From the original post on Reddit: “Our family doesn’t qualify for food stamps, but every week I am very grateful that our community offers such a wonderful food bank to anyone who needs help. This is what they had this week for each family”

Food insecurity is one of the most widely experienced forms of poverty in the United States. If we have things in our pantries, if we have a refrigerator with food inside of it, and if our garbage cans include any kind of food waste, we are more fortunate than a huge portion of the globe. In the US, having staples around has been a definition of our sense of freedom and dignity since, at least, the turn of the century. 

Need is growing, and supply chains are deteriorating. Global warming is having its effect. And nearly half of children living in Cleveland are living in poverty. 

This post from Reddit reminded me how important the work is to ensure that people are fed. If we do not see this kind of security––the certainty where your next meal comes from––as the root of justice, then we are not seeing millions of people who are struggling at the most basic level of human need. It is a profound thing to ensure that people do not have to worry about where the next meal is coming from. Groups like our own Unity in Community are working to meet these needs, but it is easy to lose focus when the need is so great. 

What a great reminder, then, from someone whose need has been met. We all deserve to feel safe and secure that the staples of life will always be readily at hand.

Allan T. Georgia, M.Div., M.T.S., PhD

Sometimes it is hard to tap into our spiritual selves or find time to nurture our intellectual curiosity. Here is a section that reflects on some nourishing materials from around the web and related media channels in order to get us thinking, get us feeling, and get us reflecting on the lives we are living in this big, beautiful world. **Some Adult/Mature Themes May Appear in Links and Other Attached Material**