The Hazard of food insecurity:

Living Laudato Si’ in the mountains means patchwork of efforts to feed families

By Don Clemmer

Quilting used to be a big deal in Perry County, but over the years and from one generation to the next, the craft of making quilts has fallen out of practice.

“A lot of that is dying, because people haven’t continued it,” notes Lori Helfrich, parish life director of Mother of Good Counsel Catholic Church in Hazard, Ky.

The same could be said of farming and gardening in the area, which is one of numerous contributing factors to widespread food insecurity in the area. This reality has driven some area churches to respond with e orts to feed the hungry, but these have been largely scattered and uncoordinated. This posed a challenge to Helfrich and other leaders of faith communities to in effect create a quilt of their own out of this patchwork of e orts and create something that could cover the chasm of need in their community. “You have to be creative about it,” says Helfrich. “How do you encourage people to come together? ... You have to build relationships between people who don’t normally interact.”

So last fall, Helfrich and collaborators from across different Christian denominations and secular groups organized the Food and Faith Summit, an e ort to get everyone on the same page and
start building on existing efforts.
 
Steep, rough terrain
“We still have a lot of folks who need food assistance to make ends meet, but there seem to be fewer resources now to help them,” says Jennifer Weeber, who coordinates with farmers’ markets in the region as part of her work as Nor-folk Local Food Coordinator for the Community Farm Alliance. “We have a lot of people going hungry, [who] are not certain where their next meal is coming from, and who are having to make the di cult choice between food and medicine, food and rent, food and utilities, etc.” Helfrich at Mother of Good Counsel notes that poverty in the area encompasses many things: “You have people who have jobs, but they’re not paying enough to be living on. If you’re a single parent, you might be working three jobs, but you still might not be able to cover what you need to,” she said. She also cites the widespread role of addiction. “It’s in nearly every family, because it’s available and it’s a numbing of the other issues that people are facing,” she said, adding that passing a drug test can therefore be a major hurdle for those seeking a job.

Also contributing is the legacy of strip-mining in the area, which “strips the land of everything and any top soil,” noted Helfrich. “That adds to food insecurity.”

And most recently, there’s the impact of COVID-19.

“Food security was precarious here before the pandemic, and now the problem becomes exacerbated,” said Helfrich. “The most vulnerable populations are hit hardest when something like this unexpected happens. All of this ties together with care for our common home and Laudato Si’.”
 
Interwoven solidarity
As a result of last fall’s summit, Helfrich and her allies are now the Food and Faith Coalition and are seeking funding for some of their initiatives. These initiatives often draw on the values of Pope Francis encyclical on ecology, Laudato Si’, which was published five years ago in June.

“We’re trying to link all these things,” said Emily Whitaker, a Presbyterian and one of Helfrich’s collaborators. “I love being involved in all of these projects.

Whitaker, who moved onto her parents’ property in the area after their death, has overseen a farmers’ market for the last several years, but also has helped organize dinners that introduce area residents to locally grown foods and recipes derived from them.

“We can talk all day about having foods at the farmers’ market, but if people don’t buy them and put them in their mouth, it’s not going to help,” said Whitaker. “You can be one of the people that helps that farmer continue their work and increase that amount of local food that’s available.”

Whitaker, a computer professional turned “farmer wannabe,” is one of numerous people across Perry and Letcher Counties who has, with the help of funding from the National Soil Conservation Service, set up a high tunnel — essentially a greenhouse but with plants growing from the ground — on her property. The soil of this former strip-mine has nothing organic in it.

“It’s rocks. It’s rubble from deep down by where the coal was,” she said. She also keeps bees on the property in hopes they can help pollinate anything she might be able to grow.

Helfrich likens a process like this, and all the Food and Faith Coalition’s work, to seeking resurrection in a crucified place. “There are charitable pieces happening, about feeding people. But what is the justice piece? How is the system changed so that it’s really helping people? ... It seems very bleak at times. But there are sparks of hope in it.”

Whitaker finds great hope in seeing this cohort of community leaders, all women, who are doing something other than throwing money at a systemic problem.

“God provided this and continues to. It’s a natural thing, and isn’t it great that we’ve been able to expand with care of the earth?” she said. “And those are just very cool messages, and I think they belong in the Church!”

Read the full June issue of Cross Roads magazine here.