"You Can Eat by Your Watch"

When I served as an International Worker with The Alliance in Niger, West Africa, navigating the Fulani culture of food was often an interesting challenge. When you arrive at someone's house, you are automatically served water and often, especially at certain religious or cultural celebrations, an offer of food was given as well. The offer of food could range from popcorn, deep fried grasshoppers, dates, a bowl of green beans at harvest, fried sheep intestines, to a bucket of rice or a full platter with an entire meal of rice and sauce! This cultural practice often provided some of my most challenging moments over the years. Most often when I was either not hungry at the time food was offered … or during religious celebrations when I would visit upwards of six homes in three hours - and each offered the full platter option, of which I was expected to eat like I had not yet eaten that day!

One day I arrived at my friend Amy’s¹ house and she dished up a platter of rice and sauce for us to eat. I ate a portion from the platter; however, at her insistence that I eat more, I explained that I was not hungry because I had eaten before I left my home. She then declared a cultural observation that caught my attention:

          'You can eat by your watch. We Africans are different, if there is food,

My language tutor clarified this statement further to explain that most Nigeriens “will eat when food is available, because you do not know when or if food will be available again.”

This caused me pause … to think: the wealth I have affords me the privilege of eating by the clock. I do not need to eat every time food is offered to me, because I know at my house there is food I can cook later when I am hungry. Around the world there still remains a gap between those who can eat based on the clock and those who eat, or don’t, based on availability.

The United Nations State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2025² reports that:

• It is estimated that between 638 and 720 million people, corresponding to 7.8 and 8.8 percent of the global population, respectively, faced hunger in 2024.

• About 2.3 billion people in the world (~ 28%) are estimated to have been moderately or severely food insecure in 2024.

• Globally, about one-third of children aged 6 to 23 months and two-thirds of women aged 15 to 49 years achieved minimum dietary diversity.

• “Food insecurity is on the rise in Africa” and falling or gradually decreasing in all other regions. “Globally and in almost every region, food insecurity is more prevalent in rural areas than in urban areas and affects more women than men.”

As workers with The Alliance Canada go into all the world, they are ambassadors sharing the hope of Jesus where people haven't yet heard about him. In many of these places, they also bring the hope of bread to areas where access to food is difficult, and people need support to survive.

One organization that The Alliance Canada partners with, in the hope of bringing bread to those in need, is the Canadian Foodgrains Bank. The Canadian Foodgrains Bank was started in 1974 as a grassroots initiative for Canadian farmers to share their crops (grain) with the country of Bangladesh which was facing a famine that same year. ‘This grassroots initiative to send Canadian grain to people in need was the catalyst for nearly 50 years of humanitarian efforts, and we invite you to join the tradition.’³

Now today, the Canadian Foodgrains Bank is a partnership of 15 member agencies (church and parachurch agencies) and they support programs implemented by these members and their partners around the world. As a partner of the Foodgrains Bank, The Alliance Canada has a member account in this bank – and donors across the country can help contribute in a variety of ways: farmers donating crop proceeds, urban dwellers becoming virtual farmers to support growing projects, churches or farming communities starting a growing project. The Alliance Canada also has an account for “Food Aid” which enables our projects and workers to offer food assistance to those in need, training in sustainable agricultural farming, small business endeavours, and many more projects which address food insecurity.

The Alliance Canada uses our CFGB funds to partner with our International Workers and likeminded non-governmental organizations in Africa and the Middle East – bringing food aid in both emergency relief and combining food aid with long-term sustainable change. When The Alliance Canada and its partners are providing food aid in numerous countries to meet these needs:

• we are meeting the vision 2034 question: What if twice as many people were lifted from poverty?⁴

• we are meeting the vision of Isaiah, who wrote:

         if you pour yourselves out for the hungry

         and your gloom be as the noonday (Isaiah 58:10, ESV)

• we are meeting the vision of Christ, who exhorted His followers to give food to the hungry and drink to those who thirst (Ref: Matthew 25: 31-45)

And what is hope … whether it be the Word of the Good News and/or the deeds of the Good News … but light rising in the face of darkness until the gloom that shadows becomes as the noonday!

As I sit and write this story – I see my clock will soon chime the hour for supper today, and I am reminded of the 'grains' in my cupboard: rice, quinoa, millet, barley, oats. As you read this story, I beg the question: Do you eat by the clock? If so, would you join us in prayer for those in need around the world; and consider joining in deed … to pour of ourselves to satisfy the hunger of those afflicted, to whom the clock does not bring food?

_________

Notations: 

¹name changed

² UN statistics:

FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO. 2025. The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2025 – Addressing high food price inflation for food security and nutrition. Rome. https://doi.org/10.4060/cd6008en

³ CFGB quote: https://foodgrainsbank.ca/get-involved/community-and-growing-projects/

⁴ https://thealliancecanada.ca/vision