“Hunger is not an issue of charity. It is an issue of justice.” — Jacques Diouf

“Find out how much God has given you and from it take what you need; the remainder is needed by others.” ~ Saint Augustine

• NOTE: WARM Cafe (Welcoming All Regardless of Means) is 100% community based. A lot of Wake Forest Presbyterian Church people are involved, but the project is an inter-faith initiative with deep secular and business buy-in.

Where to begin? It is early Friday morning and I am sitting out on our friends’ porch with Max, sipping my first cup of coffee and looking out over Lake Royale, enjoying the clear morning air and processing Thursday’s exciting evening with so many friends.

Rebekah and I drove over yesterday – at the invitation of our friends and hosts, Resi and Keith Thomas – so that we could participate in a combination celebration and fundraiser for an innovative Wake Forest hunger-ministry initiative that is, we believe, exactly the right idea at the right time.

Innovative and Inclusive:

There are many ways to address food insecurity, from sending backpacks of supplies home with children to handing out bags of groceries to a state-of-the-art community garden to lobbying for benefits and more – and our former church here is in the thick of it all…

WARM Cafe’s appeal is that it not only complements what is already in place, it also aims to chip away at some of the barriers that A) keep us from understanding one another and B) perpetuate the systemic inequities that created food insecurity to begin with.

I know, that sounds like a lot! But the simple idea of bringing people together around a common table goes so much deeper than providing a top-quality meal for someone who can’t afford a bag of chips, it goes to the heart of what it means – or what it potentially could mean – to live in community.

The event was a banquet and an auction attended by close to 300 enthusiastic, noisy, animated, committed people who support director Kevin Meese’s vision to see a permanent cafe in downtown Wake Forest, where community is built around better-than-good food, and where our common humanity is the only criteria for entrance and for service.

Such a positive “buzz” in the room!

For more than three hours Rebekah and I circled the room, engaging with more and more of the good people we needed to greet and hug and catch up with, talking until our voices were horse, and then finding still more people and realizing how completely blessed we are to know and to have known and to love so many faithful, committed, generous, Spirit-filled folk.

What a great event! So much love and so much joy and so much potential unleashed for the power of so much good.

Our souls are nourished. We are encouraged. This community is blessed – DEREK