+Bishop Dee Pederson
As I drive across the miles of farmland in our synod, familiar Thanksgiving hymns often come to mind. Maybe you remember them, too: songs about plowing the fields, all good gifts being sent by God, giving thanks for the fruit of creation, rejoicing in an abundant harvest. This time of year, so many of our people are hard at work all day and long into the night. You cannot miss the brightness of machinery headlights shining across the fields for miles. And you cannot miss the persistence, hard work, and faith that goes into stewarding the land so a hungry world might be fed.
But right now, friends, an abundance of food and the well-being of all are threatened in ways this nation has not seen in decades. The government shutdown is putting at risk the 42 million Americans who depend on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to feed their families. Essential hunger programs, such as the Women, Infants and Children’s Program (WIC), and free/reduced school meals are also set to run out of contingency funding due the first week of November due to the shutdown.
Working parents, children, seniors, persons with disabilities, veterans, and families with children depend upon these benefits to survive. Our neighbors depend upon them.
The disciples of Jesus once asked him when they had ever seen him hungry, thirsty, without clothing, in prison, or in need. Jesus told them directly that if they have seen and cared for any of these children of God in those circumstances, they cared for him.
Where do you see neighbors in need? What can you do? You go to the grocery store every week, so you get it, right?
- Learn about the needs of your neighbors in your county and community. Consider the domino effect of the loss of assistance: homes without heat, families without medical coverage, veterans making choices they should not have to make, the impact on local businesses everywhere.
- Partner with other churches in your area to meet urgent food, heating, and housing needs across your community.
- Give generously (dollars have the greatest impact) for local or county food shelves, community meals, and hunger relief organizing efforts.
- Consider giving to an area Community Foundation Good Samaritan Fund to provide local help with food, heat, childcare, and transportation needs; and Community Action Partnerships to meet emergency housing needs, including support for military families unable to pay rent, mortgage, or utility bills during the shutdown.
- Set up a food pantry in your own church building.
- Ask members to provide gift cards for distribution.
All of these actions – doing God’s work with your hands – can complement but cannot replace these benefits. Everyday citizens can provide advocacy and can urge the people we elected to serve us to act.
- The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) 2025 Lapse of Funding Plan explicitly stated that SNAP operations should continue during a shutdown using contingency funding – before it was removed from the website in late October. Historically, administrations have found ways to sustain SNAP and other hunger programs during government shutdowns, so families need not suffer.
- Contact your members of Congress today and urge them to advocate for USDA to immediately release guidance to states, distribute contingency funding, and ensure uninterrupted SNAP and hunger benefits for November and beyond.
November is a time when we give thanks for the abundance of God’s gifts. Right now, too many of our neighbors worry about having enough even to get by. When our neighbors are hurting, we see them, we give. Please put aside the partisanship that permeates so much of life today. Stand together. Stand with each person created in the image of God. Put prayers into action. Help us be a synod that brings healing with hope. “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.” – Jer. 29:11
