[Episcopal News Service] The Episcopal Diocese of Texas is spearheading an effort to encourage people of faith across the state to help feed those who are hungry. On Nov. 21 it launched “Feed the People Today,” an online resource to help people connect with ways to give or receive food assistance.
This new effort also encouraged faith communities across the state to work together to take concrete action, including partnering with local food banks, volunteering and mobilizing resources for families affected by the interruption of their federal SNAP benefits, opening church kitchens and pantries, and using worship spaces to distribute food as well as hope.
In a letter to state faith leaders that was shared with Episcopal News Service, Texas Bishop C. Andrew Doyle invited them to take part in this action to feed people, which he called “one of the most fundamental necessities to sustain life.”
“As people from so many faiths, we must take a stand for humanity. We must care for the people in all our communities,” Doyle wrote. Calling hunger “a crisis of human need,” he said, “nourishment should never be political.”
The diocese also organized more than 50 faith-based organizations to sign onto a full-page ad in newspapers in Houston, Dallas and Austin to help publicize both the effort and the need for it.