This week a derecho swept through Iowa, flattening 10s of million acres of crops and destroying corn silos filled with corn that was to go onto the market.  Many farmers will not be able to recover.  The impact on the food market could be significant but is yet to be determined.

NPR reported that  according to a report from the United Nations, The coronavirus pandemic could push up to 132 million people into hunger by the end of 2020.

30 million people in the US are unemployed as of the end of July, 20 % of work force. This represents a 11.1% unemployment rate, down since the beginning of the pandemic but up significantly since the beginning of the year’s rate of 3.5%

With these statistics comes the reality of food insecurity for real people.  Let us pray this week for ways that we as faith communities can respond with action to help feed the hungry. ( Matthew 25:35)

Gracious God we pray for those who hunger in this land: whose only kitchen is a soup kitchen, whose only food is what others don’t want, whose diet depends on luck, not planning. We pray for those who never knew food insecurity but now find themselves in an unknown place of not being able to provide food for their families. We pray for those worldwide where their governments cannot respond to human need, where fields are devastated by draught, or locusts or floods.

Gracious God guide us in ways we can feed your people whether it be “hands on” and/or calling on governments to respond to the needs of their people.  Help us to act with focus and speed.  Open our eyes, hearts and hands to the movement of your Spirit, that we might be the hands and feet of our Lord Jesus Christ. In whose name we pray. Amen.