By Susan Lee Sharp

On Jan. 28, Food Action & Research Center posted this statement: FRAC is especially concerned about the grave potential ramifications any disruption to vital nutrition and other essential programs will have in increasing hunger and hardship in America. https://frac.org/news/federalfundingfreezejan2025

Since the recent announcement of federal cutbacks on vital services, I’ve been concerned about those who depend on food assistance programs. Surely I’m not alone in this. Certainly I’m joined by people who are directly impacted by these cuts, and probably by many others who cannot conceive that our financially wealthy country could be so morally bankrupt as to willfully engineer the hunger of its citizens.

Yet, here we are. Yes, we. This impacts us all, not only those directly impacted by food insecurity. We are all implicated in longstanding and long defended economic arrangements that systematically favor some at the expense of others. We are all entangled in what acclaimed author Ta-Nehisi Coates compares to being complicit in a great crime we never consented to. Or, following his lead a bit further, possibly a crime to which we never confessed.

With the our lives and those of our neighbors and their children at stake, it is time for a wider perspective on how we as a community, and as a nation, address hunger. Hunger is not a partisan issue. Secure access to food should not to be vulnerable to elimination by the pen stroke of elected officials regardless of political party. At great risk we have relegated responsibility for the sustenance of life to government agencies and elected officials.

James Baldwin reminds us, “Responsibility cannot be lost, it can only be abdicated.” Some of us will point fingers at food assistance program cuts and others at those in need of assistance. Yet, we can invite a deeper conversation, one that acknowledges our personal responsibility for the common good and how we have abdicated it. It is our collective responsibility to care for one another by meeting the immediate need of hunger. It is also our responsibility to examine the causes of hunger and to address them. This work is being done in communities across our nation. We can join them.

At 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 11, the program leaders of Come to the Table, a project of Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, will present “The Root Causes of Food Insecurity” at First Presbyterian Church in Salisbury. Come to the Table empowers communities to participate in the creation of a just food system through collaboration, capacity building, and advocacy. Using storytelling as a tool in understanding food accessibility, the workshop focuses on understanding the systemic nature of food insecurity and how communities can actively work to address those causes, and why faith communities in particular should be involved in addressing them.

Come and learn how we can chart a direction away from food insecurity and toward a more secure future for ourselves and our community. Let’s do this together.

Susan Lee Sharp is the co-chair of Actions in Faith & Justice.