Exploring Our UU Value of Generosity During the Current Food Crisis
This week activists Greta Thunberg and Rima Hassan stood aboard the Madleen Freedom Flotilla in a brave attempt to bring food aid to Gaza, because Palestinians living in the bombed and hollowed out Gaza are starving. Here in our local North Kitsap and Bainbridge Island communities, food banks are struggling with deep funding cuts and increased need. During this time, and always, our UU Values of Generosity, which connects us to one another in relationships of interdependence and mutuality, call us to share our resources.
This past week the Bainbridge Island and North Kitsap Interfaith group (BINK-IFC) shared information about the increasing numbers of individuals and families seeking meals at Grace Episcopal, Saint Cecelia and the Suquamish United Church of Christ. The number of households Helpline is assisting has doubled in the last two years and they no longer have enough food to fill the shelves. Funding for purchasing fresh food has been cancelled and commodities funding has been reduced by up to 40%. The need to feed our neighbors is immediate and intense.
Our faith calls us to our value of Generosity. It asks us to cultivate a spirit of gratitude and hope and to covenant to freely and compassionately share our presence and resources. By doing so our generosity connects us to one another in relationships of interdependence and mutuality. Let’s grow our resilience and work together to feed our neighbors.
This month Naomi Gary and Patricia Erdmann are starting us off with an ongoing food drive through Cedars UUC. BINK-IFC is considering returning to monthly food drives outside of Town and County and Safeway. Over the next weeks and months, look for ways you can help. Non-perishable food, hygiene supplies and checks are all welcome!
In the end it won’t matter how much we have, but how generously we have given. It won’t matter how much we know, but rather how well we live. And it won’t matter how much we believe, but how deeply we love. Rev. John Morgan