What do you think motivates Jesus to feed the crowds? How does Jesus’ action mirror the Kingdom as envisioned by Isaiah and Ezekiel? What is Jesus’ role in the feeding miracles? What is the role of Jesus’ disciples in each story? What do the baskets full of leftovers imply about food in God’s Kingdom?
Many have said that we do not have a food production problem, but a food distribution problem. There are many people who live in places far from access to food. These places have become known as “food deserts.” The US Department of Agriculture defines a food desert “as a low-income census tract where a substantial number or share of residents has low access to a supermarket or large grocery store.” To qualify as a “low-income community,” a census tract must have either: 1) a poverty rate of 20 percent or higher, OR 2) a median family income at or below 80 percent of the census tract’s median family income; To qualify as a “low-access community,” at least 500 people and/or at least 33 percent of the census tract’s population must reside more than one mile from a supermarket or large grocery store (for rural census tracts, the distance is more than 10 miles).
Are there food deserts anywhere near you? Why do you think food deserts exist? What is your community doing to address the issue of food access? To see a map of food deserts in America, go to http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-desert-locator.aspx
Tongue on Fire 