Bishop Cedrick D. Bridgeforth offers a timely message of compassion and action as the federal government shutdown begins to affect families across the Greater Northwest and beyond. Pastoral leaders are encouraged to share this message with their congregations as a call to open hearts and respond to community needs.

Transcript: “If you open your heart to the hungry, and provide abundantly for those who are afflicted, your light will shine in the darkness.”  Isaiah 58:10

The prophet Isaiah wrote these words more than 2,700 years ago, yet they speak to us today as our nation’s government shutdown begins to impact more lives in tangible ways.

Because of the shutdown, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which we call SNAP, those benefits will be disrupted in the coming days. This assistance, which many still refer to as “food stamps,” provides nine meals for every meal served at a food bank.

Millions of families across the country, including many across the Greater Northwest, will soon struggle to put food on their tables. For some, this loss comes on top of already rising costs for groceries, housing, and utilities.

This disruption will be especially hard on immigrant and ethnic communities, where many families already live on the edge. They live with fear and uncertainty.

And already, we are seeing stories on the news of food banks being overrun by families anticipating the loss of SNAP benefits, and parents are worried about how they will feed their young children.

While we cannot solve this crisis alone, we can respond with compassion and creativity in our own neighborhoods. The impact of this shutdown will be felt locally, in schools, at food banks, and even within our congregations.

That’s why I’m encouraging our churches and ministries to look around and ask, “How can we show up for our neighbors right now?”

Here are a few ways to begin:

• We can give generously. Support your church’s outreach ministries or local partners who provide food and shelter. Even small gifts make a difference. Whether you donate a $1, $5, $10 or $10k–all of them move us closer to everyone having food and shelter.
• You can show up. You can volunteer where help is needed most—many meal programs, food pantries, and shelters are already experiencing great demand.
• Check on one another. Reach out to neighbors and church members who may be struggling quietly. Listen, encourage, and connect with them to help.
• Collaborate locally. Work with nearby congregations and community groups to share resources and avoid duplication of effort.
• Speak out. Contact your representatives and senators and ask, no demand, them to take swift action to restore funding to this critical program. And for anyone who says doing so is being political, tell them, “No, it is being humane. It is being compassionate. It’s honoring the dignity of every human being.”

For when we open our hearts and provide abundantly to those in need, we testify to the love we know that God has for us all. So may we be a light in this current darkness, ready partners in meeting real needs, guarding dignity, and restoring hope.

So I remind you again of the words from the Prophet Isaiah:

“If you open your heart to the hungry, and provide abundantly for those who are afflicted, your light will shine in the darkness.”