Day 89: Compromised Progress

As the UN looks at progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) in New York this past week, it is clear that with just five years to go the hunger goal is the one most under threat. And yet addressing hunger is fundamental if the world is going to reach the other MDGs.

World Food Programme, naturally, is focused on MDG 1, the goal that aims to tackle poverty and hunger. The target as regards to hunger is to go from 20% of the world population hungry in 1990 to 10% by 2015.

According to the latest figures, we are now at 16%. There was fairly good progress up to the middle of the last decade but then the global food price crisis happened, followed by the financial crisis and then the global economic slowdown. These events have severely compromised progress. Read more here.

Day 89. Dollar 89. We pray, Lord, that progress continues toward reaching the goal of lowering the percentage of hungry people in our world.

Day 83: St. Matthew

September 21 is a day we remember Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist. A tax collector from Capernaum, Matthew was one of the 12 disciples of Jesus.

Since opening in 1988, St. Matthew's House of Naples, Florida has served over 2 million meals. Their mission: to change lives in a spiritual environment that is both compassionate and disciplined, as well as providing housing for the homeless and food for the needy. Read more here!

Day 83. Dollar 83. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Matthew 5:6

Day 76: Stop Hunger Now

Stop Hunger Now is an international hunger relief organization that coordinates the distribution of food and other life-saving aid around the world. The organization is driven by a vision to end world hunger in our lifetime and a mission to provide food and life-saving aid to the world’s most destitute and hungry in the most sustainable, efficient and effective manner. Read more today!

Day 76. Dollar 76. God of love, in your mercy, hear our prayer. Amen.

Day 69: Survive and Thrive

Feeding America food bank members help provide low - income individuals and families with the fuel to survive and even thrive. As the nation’s leading domestic hunger-relief charity, their network members supply food to more than 37 million Americans each year, including 14 million children and 3 million seniors.

Feeding America benefits from the unique relationship between our 202 local member food banks at the front lines of hunger relief and the central efforts of our national office. Read more!

Click here to view the Feeding America across the Nation - zoom in on a particular state to view the Food Banks and the areas they serve.

Day 69. Dollar 69. Gracious God, we thank you for those who work to provide millions of Americans with the food and nutrients they need to survive and thrive. Keep those still seeking food in your care and help us unite our efforts to help make a better life for those in need. Amen.

Day 62: Food in time of Flood

After floodwaters washed over her home in the Sindh district of southern Pakistan, Menaz and her family sought refuge in the Sukkur camp for flood victims where WFP is providing them with nutritionally enriched wheat to make bread, oil, and high-energy biscuits tailored to her children’s nutritional needs.

Read more about how Food Aid means fresh bread for Pakistani families by clicking here.

Day 62. Dollar 62. Eternal God, amid all the turmoil and changes of the world, your love is steadfast and your strength never fails. In this time of danger and trouble, be to us a sure guardian and rock of defense. Guide the leaders of all nations with your wisdom, comfort those in distress, and grant us courage and hope to face the future; through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen. (Additional Prayers, National Distress)

Day 55: Prescription Produce

The farm stand is becoming the new apothecary, dispensing apples — not to mention artichokes, asparagus and arugula — to fill a novel kind of prescription. Doctors at three health centers in Massachusetts have begun advising patients to eat “prescription produce” from local farmers’ markets, in an effort to fight obesity in children of low-income families. Now they will give coupons amounting to $1 a day for each member of a patient’s family to promote healthy meals. Click here to read the entire New York Times article.

Day 55. Dollar 55.

Directions: take one fruit/vegetable by mouth as needed

Caution: may cause need to repeat daily until all are fed

Common side effects: fullness in bellies, warmth in soul

Refills: unlimited

Day 48: End Poverty by 2015

End poverty by 2015. This is the historic promise 189 world leaders made at the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000 when they signed onto the Millennium Declaration and agreed to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs are an eight-point road map with measurable targets and clear deadlines for improving the lives of the world's poorest people. World leaders have agreed to achieve the MDGs by 2015. (Source: End Poverty 2015: About the Campaign)

Absorb the 8 goals.

Read the latest news.

Listen to the featured voices.

Find out how to be part of the solution.

Visit EndPoverty2015 today!

Day 48. Dollar 48. You may not have an entire country under your command, but Hunger Community, you are absolutely recognized as world leaders by those struggling right here in Denver. Thank you for working so diligently toward Goal #1: Ending Hunger and Extreme Poverty. God bless!

