Beware False Profits is a murder mystery in the series "Ministry is Murder." Yes, both the title of the book and the series are a bit punny. Still, if you are a) a minister; b) a minister's spouse or partner; or c) a person who secretly delights in the foibles of the ministerial, loves murder mysteries and combines that with a foodie spirit, this book is for you. It even has a bit of drag done sympathetically and well, even if. . . . well, my yearning to avoid plot spoiling prevents me from going further. This book is a fun read by Emilie Richards who also wrote a mystery with the title Blessed are the Busybodies which I have not read but which is in the running for best title ever. She has written loads of other novels, but this is a newish series for her.
One aspect of this mystery is a food bank. So, beyond keeping me up way too late -- and furnishing a bit of down time for me -- Beware False Profits led me to thinking about food banks and soup kitchens. Not, I know, the same, but still. Both are indeed about providing food for the hungry, a topic which I have been thinking about lately. Of course, by food banking I do not mean hording food like some cartoon miser but creating a way to warehouse and/or collect food for distribution to help with hunger caused by economic or other disenfranchisement. In some ways, this is about food responsibility. Or, to use other words -- decreasing food waste. (in other ways, of course, it does not fix the underlying problems.Oh well. Then again, neither does does food blogging -- and I even know what repressive desublimation is.)
Anyway, the web provides a plethora of information on food banks, perhaps the most important being how to find them! (Try clicking
here. And then worry, as I did, when you enter your zip code in and discover there are no food banks in your zip code. Turns out the American Second Harvest organization located at this site is a membership organization --and may not list every single food bank in the universe. It is, though, a network of 200-ish organizations which distributes "more than 2 billion pounds of donated food and grocery products annually.") If you, like me, are somewhat clueless but information gathering about hunger in America and elsewhere, check out the "Learning About Hunger" part of their web site by clicking
here. One set of facts which surprised me, for example, has to do with the prevalence of what the organization calls "food insecurity" in the suburbs. If you are not sure what a food bank is, try handy dandy
wikipedia, as a start. This will lead you to such wonders as
Food Not Bombs (yes), and remind you about the
annual food drive undertaken by postal workers (even in Geneva, NY). Or you can check out the
Potato Project or the
Gleaning Network, both associated with the Society of Saint Andrew at
www.endhunger.org.
Of course, there are loads of other options. So, yes, you can give of your time, or donate food to food banks which also get food from various other sources. And, you can help to change the social structures of the world we co-create to help ensure that hunger is eradicated. In the mystery, the relevant food bank covers three counties, collects donations from grocery stores (e.g., near expiration but safe foods), and grows its own food at a community garden. In many ways, this non-profit sector is more complex than I could ever have imagined, including laws that seek to protect food banks from liability for the food they distribute. Who knew?
Anyway, you can also read Beware False Profits for fun. Because it does indeed feature a food bank as one of its main themes, it is quite a different food-related mystery from those which flaunt their gourmet decadence. Think repressive desublimation? Despite what I just wrote (and you just read), there is not a moralistic note in the book. And I liked it. You will too.