Reflections, Thoughts, and Prayers from Kurt Nelson, Director of Religious & Spiritual Life at Bucknell (and friends).
We can’t wait to travel and learn and partner with these 12 wonderful Bucknell students! We’ve been reading and studying and preparing, and we’re off to Baltimore today, follow along with student reflections here.
Huge thanks to our Commuity Partners:
Black Church Food Security Network
Liberty Grace Church / Temple X Academy
Our Daily Bread
Temple Beth El
Strength to Love Too
Islamic Society of Baltimore
MD Food Bank
Baltimore Food Planning & Policy
Bread for the World
This past week has been a great one, probably one that I will probably remember for the rest of my life. It was a week that consisted of fun games, raw emotions, and intimate conversations. Visiting Baltimore with a totally new group of people added an unexpected layer to the trip that helped me reground my ideals and beliefs. I am extremely grateful that I had the opportunity to come back and be one of the TAs for the Food, Faith, and Justice in Baltimore class. I received the opportunity to connect with people from both new and familiar community organizations that are doing wonderful work to combat food insecurity in the city of Baltimore. I also received the opportunity to connect with friends and family, while developing new friendships with my peers.
Continue reading “The Power of Interdependence – Mikey Neal ’23”What a week it has been! I am so glad that I have had the opportunity to come to Baltimore for Food, Faith, and Justice a second time. This week was filled with meaningful conversation, learning, connection, joy, and laughter. Thinking back on this experience, I will of course remember all of the amazing people and organizations we met with, but I will also remember the many rounds of spicy uno and pit, the communal cooking and meals, fun car rides, late night conversations, and shared reflections. As we have been saying ever since the course began, one of our main goals was to form a learning community, and this is exactly what our group became. I could not be happier with how the 13 of us came together this week.
If I had to describe the sofa in the hall that’s how I’d do it. So velvety and soft; It’s like hugging a giant, prone panda. I digress. Aside from the sofa today had some extremely memorable events. The group headed to the Baltimore Food Policy and Planning (B.F.P.P) Office where we concluded weeks of study and buildup to understanding the reality of food security and interventions in Baltimore. They shared with us how they partnered with over 19 other agencies to implement policies that promoted food security for all people.
Among their accomplishments were changing the name of food deprived areas from food deserts to Healthy Food Priority Areas (HFPA), created farmers markets and making land accessible to the people of Baltimore (which counteracts the root cause of the food divide).
Continue reading “Ludicrously comfortable – Sethumte Asamoah-Nani ’26”I had the opportunity to meet the Bread for the World Organization in Washington DC. Their goal is to tackle food insecurity and build healthy sustainable food systems national-wide. Hunger cannot be saved in one day. So advocating on a national level can create awareness for the Capital. Since the farm bill controls our food and farm programs, informing members of the Congress is ideal to establish change. This year, this organization is targeting the Farm Bill in order to increase access to healthy food options, and give SNAP benefits for marginalized communities. There was also a nice view on the top of the building, so that was a plus.
Today we traveled to Washington D.C. to speak with Rev. David Street from Bread for The World. The mission of Bread for The World is to end hunger at a national and international level through changing policies. Within the organization they adjust their focus on a yearly basis, alternating between the ending of hunger nationally and internationally. During this year the organization is focusing on one important piece of legislation at the national level known as the farm bill.
Baltimore City presented a variety of possibilities on how nutritional foods can have a positive impact on the community, we are showered with wisdom and hospitality within the community of Baltimore. Individuals from outside Baltimore are given an opportunity to see a softer side of the city and not, as the story is often told in public, “Dangerous.” We were given the opportunity to feed the unfortunate and be able to make a small impact on the homeless community, expressing their drive to help even though they have so little they still try to help and be somewhat of a hand for others.
During our time serving food, I was given a chance to absorb some knowledge from a wise man who told us that “We are all the same, just because we have different skin color, religion and culture. We still bleed the same, sharing the same color of blood.” He spit out complete facts and once we can see that and learn from that, our world maybe will be a bit better.
I never knew where my life would take me. To Bucknell university or to be taking this class on how religion can connect people to issues like food insecurity. To Strength to Love farm II or to the Islamic Society of Baltimore. I am passionate about the Earth so maybe it isn’t a huge surprise that I would end learning how people tend to it. That’s how I ended up working as a student farmer, but it was a surprise how much I love farm work. Today, of course, I was not as surprised to find out how much I enjoyed helping out at Strength to Love II farm, where me and my colleagues chipped away at a project shoveling piles of stones and mats of thickly intertwined grasses. Our goal was to move this dirt off of a deeply buried sidewalk to return it to the sun and to the surface so that the farm could be accessible to those who use wheelchairs. So in exposing the old and forgotten sidewalk we were hoping to expose new people to farming and the work it takes to grow food. This work was exhausting yet rewarding. For every foot we advanced was easily half an hour of digging and scraping and hauling with all our collective might. We spent jut over 2 hours in work and then sat down to a lovely lunch and conversation with the those who working there (Shout out to Jade, Shay, Dorris and John – Sorry if I spelled any of your names wrong) we talking about the work that the farm did in the growing season sowing and harvesting and the work they wanted to be doing, foreign more connections between the community and urban farm that it surrounded.
Today we volunteered at the Our Daily Bread Employment Center’s meal service. It was not a particularly busy day, but there was a pretty good turnout of people. It was interesting to see the different types of people that come for the food. Many cleaned their plates entirely, while some did not seem to appreciate the fortunate opportunity that they have to get a full plate of food and wasted a majority of their plate. Nonetheless, I understand that whilst not 100% of our efforts are being translated into direct help to the people, we were able to put ourselves in a position to serve, observe, and learn about how organizations such as the Daily Bread and the Black Church Network that we got some exposure to the days before are trying to fight the problem of food apartheid.
Today I had the pleasure of attending a Sunday service at Liberty Grace Church of God, where the sermon today was about God always keeping his promise, we just have to be patient, in the meantime have faith and work to be prepared for your promise. Liberty Grace Church of God along with the other churches that they are partnered with are living proof of this message.
Following Sunday service, Terris King॥ gave us a tour of West Baltimore centering around some of the available green spaces in Baltimore that he and other collaborative churches and community members are using to create garden spaces, a place for children to have a sacred place, to grow food for the community through Temple X Schools.
