World Hunger Education

 

Welcome to the World Hunger Education Site.

Facts and ideas will change so check back for updates.

The 2008 Book of Discipline 632.4b(21) directs the Conference Board of Global Ministries “to support the United Methodist Committee on Relief’s World Hunger/ Poverty Ministry by encouraging annual conferences to appoint an annual conference hunger coordinator and form an annual conference hunger committee that relates to the annual conference board of global ministries.” Don and Caroline Kluver are the volunteer coordinators. You can contact them at cdklu@netscape.net – 712.732.7901 with your questions.

The Advance #982920 supports programs that address the root causes of hunger and poverty in the US and Africa, Asia and Pacific, Europe and Eurasia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Middle East. More than 854 million people in the world go hungry. In developing countries, nearly 16 million children die every year from preventable and treatable causes. Sixty percent of these deaths are from hunger and malnutrition. In the U.S., 11.7 million children have to skip meals or eat less to make ends meet. That means one in ten households in the U.S. is living with hunger or at risk of hunger.

The world produces enough food and we have the experience and the technology right now to end the problem. The challenge we face is not production, but distribution that is more equitable.

Poverty is the condition in which a person lacks the essentials for a minimum standard of life. Poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not having access to school and not knowing how to read. Poverty is not having a job, is fear for the future, living one day at a time. Half the world, nearly 3 billion people, lives on less than two dollars a day. 640 million have no adequate shelter. One in 7 has no access to health services. Every year, some 3.4 million people, mostly children, die from diseases associated with inadequate water supply, sanitation, and hygiene. In the developing world, 850 million people are illiterate; nearly two thirds of these are women. The U.S. could cut hunger in half within two years here at home and within two decades worldwide, for less than 7 cents per American, per day.

Every person is a beloved creature of God and thus has a basic human right to access food, shelter, water and sanitation, education, and health care, necessities for survival. Because all people are creatures of God, equally subject to God’s grace and claim, all are bound together in inseparable ties of solidarity. The task of trying to resolve the problem of hunger and poverty involves many layers of socio-economic and political structures and systems that may be difficult to influence or control. As a church that follows the teachings of Wesley and Christ, we have a responsibility to share the blessings that God has bestowed upon us. We must also be of a mind to do this sharing in the spirit of sacrifice rather than charity. Charity is giving out of one’s excess. Sacrifice is giving as Christ did when we ourselves may not have enough.

Our main goal is to eradicate hunger and cut poverty in half by 2015.

UMCOR (United Methodist Committee on Relief) works to help communities be self-reliant by providing training to farmers through the Sustainable Agriculture and Development (SA&D) program. They also partner with Foods Resource Bank (FRB), an ecumenical organization that helps farmers in the U.S. donate a share of their crops to raise money for small-holder agricultural development abroad. FRB provides vulnerable people with seeds, tools, small herd animals, building materials, rain catchers, training, and agriculture extension help.

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE, HAVE SOME FUN – go to http://freerice.com and win some rice. Take a quiz at www.worldhunger.org/contributefood.htm. Go to www.slicesofhope.pizzahut.com and see what they raised in 2012. Also http://www.universitiesfightingworldhunger.org can get your university working on helping the hungry.

SOUPER BOWL OF CARING is coming soon, on February 3, 2013. Organize your young people to develop a stronger connection to their communities by caring for their neighbors in need. It is the nation’s largest celebration of giving and serving: www.souperbowl.org.

FARMERS FEEDING THE WORLD: A CAMPAIGN BY AMERICAN AGRICULTURE TO FIGHT HUNGER – Farmers Feeding the World is an ongoing industry-wide campaign operated by the nonprofit Farm Journal Foundation to rally American agriculture for the war against hunger. They raise financial support for organizations already on the front lines in fighting global hunger and educate the general public about U.S. agriculture’s role in feeding a hungry world.

They have a goal to raise at least $20 million annually for charity and education through this campaign.

Individual donations and corporate sponsorships help fund their efforts. Heifer International and other world-class organizations aligned against hunger are the primary recipients of the funds.
Heifer is a global organization working to help end hunger and poverty in a sustainable manner, providing gifts of area-appropriate livestock and training in agricultural practices for families in need on five continents. Heifer lifts entire communities out of poverty by helping them to be self-reliant.

In addition to its website, Farmers Feeding the World has its own eNewsletter, plus a mobile exhibit that will make multiple appearances throughout the U.S. at venues where large consumer and farm audiences mix. The campaign has been promoted across television programs, magazines, newsletters, websites and live events, including all of Farm Journal’s 17 million monthly touch points with agriculture.

FEED THE CHILDREN - U.S. PROGRAMS – Food distributions impact 10,000,000 each year through partner agencies and distributions. They distribute backpacks to homeless students in U.S. public schools and school supplies and children’s books each year to help give a child a better future. They work closely with partner agencies to deliver supplies all over the country to help get victims of disasters back on their feet. Transportation picks up in-kind contributions from corporate warehouses and brings them back to Feed The Children regional distribution centers. 

INTERNATIONAL OUTREACH – Feeds children daily in 10 foreign countries. To right the threat of parasites – a major obstacle to conquering global hunger – Feed The Children has provided de-worming medication to treat 16 million children in 15 countries.

ARE YOU A SAVVY DONOR? – CHARITY SEARCH – Charity Search urges you not to respond to the first organization that appeals for help, realize that for-profit fundraisers (telemarketing) may keep a large portion or all of each dollar they collect, be careful of sound-alike names, and confirm their 501(c)(3) status. See their web site for more ideas: www.charitynavigator.org.

LINKS TO INFORMATION –
UMCOR – http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umcor/work/hunger/partners/
General Board of Church and Society – www.umc-gbcs.org
SELF HELP INTERNATIONAL – www.selfhelpinternational.org
HEIFER INTERNATIONAL – www.heifer.org
WORLD HUNGER NOTES – www.worldhunger.org/
Bread for the World – www.bread.org
Society of St. Andrew – www.endhunger.org
Global Ministries Mission News – http://new.gbgm-umc.org/
CARE International – www.care.org/
Catalytic Communities – www.catcomm.org/
Children’s Hunger Relief Fund – www.chrf.org/
Doctors Without Borders – www.msf.org/
Equal Exchange – www.equalexchange.com
Future Harvest – www.futureharvestcasa.org
The Hunger Site – www.thehungersite.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/CTDSites
InterAction – www.interaction.org/
International Center for Research on Women – www.icrw.org
The Microcredit Summit – www.microcreditsummit.org/
OXFAM – www.oxfam.org.uk
Seeds of Hope, Inc. – www.seedspublishers.org/
Trickle Up Program – www.trickleup.org/
UNICEF – www.unicefusa.org/
World Health Organization – www.who.int/en
World Hunger Year (WHY) – www.worldhungeryear.org
United Nations World Food Programme – www.wfp.org
World Neighbors – www.wn.org