Charity and Justice

The statistics I'm receiving for food insecurity among school age children in Columbus City Schools is startling.

7 in 10 kids...35,000 out of 50,000 kids in the school system are food insecure.

It's easy to indict the schools for low testing scores. But I remember back to my times in Kenya...kids who are consumed with the need to fill their stomach with food won't accomplish much by way of filling their minds with knowledge and information.

So...Change Starts Here.

20,000 meals. Packaged in under 2 hours. Going to a number of schools with these kids that are in need.

It's a start. It's a charitable move.

Charity says...when I was hungry, you gave me food.

Charity says...there is a need...I can meet it...here you go.

Charity is the calling of Jesus people.

But it's not the only calling.

Charity asks the question "What do you need" and seeks to remedy it. Jesus embodied this throughout his ministry.

But we are also called to seek justice.

Justice asks "WHY do you need it"

Justice is messy. It's not easy. Justice swims upstream from the immediate need and addresses the systems, the structures and the underlying reasons for why someone is hungry.

This isn't as tangible to address, it's not as easy to accomplish, it often doesn't have a face.

Charity fixes hunger for a day.

Justice fixes hunger for a lifetime.

7 in 10 kids. They need a fix for today and they need a fix for their kids tomorrow.

I'm not sure how this will happen...but I'm convinced that change starts here.