in word, but in deed. Together, we can make a difference in our communities; we can help provide food for our neighbors and challenge a world that is too comfortable with the presence of hunger and poverty in our midst. Together, we can live the lives our faith calls us to.
In Peace,
Rev. Dr. Blake Hart
Executive Director
