MLK & Food Insecurity
“Why should there be hunger and deprivation in any land, in any city, at any table, when man has the resources and the scientific know-how to provide all mankind with the basic necessities of life?”
-Martin Luther King Jr.
Examine the quote above. Likely, you have seen it many times before. In a school textbook; in an umpteenth Time article for MLK day; the opening quote to a documentary or video. It’s ubiquity; even, and especially, in a contemporary context, is no accident. And it stands out amongst the slew of other sayings attributed to Dr. King. Like his march on Washington, the dreams he had, and the meaning of his demise on that fateful day in Memphis: were these not all solely in the name of his furtherance of the mitigation of racial inequality in America?
Yes, but the buck hardly stopped there.
While his legacy lays upon race relations, MLK enacted several efforts to mitigate poverty in general. The Poor People’s Campaign of 1968, brought about after the realization that even the new gains in civil rights did not drastically improve the quality of life for African Americans, focused on food insecurity. A few months after Resurrection City closed, food programs were launched in the neediest counties, as identified by the campaign’s objectives. A supplementary food program for mothers and children was also launched as well. Additionally, Congress appropriated $243 million to expand and revamp school lunches to help feed hungry children.
What can folks like ourselves, in the thick of the fight against hunger, take away from MLK’s legacy? The answer is syntactically simple, yet operatively complex: we must push ahead. The beauty and the tragedy of an issue like food insecurity, echoed in the quote above, is that the solution is well within our grasp. You acquire food and place it in the hands of someone who needs it more than you. Sounds easy enough, right? Yet there are millions, even billions of others waiting in that line; probably so long it would stretch from pole to pole. The fact that a giant like MLK couldn’t solve it in his lifetime may diminish hope that we can do anything differently in ours. But we can start by taking baby steps. Volunteer at your local pantry. Donate any food in your kitchen that even remotely runs the risk of getting tossed in the trash. Do you care about immigrants and newcomers? Consider teaching at a local ELC class. Every human life deserves the basic necessities. As our Reverend Sara always says, “with privilege comes responsibility.” Let’s use ours for good.