Rotting in the Crates

I work at a food pantry that supplies fresh produce and non-perishables for countless individuals and families. Just today we had 18 clients visit us in just an hour and a half! These clients range from individuals and couples to families of 6 or more. They are all shapes and sizes, ethnicities, personalities and so on. There is rarely a dull day at our pantry.

That is even more true now. A local grocery store chain, embattled in a family feud, has had managers walk of the job (and some have been fired subsequently) and workers protesting outside stores. Produce deliveries and stock shipments have either been delayed or haven't arrived at all in some locations. No one to stock the shelves and produce means that fruits and vegetables that has been cultivated for weeks, likely harvested by migrant workers, and trucked to these locations are now rotting in the crates. CRATES full of produce going to waste- all over a family feud. (Now, I'm not part of the family and I'm not a native loyal customer so pardon me if it feels like I'm dismissing a family's clearly troubled relations. I don't discredit that its not a pleasant situation for anyone.)

Through divine intervention, I'm sure of it, local gardeners and other pantries have dropped off their unused abundance. We have huge zucchini, loads of summer squash, lettuce heads, kale leaves, and 4-5 bunches of both radishes and turnips. We already had the very last of our dwindling supply of tomatoes and potatoes out so we ended up with a nice assortment.

We, as a society, have let so much get in between us and our food. Our clients rely on our pantry to supplement their groceries and we can't provide our best service to them because of a third party. How many more family feuds will result in crates of produce wasted? How many miles do peppers have to fly just so we can have bell peppers whenever we want, whether they're in season or not? When we start to become so dependent on our broken food system we put ourselves in a sticky situation.

Instead of flying bell peppers in from Holland (I checked the stickers on the peppers at one of the local grocery chains), maybe we eat seasonally. (Holland- they are flown in from Holland!) Instead of relying on grocery store chains, maybe we can have little backyard gardens that supply a small portion of our weekly produce. The food system, that has become so distant to Americans, would seem a lot more humble and personal.
Let us, as a spiritual discipline, begin to take back our food system and make it personal again.