Sara, big thanks again for your work and for your witness interpreting it. Preaching today on the unjust judge who, almost despite himself, does a work of mercy, I think (thank God) that Jesus, the sinners' friend actually likes sinners, refuses to judge, categorize or declare "worthy" or "unworthy."

Shakespeare got the Goapel right on this one when Hamlet entrusts the visiting actors to Polonius:
POLONIUS
My lord, I will give them all they deserve.

HAMLET
God’s bodykins, man, much better. Use every man after his desert, and who should ’scape whipping? Use them after your own honor and dignity. The less they deserve, the more merit is in your bounty. Take them in.

Amen. And again thanks for exegesis of the politics of the conflict.

1. If the pantries (and their donors) trusted the recipients wouldn't they give them cash?

2. In the example, why was there a three hour line? Because there was a well founded belief that the food was going to run out. Lines are not a good way of allocating resources. First, we should look at the value of the time of those waiting. Second, we should ask, does a line do the best job of allocating to the neediest? Only if the neediest have low costs of waiting -- but does a single mom have a low cost of waiting?

There are accusations that some recipients are groceries that resell what they receive -- much like scalping of underpriced tickets.

At St Nicholas, we take our patron's example and give without questioning. In our area (Elk Grove Village, IL) the local town and village pantries have residency requirements. We don't-- and although we're only open two evenings a week, we feel we're filling a need for the working poor who can't get to pantries that open only during working hours.

We're doing it with volunteers and donated groceries, and I will be bringing this article to the attention of the pantry folks. I don't think they'd want the strings that come attached to the FEMA funds, either.

Dear Sara,

I want to thank you for starting a food pantry that offers fresh and healthy food. I've depended on food pantries for groceries and have long been aghast at the poor quality of the food offered. I probably developed Diabetes 2 as a result of reliance on the highly refined carbs, canned veggies, high sodium of the food from the food bank.

If people were not so terrified that someone would get something they don't deserve, then maybe established non-profits who feed the hungry could invest the big budgets in better quality food instead of lots of staff, lots of overhead.

Jesus tells us to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, care for the sick and provide for those unable at the moment to provide for themselves. It's a pretty simple statement, meant to be taken at face value.

As far as as I am concerned all this emphasis upon proving that one is needy enough is one big complicated way of weaseling out of God-given duty. It's a way to not do it.

It is also disrespectful of the poor. I am poor. I live well below the poverty limit for a single person in the USA. I am disabled. If it were not for rental assistance I would be homeless. Were it not for the food banks, I would have starved. And I cannot tell you how insulting it is that someone will not take my word for it that I am needy and poor. Thanks be to God for the faith He has given me to know that I live in God's cupped hands and that's a dignity no one can ever take away from me, no matter how hard the social services work to rob me of that dignity.

John, the Anglican church's history with distinguishing deserving and undeserving poor goes back to at least 1597 (thank you google). Our theologians argued against relief work that might interfere with divine judgment. Yes, that language is recurring in 20th and 21st century US discourse http://www.publiceye.org/welfare/Decades-of-Distortion-01.html
where I suspect it may consciously begin with the concern that those who "really need it"at not get what they need, but it seems to tip dependably toward privilege judging and eventually dismissing other people's suffering.

That's politics. We don't have to go there. How about "be perfect as you heavenly father is perfect who makes the rain to fall on the just and unjust alike."

Mr. Schell...well said, sir!

Sara - congratulations on your work founding the St. Gregory's food program - hope that more than just you had a hand in making it a go. Any program that depends on one person is bound to fade.

John - Even if you handed out cash, the prices paid by food pantries for groceries are far less than what an individual would pay at a store. The other problem is that there is a serious lack of grocery stores that sell fresh produce in many poor urban areas. So, even if you had cash, there's no place to spend it on fresh produce. So, a single mother without a car may be better off waiting in line than finding transportation to the closest grocery store.

Ann, thanks. I can't tell you how many people are involved making the food pantry work. Virtually all our volunteers are people who come to get food and stay to help out. We're not run by a staff, and not by church folks "for" the poor; we're run by poor people for each other. At least 50 volunteers show up every Friday...and hundreds more, over the last ten years, have unloaded pallets, lifted sacks of potatoes, translated, prayed, given us five bucks, developed inventory systems, and welcomed others into the work. We celebrate birthdays and Easter, visit each other if we're in the hospital or in jail, take care of each other's kids, worship, mourn, joke around and eat together.
It's not really a "program"-- it's a community.
It's church.

Episcopal Community Services shelters and provides meals for 530 homeless men and women in San Francisco 365 days a year, and we do it with no distinction between "worthy and unworthy" and no proof that one is "truly needy." We also sponsor and manage 860 units of supportive housing for formerly homeless individuals and families. We have amazing staff and wonderful volunteers who make it all happen. ...I know and admire Sara Miles and I respect her work enormously. We need the neighborhood pantries, no strings attached. But there's plenty of work to be done, and we also need the "large, established non-profits," like Episcopal Community Services, Catholic Charities, Jewish Family Services, and others.