Justice Theme - Hunger

In his opening homily at the Mass of the Holy Spirit which opened the 2009-2010 school year, Mr. Chris Meyercord, Principal of Bellarmine College Preparatory, noted.   “In his June encyclical, Pope Benedict said that Jesus’ command in Matthew to ‘Feed the Hungry’ is an ethical imperative for the Universal church. In other words – it’s not an option to avoid or ignore it – it’s what we must do.”  How do we respond as a school community to this challenging imperative?   Hunger is a daunting problem whether we look at it on the global scale, the national scale or even at the local level. We have all seen the images of the suffering due to hunger and these images are disturbing. And, it seems that the hunger problem has always been with us and there is the sense that this is “just the way it is”.   

So how do we reconcile these two differing notions of hunger, the imperative to respond to this human suffering or to settle for the feeling of resignation and acceptance that there is really nothing we can do that will change things?   As we look into the hunger problem facing the world today, there are many great things happening to improve the situation in all areas. Global initiatives to halve world hunger by 2015, national initiatives to end childhood hunger by 2015 and even a goal by Catholic Charities to cut poverty in half in Santa Clara County by 2020 are gaining enthusiastic support and are becoming attainable goals!   Volunteers and service organizations are doing tremendous work to serve meals to the hungry, to gather food for our local distributions centers and much, much more. We, the Bellarmine community, hope to continue this growing trend to help end hunger.

Throughout the year, the Faith Justice Committee will sponsor and host a variety of activities and events that focus on some aspect of the hunger issue.   Topics will include global and local hunger issues, service opportunities, and food organizations. We will have guest speakers who have worked on hunger related issues, worked for food organizations and worked on the advocacy piece of the hunger issue.  We will look at how food is produced, used and distributed. We will explore the paradox of why since there is no shortage of food production that some have an abundance of food and others have little or no food to eat?

It is our hope that each Bellarmine family will join us in our efforts to end hunger. You can attend several JET evening presentations or volunteer as a family at a soup kitchen or food bank.   Many of our activities will ask you to bring a can of food to drop off as you enter, please look for these opportunities. Our efforts will culminate in a summit week, March 15^th-19^th, with a keynote speaker, breakout sessions and a closing prayer service. Please check this website for book suggestions, periodicals and media options that focus on the hunger issue. 

Finally, if you have suggestions or would like to share what you and your family will do or have done for the issue of hunger let us know. You can contact the Chairs of the Mother’s Guild or the Dad’s club with suggestions or contact the Faith Justice Committee. Thank you in advance for your efforts to support our work on hunger.