Foundation Journal

I spoke with John Jones today about the food assistance programs at his organization. He’s the pastor of Faith in Christ Fellowship in Oak Grove, Missouri, which is a rural town of 8000 people just east of suburban Blue Springs near I-70. The organization started with a toiletry pantry, providing personal, household and cleaning supplies, but added food items in partnership with Harvesters food bank. He said they focused on toiletry items because he did not think the need for food was that great. Faith in Christ Fellowship serves 80 families each week, when they once only opened the pantry once a month. He’s noticed an increase in the number of visitors, especially low-income families whose income has not recovered with the end of the recession. He pointed out that people in the lower income levels have not seen their income return to pre-recession levels like many people in the top income brackets. According to US Census figures Oak Grove has a per capita income rate that is $6000

Rural Life Day conference speakers and participants shared a large collection of books and films focused on food production and sustainability. These resources supported the presentations and topics discussed during the 2013 Rural Life Day in Jefferson City, Missouri . Books Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty by Mark Winne Beacon Press, 2009 The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan Penguin, 2007 The Good Food Revolution: Growing Healthy Food, People, and Communities by Will Allen Gotham, 2012 Cornered: The New Monopoly Capitalism and the Economics of Destruction by Barry C. Lynn Wiley, 2011 Slaughterhouse Blues: The Meat and Poultry Industry in North America by Donald D. Stull, Michael Broadway Cengage Learning, 2012 Foodopoly: The Battle Over the Future of Food and Farming in America by Wenonah Hauter The New Press, 2012 The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michae

The annual Rural Life Day in Jefferson City, Missouri was held December 7 at the Alphonse J. Schwartze Memorial Catholic Center with keynote presentations from Prof. Marie George of St. John’s University and Mike Callicrate. The conference focused on sustainability and ethics of food, farming and ranching. Rural Life Day was organized by Catholic Charities of Northwest and Central Missouri, an organization that started two years ago. The small group I traveled with from Kansas City drove to the conference starting at daybreak driving along state highway 50. East of Sedalia the road changes from a four-lane divided highway to two lanes to Jeff City. During this part of the trip the road winds through picturesque hilly farmland.  It's an area that has supported farming and food production for generations. This is the same route my Dad took when he worked part-time for a chicken ranch in high school in the early 1940s, riding a train from Sedalia to St. Louis, watering chickens