The Farmers' Market in the Fellowship Hall

For three consecutive Januarys, New Hope Community Church organized a twenty-one-day corporate fast. Members posted devotionals on Instagram, gathered for nightly prayer meetings, and journaled about spiritual breakthroughs. But the nearest grocery store to their church on Martin Luther King Boulevard had closed eighteen months earlier. The corner bodegas sold cigarettes and lottery tickets, not fresh produce. Grandmothers in the congregation's own neighborhood rode two buses to buy collard greens.

In year four, Pastor Linda canceled the corporate fast. Instead, she read Isaiah 58 aloud on a Sunday morning and asked one question: "What if the fast the Almighty wants is the one that feeds our neighbors?" By February, the fellowship hall hosted a weekly farmers' market — local growers selling at cost, volunteers from the congregation running a kids' nutrition class in the Sunday school rooms. Within a year, a community garden sprouted in the vacant lot behind the church.

Isaiah's ancient promise became concrete on MLK Boulevard: "Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings." The Most High never asked for empty stomachs. He asked for open hands.