Every Little Bit

  The calendar says there are two weeks of summer left but the shift to fall has begun. Schools are in session, leaves are beginning to fall (drying up due to the dry weather), the AC is turned off, and mice are looking for shelter. Yesterday I wrapped up canning with five pints of pears and today I will do some fall housecleaning.

   August was the hottest one in 124 years of record keeping. It was also very dry and farmers started chopping corn in August because it was already dried. We finally got a good soaking rain this week which is another indication of the shift into fall. The dry weather reduced crops for farmers but we lack nothing. Gardens produced all we need to provide us with food for the winter. 

    Yesterday the news included a report on famine in Somalia due to a long drought. Babies are too weak to cry. People are trekking across the desert in search of food and burying their dead along the way. The lack of food is also the result of the war in Ukraine not being able to ship grain and oil from their ports. Although the ports are now open it is too late to get enough food to everyone in time.

    As I stored the last jars of food on my canning shelf I felt guilty to have such an abundance and not be able to hand some of my jars to those starving people. The problem is not lack of food but uneven distribution. So much of the food grown in the US is wasted. Food pantries and organizations such as Blessings of Hope and Helping Hand distribute foods that have been rejected for various reasons. For example, one company tried a different kind of lid on an ice cream box and didn't like it. There was nothing wrong with the ice cream but whole batch was rejected because of the box and sent to Blessings of Hope for distribution. At least it didn't wind up in a landfill where a lot of good food goes.

   I don't have any answers to the problem of uneven distribution of food, but there are things we can do to be good stewards of what we have and share with those in need. We are involved in a local food pantry, helping to package food to be shipped overseas by Christian Aid Ministries and Blessings of Hope. It's a drop in the bucket of the global needs but every little bit helps.