Day 41: A World without Hunger

"The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Serving both developed and developing countries, FAO acts as a neutral forum where all nations meet as equals to negotiate agreements and debate policy. FAO is also a source of knowledge and information. We help developing countries and countries in transition modernize and improve agriculture, forestry and fisheries practices and ensure good nutrition for all. Since our founding in 1945, we have focused special attention on developing rural areas, home to 70 percent of the world's poor and hungry people." (source: About FAO page)

Particular highlights:

• Hunger page
• Frequently asked questions about hunger
• Charts and graphics

Day 41. Dollar 41. We encourage you to take a moment to visit the website of the FOA and begin to absorb the global impact of hunger issues.

Day 34: Food Stamps

A program once scorned as a

failed welfare scheme now helps feed

one in eight Americans
and
one in four children.

Click here to read the article from the New York Times.

Be sure to check out the

interactive map

along the side of the article.

Day 34. Dollar 34.
We thank you for helping us stamp out hunger across the US.

Day 27: Feeding Hungry Children

WASHINGTON (ELCA) -- Nearly one in four American children are hungry, according to a report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Bishops and members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) are working together to fight hunger among children.

"Our job as the domestic caucus of the Conference of Bishops is to do our best to advocate for the hungry in America," said the Rev. James F. Mauney, bishop, ELCA Virginia Synod, Salem, and chair of the domestic caucus. In cooperation with the ELCA Washington Office, more than 34 of the ELCA's 65 synod bishops are participating in a nationwide movement to provide reliable and nutritious meals for hungry children, he said.

Mauney reported that his colleagues also urged other clergy and professional church workers and lay leaders to act.

Click here to read the entire press release from the ELCA.

Day 27. Dollar 27. How exciting to be part of a larger movement that helps feed our children!

Day 20: Seize the Opportunity

Bread for the World, Heifer International

Leaders Share World Food Prize
(excerpts from press release below)

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Leaders of two organizations focused on ending hunger and poverty worldwide -- Bread for the World and Heifer International -- are co-recipients of the 2010 World Food Prize, the foremost international award for food and agriculture, often compared to the Nobel Prize. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is a denominational partner with Bread for the World, and it is a covenant agency with Heifer International.
The Rev. David H. Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, Washington, D.C., and an ELCA pastor, and Jo Luck, president and chief executive officer of Heifer International, Little Rock, Ark., are the 2010 World Food Prize laureates, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced in Washington this past week.
Child nutrition programs are another initiative that people can urge their members of Congress to support. Because of the recession, 1 in 4 children in the U.S. do not have enough food to eat, Beckmann said.

"We need thousands of people to be moved by the Holy Spirit to be active in making these changes," he said.

Beckmann added that he is "proud and grateful" that Lutherans in the United States have been working actively for a long time to overcome hunger. He said he hopes the World Food Prize provides encouragement to Christians "to seize the opportunity to change the world now."

To read the entire press release

from the ELCA, click here!

Day 20. Dollar 20. We pray that the Holy Spirit is actively moving in your life as we mark the 20th day of our journey. We are blessed that you have indeed seized an opportunity to change the world by participating in Hunger Relief Day 10.10.10!

Day 13: Summer Lunches

Colorado Summer Lunch Program Pushing to Feed More Needy Kids

Summer lunches, especially for low-income kids, have been part of the federal school lunch program for 35 years. But this summer is the first time any Wiggins kid has tasted one. It might also be the first year many Colorado parents have known the program existed. View Full Story

Day 13. Dollar 13.

Thank you for reading about how we can provide food to children who need it.

Day 6: Root Causes of Hunger

Hunger is a reality around the corner and the globe. Hunger occurs when people do not get enough food, when people do not get the right food, and when people do not have enough resources to buy or grow food.

Six of the root causes of hunger:

1. Poverty - of the 6.7 billion people on the planet, 1 billion people live on less than $1 per day


2. Distribution - the biggest challenge to ending hunger is not the production of more food, but, instead, how to ensure equal access and equitable distribution


3. War - ongoing military conflicts force people from their land and restrict relief efforts


4. Poor infrastructure - lack of or little access to roads and transportation impede people's abilities to get to the food


5. Natural Disasters - those who depend on the land for survival are the most vulnerale when disaster strikes


6. Environment - people in poverty may find it harder to adapt to changing environmental conditions (Source: ELCA World Hunger)

Day 6. Dollar 6. Thank you for helping solutions take root!