Brown: Summer can be a tough time for food banks

Summer is a hungry time for many of our neighbors. This may come as a surprise to you. In the minds of many people, summer is a time of bounty with all kinds of fresh fruits and vegetables available. In some climates, summer is the time when gardens are full of tasty stuff. Yet summer is still a hungry time.

At Christmas and Thanksgiving, people prioritize the table above other things. Most of us cannot imagine a Thanksgiving without a big turkey and lots of pie. During the rest of the school year, schools provide breakfasts and lunches. Yet for many, summer is a hungry time. It’s hungry because kids are out of school and hanging around the house more, drawing down thin food stocks. It’s hungry because the “cupboards are bare” at the local food bank, which is called Food, Opportunities, Resources (FOR) Maricopa. Food banks across the country experience the same phenomena — bare cupboards — because during vacation season means that people forget to donate to food banks.

How do we change this reality — that summer is often a hungry time? For me, when I come up against hard questions I turn to the Bible. One of my favorite Bible stories is found in the book of John (Chapter 6) where there was a great crowd of people out in the wilderness, far from town, around supper time. In this story, the disciples asked Jesus what he was going to do to feed the crowds. Jesus asked if anyone had food to share, and only a small boy had food. The food was only the remains of his lunch: a few fish and a few pieces of bread. Then Jesus performed a miracle. He took the small amount of fish and bread, blessed it, and distributed it among the people in the crowds. Amazingly, there was enough for everyone, with food to spare.

Notice that the miracle began when people recognized the need. The disciples began the miracle by asking Jesus, “What’s the plan for dinner?” They wanted to know what could be done in a place of many mouths but nothing to put them in those mouths. In the same way, if we are going to alleviate hunger, we have to first recognize that we have a problem. Above I noted that we have a problem: Summer is a hungry time.