Food Fairness

I hope I get to meet Venecia Lonis someday. She has saved me in more ways than one.

A while back I read an article about children in the mountainous regions of Haiti who are suffering and even dying from malnutrition. The problem is especially severe right now because of the multiple hurricanes that hit the region this past year, wiping out crops and killing livestock. You can read the article and see a picture of Venecia here.

At the same time, I was preaching a series on giving from 2 Cor. 8 & 9. In that lengthy section, Paul is encouraging the Christians in Corinth to honor the commitment they had earlier made to help out famine victims in Judea. One of the passages that got my attention was this: "Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality, as it is written: 'He who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little" (2 Co. 8:13-15).

To make matters better (not worse!), I was very frustrated with something going on in my life. Since I had to give up running about 3 years ago after a foot injury, I have slowly been gaining weight. Then, when we moved to TX and people FORCED me to eat so much of the great food in this region, what was a slow journey of putting on pounds has made the jump to hyperspace. Presently I weigh more than I ever have in my life; about 40 pounds heavier than I weighed at the time of my last marathon, which was in October of 2005.

So, here is how all three of these seemingly unrelated forces have come together. When I saw the picture of Venecia and thought about my own experience with food, I was ashamed. Let me stress that I do not apply this to anyone other than myself, but I felt it was morally wrong for me to eat in such excess while there are people in this world like Venecia. That had to change.

But in my mind it wasn't enough for me to just lose weight. I wondered if there might be some way to take the food I was eating and literally give it to those who do not have enough. Here's what Belinda and I have come up with.

I keep three envelopes on our kitchen table. The first envelope has the passage above written on it. Every month I put 30 $1 bills in that envelope. We are good Dave Ramsey-ites, so we already have a cash envelope we use for buying food. The $30 comes directly from it.

The other two envelopes have pictures on them; one has a picture of Venecia from the above article, and one has a picture of me--side view, in a tight T-shirt, close up. It's not a pretty sight. I thought about posting it but I thought Blogger might nail me for putting up an obscene picture.

At the end of every day, I evaluate how I did. Belinda and I are both using First Place as our guide for how we want to eat. I'm trying to eat well, but the part of that which concerns the envelopes is how much I ate. If I overate during the day, I take $1 out of the cash envelope and put it in the envelope with my picture. At the end of the month it goes back into our food envelope so that we can buy more food for me. If I ate in proportion to what I should be eating, I put $1 in Venecia's envelope.

Now here's the good part. The money that goes into Venecia's envelope will eventually be given to a great organization, Heifer International. Heifer doesn't just give food to people, they give them a means to feed themselves. The way it works is that Heifer takes the money donated and uses it to buy animals that will be given to those in need. $500 buys a heifer, $120 buys a goat, $20 buys a flock of chicks, etc. Those are now resources for milk, meat, money, etc. You really ought to look through their online catalog on the website. It's a really neat concept.

I've been at it about a week so far and I am pleased with the impact it is making. Sometimes I still overeat. It really bothers me to take money that otherwise would go to feed a starving child and to put it in the envelope with the picture of the fat guy. My overeating is literally taking food out of the mouth of someone who is starving. And I don't break the rules and put an extra $1 in Venecia's envelope just to soothe my guilty conscience. I want to continue to be reminded of what's at stake. But when I do get to put that $1 where it belongs, there is that great feeling of satisfaction that comes from knowing that you are doing the right thing.

So to Venecia and all of the others like her, I want to say that I am sorry I have been so selfish. I have hoarded too much food for myself and have turned away from you. I don't think that is what Jesus wants me to do, and with his help I will change. And in his name, I am happy to now begin to share with you.

BTW: For $5000 Heifer will provide what they call an "ark," a whole lot of animals going to a community. If you are interested in doing something like this yourself, let me know and maybe we can pool our resources. I'm not sure how that would work but I think we could find a way. I think it would be a great thing to do with kids too. Comment or e-mail me if you're interested.