A week or so ago a bushel of wheat reached a record $20 on the Minneapolis Grain Exchange. This is 5 times the price of a year ago when a bushel of wheat cost only $4. Wheat is a core agricultural product. Its spiralling cost means that basic food stuffs like bread, cakes, and even your office lunch are now more expensive than they were just a year ago. Wheat is also a key ingredient in animal feed – this means that meat is also more expensive now than it was twelve months ago.

Last month the UN World Food Programme raised the alarm when it announced that unless it can raise an extra $500 million to compensate for spiralling food prices, they may have to ration their aid to individuals, or worse – cut back on sorely needed projects.

In the week before the beginning of Lent I made some calls to the WFP and learned that for the money I spend each week on meat in our grocery order, our household can feed five families! Talk about having one’s conscience pricked! In the Sermon on the Plain, Jesus warns those of us who “have” – “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. But woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry” (Lk. 6.24-5). Lent is the time that we refresh our memory as to our responsibility to others, and seek new ways of being charitable. While I know that for most regular readers this is Eastertide, I invite us all to take a moment and donate your lunch money, or your weekly Starbucks bill, or meat order to the World Food Program by clicking here now.