Some of you attended ‘A Taste of Hunger’ event Sunday evening at Anshei Sphard Beth El Emeth Congregation, where we learned more about the issues of hunger and food insecurity in Memphis and across the country.

The events was sponsored by MIFA, the Mid-South Food Bank, the Memphis Jewish Federation, Balmoral Presbyterian, among others.

We learned:

That we live in the wealthiest, most blessed nation on earth. And yet, according to the USDA, more than 50 million Americans (one in six) – including 17 million children – live in households that worry about how they will get their next meal.

That in Shelby County, more than 250,000 people (about one in four) get food stamps. One in five children in our county are ‘food insecure’ – and probably wouldn’t get even one solid meal a day if they didn’t eat a subsidized breakfast or lunch at school.

So what gives? Is this a failure of personal responsibility? Public policy? A capitalist economic system that producers winners and losers? Is this an ethical or moral failure of our faith-based society?

What should we – individually and collectively — be doing differently about hunger issues in our community?