By Ralph Thompson Jr

It is early Thursday morning, food pantry distribution day, and in the stillness of the morning, the sounds of ministry are beginning to rise. Soon, the quiet hum will become an explosion of sounds, sights, and significance, filled by the rustling of plastic bags and squeaky pushcart wheels as the Columbia Drive food pantry volunteers prepare to be the hands and feet of Christ for their neighbors who experience the weight of food insecurity. Meanwhile, across town at Bethany United Methodist Church, volunteers prepare soup for distribution while simultaneously preparing food boxes in partnership with MUST Ministries for distribution at nearby apartment complexes. Even in a county of affluence, food insecurity still exists.

Columbia Drive and Bethany United Methodist Churches represent different approaches to the same challenge: To seek a way to mitigate food insecurity in their communities. Each church serves different communities with stark socio-economic frailties. This is where food justice comes in.

A Tale of Two Cities and Ministries

Columbia Drive United Methodist Church is located in South DeKalb County and was a merger between Glencoe United Methodist Church and McKendree United Methodist. Before the merger, both of these churches were predominantly white churches that purchased land in the then-bustling suburb of South DeKalb County. I was the seventh Black pastor of the church and served from 2016 until June of 2024. The Columbia Drive Food Pantry has been in existence for 40 years and boasts a dedicated team of volunteers. Once a bustling place full of big-box stores and national restaurant chains, South DeKalb now contends with check-cashing stores, blood plasma centers, and many abandoned buildings. This community is insecure in many ways.

Bethany United Methodist Church is located in South Cobb County, Georgia. Bethany’s predominantly White congregation is in an affluent section of Smyrna, Georgia. The church would be considered multi-cultural as a small percentage of additional races exist. I was appointed to serve Bethany United Methodist Church in July of 2024, and I am the second Black pastor to serve Bethany.

As a testament that food insecurity has no zip code, on the First day of my arrival at Bethany UMC, a lady from the community showed up at the doors requesting relief because her family was hungry. Food insecurity affects every zip code. The church’s soup kitchen and food box ministry are a major part of Bethany’s mission to the community. The success of the Bethany food pantry has solidified my understanding of the need that exists despite the income differences between DeKalb County and Cobb County.

Styrofoam or Fine China: An Empty Plate Serves No One

As a young child, when guests were coming for dinner, I watched my mom bring out the “good china” so that our guests could feel special and welcomed in our home. This small act signified that our visitors were important and valued. Our guests were worthy of our best. I witnessed the “good china” being bought out on Thursday at Columbia Drive and on Soup Kitchen Days at Bethany UMC. They wanted to make sure that those they served felt welcomed and special. These volunteers don’t just distribute plates, they serve the best to the best.

Columbia Drive and Bethany represent different approaches to the same challenge: Seeking to mitigate food insecurity, but neither has successfully moved the needle towards achieving food justice. Put simply, an empty plate serves no one. The Median Income along the Columbia Drive Corridor is $48,551. In South Cobb County, the Median Income is 45% higher than that of South DeKalb, at $98,712. This is a stark difference in median household income, yet both locations experience some type of food insecurity.

Leah Penniman, author of Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farms Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land labels this systemic mismanagement food apartheid, which, “makes it clear that we have a human-created system of segregation that relegates certain groups to food opulence and prevents others from accessing life-giving nourishment.”[1]  Whether served on fine china or styrofoam, an empty plate ultimately serves no one.

Food Justice: What is it and Why it Matters

Like a recipe a chef prepares, having all the right ingredients is necessary to create the perfect meal. When pantries only deal with food insecurity, an important ingredient is missing. That ingredient is food justice. Robert Gottlieb and Anupama state, “First and most simply, we characterize food justice as ensuring that the benefits and risks of where, what, and how food is grown and produced, transported, distributed, and accessed and eaten are shared fairly.”[2]

Traditional food pantries are designed to provide temporary relief to people who seek out assistance from these pantries. In a sense, these pantries do what they were created to do: address food insecurity. This research looks beyond addressing food insecurity towards meaningful and lasting solutions provided when food justice is the goal. The issue that drove this research was that the temporary relief provided by food pantries is simply not enough. Theologian and author Jennifer R. Ayres states, “In many places, food security is tenuous at best.” This research was fueled by repeatedly observing food pantry clients who used the pantry, not as a supplemental resource, but as their primary source of sustenance.

Physical hunger is just one type of need that drives this behavior. L. Shannon Jung observes that “our hunger is natural, and points to several other hungers. Hunger of any kind for food, companionship, cultural stimulation, and so on drives the human animal to search for what we need (or in the case of our misguided drives,) at least for what we think we need.” [3] According to How We Measure Hunger in America, in 2020, at least 60 million people in the United States turned to food banks, food pantries, and other community food programs to help feed themselves and their families. That’s one in every five people.”[4]  It must not matter what a zip code’s median income is because in God’s economy, there is “Food enough to spare!” Luke 15:17a (NIV).

