Why I don’t buy 48 cans of soup for $5.00 for Souper Bowl Sunday

Beginning in 2011, I’ve consciously bumped our tithe to 11%, by adding in 1% for food for the Lutheran Food Pantry, although I’d been donating groceries to the LSS box from time to time. This amounts to about $9.50/week, and if you’ve been to the store lately, you know that doesn’t buy much. That’s 4 cans of Progresso Soup, and 2 boxes of Ralston cereal, medium size at Marc’s, a no-frills supermarket.

So why not contribute $5.00 for 48 cans of soup to the Food Pantry which will buy them at the Mid-Ohio Food Bank in Columbus?

Here’s why. 1) I’ve already paid for that food through the USDA’s programs buying food to be processed by companies it contracts with. The acronym is TEFAP, The Emergency Food Assistance Program. The USDA buys the food, including processing and packaging, and ships it to the States which work out details of administration and distribution. The States select local organizations that either directly distribute to households, or serve meals, or distribute to other local organizations like LSS that perform these functions. Our Food Bank is also supported by foundations, non-profits, and donations which receive tax breaks. The quality is nutritious and meets government standards, but it’s not competitive with the brands you would buy at your local supermarket. They are below “house brand” quality. Subconsciously, you know that food processed in this way is actually more expensive in the long run. In 2010 the government food distribution program was $692,900,000. And they were asking government employees to beat the bushes because a lot of the food goes unclaimed.

2) When I pay $1.25 per can for Hearty Tomato Progresso Soup and donate it I’m more in touch with the family who will consume it, and I think that's closer to Jesus’ Matthew 25 idea of how to meet him in person. We meet him physically in the Eucharist and in service. What a wonderful opportunity.

3) And finally, when I purchase something at a local supermarket I’m circulating my tithe. I am indirectly paying the investor, the owner, the staff (many low income part-timers like students, disabled and elderly), my local community’s taxes, the trucking company that transported it, the local utilities, the processor, the box company, the graphic designers, printers and marketers who advertise the product, etc. Although the local, state and federal governments do purchase some of these items in TEFAP, the money has to run through so many fingers from my hand to DC and back again to Columbus to get to the poor, it becomes very inefficient and is the reason that the War on Poverty was already lost before the first shot was fired in the 1960s.

So, that’s why I buy 4 cans for $5.00 instead of 48. It’s actually cheaper and more spiritually fulfilling.