Feeding the hungry

A man came from Baal-shalishah bringing the man of God twenty barely loaves made from the first fruits, and fresh grain in the ear. "Give it to the people to eat," Elisha said.

But his servant objected, "How can I set this before a hundred men?" "Give it to the people to eat," Elisha insisted. "For thus says the LORD, 'They shall eat and there shall be some left over.'" And when they had eaten, there was some left over, as the LORD had said.
-2 Kings 4:42-44

I must have forgotten that God was doing this kind of thing long before he sent his son. I only remember hearing about Jesus multiplying the bread and fish on two occasions in the Gospels. Reflecting on what I am supposed to get out of a story so simple, the fact that there is always something left over has grabbed my attention. It seems wasteful because there are people going hungry in today's world. Perhaps it wasn't so wasteful then because their system didn't leave one group with an abundance and another in want. It seemed like the harvest was good for everyone or there was famine for everyone. Forgive me if I think aloud further. The only time people traveled from one land to another for food was when Joseph had stored up food in Egypt. Egypt was also getting poor harvests, but was relying on what it saved.

There's more than enough food today to feed everyone. It's just not getting to them and they aren't able to come to it. Now some organizations have figured out a way to feed a certain area in need and they extend their area of service as funds allow. If everyone pitched in, organizations like these could feed the rest of the world in need. We can't control what everyone else does, but we can do our part.

The two organizations I like most are CrossInternational.org and AmazonRelief.org. Cross International provides the most bang for your buck in the poorest communities in the world because food is cheap and they only have an overhead of about 2-3%. The two things I like about Amazon Relief is that even though food costs a little more in Brazil than other parts of the world, they have 0% overhead and serve a population where jobs are available to break the cycle of poverty. This is a great way for us to perform the corporal work of mercy of feeding the hungry.