This research involved field observation of the Columbia Drive food pantry and the Bethany United Methodist Church soup kitchen and food pantry. I conducted volunteer and client interviews and convened small focus groups to study food justice through the lens of volunteers and pantry clients to help people gain more resources. I discovered that most people needed food justice, which would break the cycle of trying to provide food security alone.

Key Research Observations

1. Both pantries focused on being a healing salve for the sore spots of their respective social location.  They only provide for immediate needs at the expense of reordering the system.
2. Redundancy of resources and services. Several food pantries operate within a five-mile radius of each other, and many are open on the same days and within the same timeframes.
3. More competition—Less collaboration. I discovered that many nearby food pantries often compete for resources rather than cooperate for greater community impact.
4. Deepening Dependency- Pantry volunteers observed the same clients seeking out multiple pantries weekly, deepening dependency rather than creating sustained food security.

Theological Touch Stones

In Matthew 14:16, Jesus commands the disciples, “They do not need to go away; you give them something to eat.”[5] (NIV). This passage is a theological foundation for food justice. When Jesus broke the fish and the loaves and gave them to his disciples to distribute to the multitude, we witness an abundance mentality over and against a scarcity mindset. God’s good gift of food enjoins us to work toward food justice: the equitable distribution of food at every level of its journey from the earth to earthen vessels (humanity). In a similar fashion, Matthew 25:35-46 reminds us that in feeding others, we also feed Christ. The kingdom mandates that to care for “the least of these” is to care for Christ.

J.U.M.P.: A Collaborative Model for Food Justice

In Response to these findings and research, I developed the Justice United Metro-Area Partnership (J.U.M.P). J.U.M.P. is a justice roundtable format that uses a collaborative approach to move communities towards food justice while minimizing the revolving door of food insecurity. J.U.M.P. does not seek to be the clearinghouse but rather the catalyst for change. Furthermore, the J.U.M.P. model is replicable and seeks to remind communities that collaboration yields more results than competition.

J.U.M.P. will:

1. Develop and convene quarterly roundtable discussions with food pantries, community partners, and nonprofits in contextual and geographic proximity.
2.  Map community assets to leverage asset identification to resource the greater community more equitably.
3. Coordinate geographic service times and assets to minimize redundancy and maximize impact.
4. Identify and develop wrap-around services to buttress collective attempts to combat food insecurity and move toward/maintain a food justice model.

Lessons Learned

This research has deepened my faith and understanding of food justice, and several key lessons flow from this offering.

1. Food Security Exists Everywhere. Affluent communities such as South Cobb County, Georgia, can and do experience food insecurity, and food security touches significant portions of the population.
2. Our Theology Informs our Praxis. Volunteers are shaped by their understanding of their respective ministry context. Volunteers either serve in solidarity or charity.
3. Collaboration is the Cornerstone of Justice. When churches and nonprofits operate in institutional silos, food justice is impeded. Only by collaboration can systemic change be created.
4. Food Justice has a Face. Beyond physical hunger are broken individuals who suffer the injustice of food insecurity. To achieve food justice, we must mend the fractured relationships between systems, communities, and people.

 

 

How do we J.U.M.P. Ahead?

As people who love justice and seek to end hunger, we must create communities where hunger is no longer acceptable. The standard models of repetitive charity are not enough to break the cycle of dependency. We must embrace collaborative approaches that address systemic change. J.U.M.P. is not a program but a paradigm. J.U.M.P. will foster collaboration between leaders who desire to empower communities to address systemic food injustice, while dismantling systems that perpetuate the status quo of dependency. When we break bread together in the Eucharist or at a community fellowship meal, we access the grace that God alone provides. Let us remember that God’s table has room for all people. When we operate our food ministries, may we remember that we are feeding Christ, and we have access to divine abundance.

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Resources to Feast Upon:

Ayres, Jennifer R. 2013. Good Food: Grounded Practical Theology. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press.

Carter, Christopher. 2021. The Spirit of Soul Food: Race, Faith, and Food Justice. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.

Joshi, Robert Gottlieb and Anupama. 2010. Food Justice. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Jung, L. Shannon. 2004. Food for Life: The Spirituality and Ethics of Eating. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press.

Penniman, Leah. 2018. Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing.

Slupski, Ash. 2021. “Hunger Blog.” Feeding America. September 16. Accessed December 10, 2024. https://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-blog/how-we-measure-hunger-america.

[1] Penniman, Leah, Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farms Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land, 2018, White River Junction, VT, Chelsea Green Publishing, p.17.
[2] Gottlieb, Robert and Joshi, Anupama, Food Justice, Cambridge, The MIT Press, 2010, p.6.
[3] Jung, Shannon L. Food for Life: The Spirituality and Ethics of Eating. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2004, p.12.
[4] www.feedingamerica.org/howwemeasurehunger
[5] NIV – The NIV Study Bible. Edited by Kenneth L. Barker, Fukky rev. ed., Zondervan, 2020

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