Hunger

In this week's Bible reading from John 6:24-35, 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."

Bread is both a symbol of life – and something that is necessary for life. Bread means nourishment to someone who is hungry.

Jesus talked about bread and nourishment to a people who sometimes, maybe often, wondered when their next meal was coming or where it was coming from.

Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

Here are some facts about hunger in the world.  (From feedingamerica.org, mercycorps.org, and wfp.org)

• 1 in every 9 people worldwide -- close to 800 million -- don’t have enough food to eat.
• Hunger kills more people each year than AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined
• The world produces enough food for every person to eat 2700 calories per day. The problem we have is with food distribution.
• In the US - close to 50 million people live in food insecure households.  33 million adults and 16 million children
• The number of people living with hunger has dropped by 17% over the past 20+ years.

And even though things are getting better.  It is not at all OK.