-
A man carries a bag of wheat supplied by Catholic Relief Services and USAID for emergency food assistance in a village near Shashemane, Ethiopia, in this 2016 photo. (CNS Photo/Nancy McNally, Catholic Relief Services)
May 16, 2020
Hannah Brockhaus
Catholic News Agency
VATICAN CITY -- The coronavirus emergency is also causing a food-related crisis, Vatican officials said, encouraging people to do their small part to help those who are going hungry.
“What happens now with the coronavirus crisis is it is increasing food-related problems,” Father Augusto Zampini-Davies said during a livestreamed press conference May 16.
“We know the value of a society is determined by how we treat the poorest, the most vulnerable, so what are we going to do for all these people, who, apart from the health issues, are suffering from hunger or food-related problems?” he asked.
Zampini-Davies is adjunct secretary of the Vatican's Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. He said the COVID-19 emergency is affecting food availability on many levels of society: for example, children who rely on school lunches are going hungry while schools are closed, and supply chains are being impacted by restrictions on imports and exports.
There are also millions of people who have lost their jobs or are being prevented from working by measures intended to control the health emergency, he noted, and this often means going hungry.
"What happens to the millions of people who are helped neither by the market nor by the state, but we are forcing them to stay home?" the priest asked. “What happens to these people? We cannot force them to stay at home without any support.”
Responding to a question about Pope Francis’ proposal for a “universal basic wage,” Zampini-Davies said it is “one tool” that has been used in the past to help confront emergency economic situations.
“As a tool, it has its pros and cons,” he said, but “if we want to promote health for everybody, we need to do something.”
“We cannot remain indifferent,” he said. “All the structures of society are being challenged at the moment, so what we are trying to do is to implement the preferential option for the poor, which is a fundamental element and an ethical imperative.”
A food crisis is one of the issues the Vatican’s new COVID-19 Commission is considering how to combat in the wake of the coronavirus.
The commission is under the auspices of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, headed by Cardinal Peter Turkson, and is intended to work for about one year.
Turkson noted May 16 that “COVID-19 started as a health care issue; but it has affected drastically the economy, jobs/employment, lifestyles, food security, the primary role of artificial intelligence and internet security, politics, governance and policies (nationalistic or open and in solidarity), research and patents.”
“Hardly any aspect of human life and culture is left unscathed by this pandemic.”
Zampini-Davies said FAO estimates 800 million people around the world were already “chronically hungry.”
He made some suggestions of actions to be taken on the international level, but also highlighted how “ordinary people” can help by reducing food loss and waste, and by changing their diets to include more seasonal food and fewer high polluting products.
He pointed to St. Therese of Lisieux for her example that “every small gesture of care counts” and noted that the pandemic has shown “we do not need as many things as we think. We can do more with less.”
Aloysius John, secretary general of Caritas Internationalis, the largest Catholic global aid network, said: “as the Holy Father told us, at this tragic moment of human history I want the Church to be present through the work of charity and if you do not do it who will do it?”
Catholic Relief Services has begun a campaign to head off the food crisis.
Called Lead the Way on Hunger, the effort will address how the agency and the Catholic Church worldwide is responding to the needs of the people who are unable to access sufficient amounts of nutritious food.
"There's an urgency right now," Sean Callahan, CRS president and CEO, said in introducing the campaign during a teleconference May 14.
He said millions of people cannot afford nutritious food because they have been out of work since the start of the sweeping pandemic, while others are unable to purchase seed as the planting season begins in many parts of the world.
Citing a World Food Program report that projects more than a quarter billion people -- nearly double the current amount -- will experience acute hunger by the end of the year, Callahan said the church is called to respond to the needs of "our brothers and sisters" who are facing a crisis.
The Global Report on Food Crises 2020 said 265 million people in low- and middle-income countries face a severe threat of hunger unless the world swiftly responds to the pandemic. Currently one in nine people, about 135 million, experience acute hunger.
Callahan said while there may be plenty of food around the world, access to it is being severely restricted because of the pandemic.
"Pope Francis has called all of us to respond," Callahan said. "He said we have two choices: turn inward or reach outward and be open outward. The church is on the front line right now. As you know, the church never closed. It didn't stop assisting in the U.S., it didn't stop pastoral outreach and it didn't stop overseas."
Catholic News Service contributed.