FEEDING LIVERPOOL: resources for Harvest and World Food Day INTRODUCTION Feeding Liverpool is an ecumenical partnership of Christians involved in foodbanks in Liverpool which aims to help build the capacity of foodbanks to meet the needs of those who are hungry in their area; positively change attitudes towards those who use foodbanks; and to work to change policy to end the need for foodbanks. Feeding Liverpool is co-chaired by the Rt Revd John Rawsthorne and Professor Hilary Russell. Over the last few years foodbanks have become a feature of life in almost every part of the UK, the vast majority of them set up by local churches. Many are part of the Trussell Trust initiative which runs a network of over 400 foodbanks in different parts of the UK, others are independent. Over one million people are fed every year by foodbanks in the UK. So what is going on in the fifth biggest economy in the world that people are going hungry? The government has said that foodbanks are used simply because they are there. The popular press say that they are used only by the lazy and feckless. Those who work in foodbanks, and listen to those who come, tell another story. People who use foodbanks are normally referred by another agency such as a medical centre, housing agency or benefits office, and do not simply turn up for a handout. So their need for food is absolutely clear and decided upon by a trusted local agency. They can usually access the foodbank three times in a crisis through a voucher system. HARVEST AND WORLD FOOD DAY EVENTS World Food Day, and the annual harvest celebrations which take place in many churches, are opportunities both to celebrate God s gift of an earth that provides for our needs. They also give us pause to recognise and repent that our sharing of the earth s produce is not equal and that both internationally, and much nearer to home, significant numbers of people are going without enough for their needs. We need to pray knowing ourselves to be part of the created order which is longing and struggling for completeness and redemption (Romans 8.18-25). In this way we shall not be tempted to separate environment and justice issues.only when we have offered ourselves and our choices to be transformed by God who wore our clay in Christ shall we learn to celebrate the harvest feast where nobody will stay hungry (Janet Morley in Bread of Tomorrow ) PRAYER OF APPROACH Come Lord, do not smile and say you are already with us. Millions do not know you, and to us who do, what is the difference? What is the point of your presence
if our lives do not alter? Change our lives, shatter our complacency. Make your word our life s purpose. Take away the quietness of a clear conscience. Press us uncomfortably. For only thus that other peace is made, your peace. Dom Helder Camara PRAYER AND BIBLE READINGS FOR HARVEST AND WORLD FOOD DAY Collect or Gathering Prayer Creator God, you made the goodness of the land, the riches of the sea and the rhythm of the seasons; as we thank you for the harvest, may we cherish and respect this planet and its peoples, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Deuteronomy 26. 1-11 When you have come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, and you possess it, and settle in it, you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his name. You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time, and say to him, Today I declare to the Lord your God that I have come into the land that the Lord swore to our ancestors to give us. When the priest takes the basket from your hand and sets it down before the altar of the Lord your God, you shall make this response before the Lord your God: A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labour on us, we cried to the Lord, the God of our ancestors; the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O Lord, have given me. You shall set it down before the Lord your God and bow down before the Lord your God. Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house. John 6. 25-35 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they said to him, Rabbi, when did you come here? Jesus answered them, Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give
you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal. Then they said to him, What must we do to perform the works of God? Jesus answered them, This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent. So they said to him, What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat. Then Jesus said to them, Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. They said to him, Sir, give us this bread always. Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. CASE STUDIES: SO WHO TURNS UP AT THE FOODBANK? Caroline is in her forties. She is the mother of two grown-up children. She has a university degree. For most of her working life she held a job in teaching support at a local primary school a job that she loved. But due to the onset of a medical problem she had to give up her job at the school and instead rely on benefits, including a benefit for incapacity benefit as her medical condition was long term. A review in the amount of benefit she received concluded that she was not entitled to incapacity benefit. Caroline challenged this decision. She was given an interview date for a case review but it clashed with a hospital appointment she had. She told the benefit office of this clash but she was deemed to have voluntarily failed to keep an appointment and sanctioned by the Benefits Agency, which meant benefits being taken away for some weeks. This left Caroline with no means of supporting herself and she found herself referred to the local foodbank. Caroline won her appeal and had her incapacity benefit returned to her. She can now manage to make ends meet. She spends time every week volunteering at a local project in order to have some weekly contact with people but also to help people who, like her, find themselves suddenly forced into destitution through no fault of their own. Harry is in his mid-fifties. He has worked all his life in a range of unskilled jobs and had never missed a days work in his life. But the firm he last worked for got into financial difficulties and he was made redundant. He was unable immediately to get another job. This had never happened to him before. He went to the benefits office to apply for support, but was told that there would be a gap of some weeks before he could get benefit. Harry had always been on low wages, so had no savings and therefore nothing to fall back on. Feeling very embarrassed and ashamed he found himself with a token for the foodbank and turned up there as he had nowhere else to get any help until his benefit claim was decided. Tracy is a young mother with two children aged five and three, and pregnant with her third child. She had been in an abusive relationship and had recently left her partner to prevent further violence towards her. She managed to find somewhere to stay until she could find more permanent accommodation, but she had no means of support. When she applied for benefit she was told that there would be a five-week wait until a payment while they considered her claim. Tracy had no choice but to turn up at the food bank with her children to get some means of supporting them. Note: all names have been changed to protect privacy
PRAYERS OF PENITENCE For our incapacity to feel the suffering of others, and our tendency to live comfortably with injustice, For the self-righteousness which denies guilt, and the self-interest which strangles compassion, For those who live their lives in careless unconcern, who cry Peace, peace when there is no peace, For our failings in community, our lack of understanding, We ask your mercy. For our lack of forgiveness, openness, sensitivity, For the times we were too eager to be better than others, when we are too rushed to care, when we are too tired to bother, when we really don t listen, when we are too quick to act from motives other than love, WHAT CAN WE DO? Pray regularly as a church community for all those who are hungry in our community, and for those who organise and run foodbanks Make a regular collection for your local foodbank and build a relationship with them Invite someone from Feeding Liverpool to speak at a church service or meeting Offer to help as a volunteer at your local foodbank Make your concern about people going hungry in Britain known to your Member of Parliament Join the movement to end hunger in Britain. Feeding Liverpool will be joining Church Action on Poverty s national campaign to end hunger. Please get in touch if you would like to join us in that effort CLOSING RESPONSORY We are called to proclaim the truth. And let us believe: It is not true that this world and its people are doomed to die and be lost. This is true: I have come that they might have life in all its abundance. It is not true that we must accept inhumanity and discrimination,
hunger and poverty, death and destruction. This is true: the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, the poor are hearing the good news. It is not true that violence and hatred should have the last word, and that war and destruction have come to stay forever. This is true: death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more. It is not true that we are simply the victims of the power of evil who seek to rule the world. This is true: the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and he is like a refiner s fire. It is not true that our dreams of liberation. of human dignity, are not meant for this earth and for this history. This is true: it is already time for us to wake from sleep. For the night is far gone, the day is at hand. CONTACT INFORMATION Feeding Liverpool: Steve Atherton 07740 008970 Mark Waters 07795 822193 Central Liverpool Foodbank 0151 522 1391 North Liverpool Foodbank 0151 226 3406 South Liverpool Foodbank 07760 718640 Hope+ Foodbank (Central Liverpool) 0151 702 7237 Alan Boesak, South Africa Adapted from an address to the World Council of Churches, 1983