Food Pantry Struggles=More Handwriting on the Wall
Food pantries are experiencing greater struggles as times get economically tougher. More people are relying on them at the same time fewer people and businesses are able to donate money and food. Higher demands paired with smaller resources result in less help for less people. Here’s an informative news article about the problem.
In my area many “poor” people rely on food pantries on an ongoing basis. They view the pantries as permanent help supplementing other welfare they receive. Unfortunately, this “help” is often really a subsidization of cable television, cell phones with the latest ring-tones, cigarettes, junk food, and other luxuries that are mistakenly interpreted as needs.
Even more unfortunately, during times of increased demands on the pantries, those going to find help in their legitimate crisis situation are at risk of finding little-to-no help because there is already an established clientele vying for dwindling resources.
This is yet another wake-up call for the church to either rethink or refine its strategy for helping the poor. Too often ministries to the poor stop at providing “crisis solutions” for all situations whether crisis or long term. At best, this practice patches up the pain while never really healing the problem. At worst, and all too often, this practice results in wasting valuable resources for crisis needs on the long term selfish wants of those who have made a livelihood of working the system set up to help the poor.
Crisis solutions are temporary and quick fixes to immediate and desperate need. They are exactly what are required in crisis situations. We make a mistake, though, when we apply them long term. This mistake is highlighted during periods of greater need. If we are really going to help the poor we need to develop strategies for providing solutions, not patches, to those who are really seeking a solution.
Providing solutions to long term problems means giving the poor a hand-up out of poverty eventually while giving them a hand-out for a brief time to cover their immediate needs. This requires setting up a ministry framework that will aid in getting to the bottom of each individual’s unique need, determining their unique resources and then applying persistence, creativity and love to help them get the individual solution to their individual problem.
The end result will be better and more ministry as we leave more adequate resources for those in real crisis. It will also reveal who doesn’t really want to find a solution to the poverty by which they earn a living so that we can stop wasting our time. That is where we must aim in order to hit on a relevant and truly helpful ministry to the poor.
(Note: See working principle No. 1.)