Random acts of kindness.
Someone created that phrase a couple decades ago to package the concept of spontaneous and anonymous generosity to help or cheer a total stranger. I believe it was dreamed up as an antidote to “random acts of violence,” the unexplainable bursts of cruelty and destruction that fill the news and wrench our souls even when we’re far removed from the scene.
Random acts of kindness became almost a religious experience, not that any faith can claim ownership of generosity. We read about them in the Star-Advertiser’s Kokua Line column, they are the warm-glow final story on network news shows, there are even web sites with lists of suggestions for the spontaneity impaired.
Blessed is our whole human race when a tired trucker stopped to change another driver’s flat tire, when that middle school boy slowed down to support an elderly woman across Punahou Street, when a store clerk tells a harried young mother with a fussy kid in her cart that her clearly tight-budget load of food was paid for by the fellow ahead in line — who beat a quick path out the door to avoid thanks.
But I digress. Generosity is the topic, but I’m talking about the deliberate and persevering kind of giving spirit. I’m talking about people who don’t just float away on the euphoria of one good deed. They show up again, day after day, to pack bags with rice, beans, macaroni, bread, canned meat and fish. They give it away to the poor and hungry people at the door, who will be back again and hungry again.
Spam and rice and beyond
People whose acts of kindness are sustained, not random, shared stories and planned ahead at workshops sponsored by the diocesan Office for Social Ministry this month on Oahu and the Big Island.
“To share food brings out the best of everyone,” Bobby Agres of the Hawaii Alliance for Community-Based Economic Development told volunteers from 11 parishes at the Sept. 17 session at St. Stephen Diocesan Center. The non-profit organization works with grass roots entrepreneurs as well as community groups to educate and stimulate them into becoming economically self-reliant.
“Sustainable” was the guru word of the day. Agres led the food pantry volunteers to analyze what they are doing now at poverty ground zero, and explore how they could be more effective by linking up with others in their community. Picture the bag of food and add some locally grown produce; that’s working in some places with collaboration from local farmers. Envision getting the poor at the door help with housing, health issues, job training. Envision people growing their own food.
“We are here to understand what we are doing, and take it to the next level,” said Agres, whose second guru word was “networking.” “We welcome other people’s gifts, I understand your gifts and you understand my gifts.”
“Food poverty is the inability to get affordable, healthy food,” said Agres. And let’s face it, the food pantry staples of Spam and rice need something on the side to qualify as a healthy meal. “We are trying to change eating patterns. But when you try to buy healthy food, it’s expensive. We need to feed people … but we also need them to learn how to grow it.”
Before focusing on practicalities of food distribution, attendees were reminded that “food ministry is part of our Eucharistic ministry.” The link of sacrament and service is in “The Holy Thursday story,” said Father Bob Stark, resource developer with the Office for Social Ministry. “When Jesus instituted the Eucharist … he washed the feet of the apostles at the same time.”
“Eucharist is an action, bread broken and wine poured out,” Father Stark said in an interview.
Community gardens, healthy and fun
Jubilant students showing off the bounty of community and school gardens in Waianae and Molokai were featured in a video intended to plant the idea that gardens can be done and be fun. Then Agres put the volunteers through the typical workshop format, small groups sharing stories. The goal was to spark new efforts when people hear what’s working in the parish down the road.
What Agres preached about healthy eating and sustainable food resources is a gospel bigger than the Catholic food pantry network. First Lady Michelle Obama is the poster woman for the nationwide drive to push back against obesity and related illnesses. Eat healthy is the First Commandment of that creed.
Way bigger than that worthy earthly cause is the Gospel message that brings each and every one of those volunteers — why are so few of them men? — into the trenches.
It was a workshop focused on practicalities, so no one was spouting scriptural texts. But any one of the volunteers could have at least paraphrased the words behind the spiritual roots of Christian outreach to the poor: “Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For when I was hungry, you gave me food. … In truth I tell you, in so far as you did this to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me.”
They likely couldn’t cite chapter and verse from Matthew’s gospel — memorizing numbers is a Protestant thing — but it’s a belief they share with many of their collaborators from other faiths.
Feed the hungry, serve the Lord
“I believe we serve the Lord when we feed the hungry,” said Blanche McMillan, food outreach leader at St. George Parish in Waimanalo. That rural Windward parish program is one of the busiest on Oahu. Last month, they gave 1,098 20-pound bags of food to people lined up on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at the church. Some of the bags contained fresh vegetables and fruit from the gardens at Waimanalo Health Center, one of several collaborating organizations.
Fresh veggies are also part of the monthly hot lunch “Feed the Hungry” program. Last month, 100 people were served at the church and 50 more plate lunches were delivered to homeless people on the beach, McMillan said.
McMillan, often on the road in her truck to pick up donations, said one day last week started with depleted stocks. “We thought we didn’t have much to give. Then Aloha Harvest brought lots of cooked and frozen dinners from the Polynesian Cultural Center. And I picked up two truck-loads — cabbages, apples, bell peppers, onions, cucumbers — from Word of Life Christian Center,” one of 12 churches who support the Waimanalo distribution.
“There are five farmers who want to give us donations,” said McMillan, so it’s another round of pick-ups for the high-energy volunteer. “I walk the streets and ask people ‘what do you think Waimanalo needs?’ I ask the Lord when I start walking, to help me do the right thing.” McMillan is the personification of community roots. Raised in Waimanalo in a family of 17 kids, she and her husband adopted five of their former foster children and have three more born to them, the third generation centered at St. George.
It is just one of the stories from 11 parishes that day. More followed at further workshops. There’s just not enough space to tell them here.
Building on the past and present
Father Stark said, “Hawaii is cutting edge” in the sustainable food movement where being islands that import 80 percent of food consumed is a powerful impetus.
The Blessed Sacrament order priest is administrator at Malia Puka O Kalani Church on the Big Island, where young adults and children are tending a garden and the local farmers’ market brings surplus produce to the pantry.
“Parishes need to understand they have a lot to build on,” he said. “The real challenge is for parishes to work together, to learn to network in their community.” He said another challenge is for younger folks to see what the older generations have done — that’s who you’ll find working in food pantries, older folks — and “build on it, move forward.”
“The fact that 60 of Hawaii’s 66 parishes are already in food ministry is a miracle,” said Father Stark. (I didn’t share my feeling of shame that my parish is not one of them.)
The Bible story about feeding the thousands who gathered to hear Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is about a miracle. Is it about divine intervention in feeding the masses that day? Or was the miracle actually about humanity at its best, its most generous?
“There are all kinds of interpretations,” said Father Stark. The disciples faced the quandary of finding food for the crowd when “the account mentions a boy sharing barley loaves, the food of the poorest people. People with the least are often the most generous. The people who came to hear Jesus weren’t dumb. They would have tucked food in their robes.”
The boy was generous to share his five loaves and two fish. Maybe he enflamed the generous spirit of everyone in the crowd. That’s the interpretation I like to believe. Everyone was full and there were baskets of leftovers at the end of the day.
Moving the story forward, maybe we’re due for new miracles.
Could the persevering pantry volunteers on the front lines be stimulus for a movement to end hunger? Could their stories convert those random acts of kindness perpetuators to a deeper commitment?
Is generosity a sustainable virtue?
The stories aren’t finished.
