During the latter
half of each year, the Missions & Social Concerns Committee asks
Friends to focus attention and resources upon one Friends United
Meeting missions location (for July - December 2007, Ramallah
Friends Schools in Palestine and July-December 2008 Friends meetings
and work in Cuba). For the first half of 2008,
the Committee calls upon Friends to learn about -- and address in
new ways -- the growing problem of food insufficiency at all levels
of society.
Global: According to Bread for the World, over 850 million of the earth's people do not get enough calories, even though the world's farmers produce more than enough food for everyone. Half of the deaths of children are due to malnutrition; in 2005, six million kids under age 5 died of hunger-related causes.
National:
Eleven percent of US households
(35.5 million people) are food insecure. Across the country,
community food pantries are reporting increased demand, and that the
majority of their clients are employed but still cannot afford
adequate nutrition.
Local: Randolph County's Community Food Pantry served an average of 406 persons per month in 2007.
2) OFFER $2 (or whatever you can afford) each month, as the cost of the food you did not eat, to the Winchester Quarterly Meeting FOAM Fund at the church. That money will then be consolidated with other churches' FOAM donations to be sent to the local and global hunger-alleviating ministries the Quarterly Meeting will specify later this year.
3) ADVOCATE: Each month, each participant also is urged to send a brief letter or make a phone call to her/his US Representative or Senator(s) advocating for compassionate public policies that genuinely assist the poor. Sample letters and practical assistance for this can be found readily at Winchester Friends' Bread for the World "un-luncheon" (last Wednesdays, 12 Noon), or at the BFW website Bread For The World.
4) MEDITATE & PRAY: Spend 30 minutes (time you would have spent preparing and/or eating the meal you skipped) in intercessory prayer for people, in your own community and in far-flung places, who struggle to provide adequate nutrition for themselves and their families.
....If you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness.... The Lord will satisfy your needs.... and will strengthen your frame. (Isaiah 58:10,11)
Compassion Garden: Junior Youth kids plant seeds for tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers to be grown in the dirt strip between the Friends and Presbyterian parking lots. Donations from Friends for the vegetables grown there the past several summers have fully paid the education expenses (including nutritional support) for a young Compassion International girl in Africa, sustaining her during her school years and equipping her for a more productive adulthood.
The Poverty Diet: Several years ago, an interfaith coalition in Virginia created a novel way to help Americans to better appreciate the dilemma faced by those who need outside assistance in order to adequately feed their families. They challenged politicians, churchgoers, and others to live on an average Food Stamp budget for three days. Currently in Indiana, that would mean spending no more than $3.30 per person per day on food (605,377 Hoosiers received $61,641,372, about $102 per person, for November 2007). The Missions & Social Concerns Committee is working on ways to help interested Friends to try the Poverty Diet for three days this spring. Stay tuned!