You give them something to eat

There was a small neighborhood grocery store on the edge of the suburban development where I grew up, run by several generations of the DiPascale family. The dad and uncle ran the deli. Their freshly made hoagies (“subs” for you from other parts of the country) wrapped in white butcher paper were a highlight of my youth.

I Googled the store and was happy to learn that while it was no longer a grocery, it was still run by the same family as a sandwich shop. Seeing the images on Google made my mouth water.

A hoagie from DiPascale’s sandwich shop.

My family could travel to a larger grocery store for our weekly shopping. Other families did all their shopping at the “little store,” which was what everyone called it. When my mother needed something midweek and I was old enough to cross the busy street in front of the store by myself, my mother would write a list on a small piece of paper. I walked several blocks and handed the list to the men at the meat counter. When I was older, my mother would call out, “Take your brother.” I would load my toddler brother into a wagon so our mother could get a few minutes of peace.

“Little stores” like this one are almost extinct, except in urban areas with bodegas that don’t always have fresh produce. Most children don’t have the opportunity to make the memories I have. Families do not have access to fresh food sources that they can walk to. With the Winn-Dixie soon to be closed, the northern part of the island becomes a food desert.

I was glad to learn that our community is trying to meet these needs with a midweek farmers market in the Bealls parking lot and evening distribution by the Barnabas food pantry. The midweek market is not easily accessible for many. When I was there on Wednesday morning, most customers had driven there and most produce was sold by 10:15. This was the first week. It is a work in progress. Continuing government subsidies of food programs like SNAP, Meals on Wheels, and school breakfasts and lunches are not guaranteed. How will our children, our elderly and our underserved be fed?

Wednesday's farmers market in the Bealls parking lot on Sadler Road.

An important explanation of the role of food in the current geopolitical climate was written by Dr. James B. Greenberg, a retired professor of anthropology and a political ecologist. His essay is on Substack.

A few lines from Dr. Greenberg to highlight:

• Food has always been political.

• Food is never just nourishment. It is a system of relationships, and like all systems, it reflects the distribution of power. When eating is routed through a few corporate chokepoints, we aren’t seeing innovation or convenience. We’re seeing the enclosure of sovereignty.

• Food is … not just energy — it’s memory, reciprocity, identity. In traditional systems, food links people to land, season, ritual, and one another. That network is … cultural infrastructure. When replaced by distant capital and contractual obligation, what’s lost isn’t just small farms or storefronts. It’s a way of being.

• A just food system is inseparable from a just society.

While we worry about food access, 500 metric tons of emergency food stored in a warehouse in Dubai were burned. Your tax dollars and mine bought the emergency high-calorie food biscuits that went up in smoke. More tax dollars paid for the contractors hired to burn it. It was allowed to expire. It could have been distributed in a timely manner, which would have been less expensive than destroying it. The upheaval in distribution procedures from the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) made this happen. This agency was an early target for cuts by the current administration. The images of the starving people in Gaza should break even the most callous heart.

Feeding people is a central topic in the teachings and actions of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Christian scriptures. The earliest disciples were with Jesus in a deserted place, but crowds followed them. Jesus taught them until evening. The disciples asked Jesus to send them away to get food or give them permission to spend money from their common purse for it. Jesus shocked them by saying, “You give them something to eat.” (Mark 6:37) What happened next is called the feeding of the 5000. Jesus asks the disciples to collect what they can. They come back with 5 loaves and two fish. Jesus blesses what they have. The people are seated in groups. Not only is everyone fed, but there are 12 baskets of leftovers.

God’s world is a place of abundance, not scarcity. We are as perplexed as the first disciples when challenged by Jesus. We are stymied by distribution problems. Our solutions lack vision. Many hearts lack empathy. Jesus’ words ring down through the ages. “You give them something to eat.”