Churches Take Part in Hunger Campaign

Sunday October 16

Today, World Food Day, 11 of the UK's leading charities working with people affected by hunger have combined forces for the first time, to launch a campaign that aims to end hunger in the UK.

Several Christian organisations are involved, and the launch comes at the end of the global Churches' Week of Action on Food. Churches everywhere have been taking action together to eradicate hunger, promote adequate nutrition, and strive towards just and sustainable food systems - supported by the World Council of Churches (WCC).

A recent report from the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation suggested that as many as 8.4 million people in the UK struggle to put enough food on the table, equivalent to the entire population of London.  

The charities behind the new End Hunger UK campaign work first-hand with thousands of local community groups and projects across the UK that support people affected by hunger, and while they believe the voluntary sector's support can be "life-changing", they say longer-term solutions are urgently needed to tackle the issue.

Speaking on behalf of the charities behind the campaign, Niall Cooper, Director at Church Action on Poverty, said: "You might imagine that in modern-day Britain we all have enough food to eat, or that hunger is only experienced by the few. Yet we see working parents missing meals so that their kids can eat, and vulnerable individuals turning to charities on a daily basis to get a meal. This is simply unacceptable.

"That's why we're calling for an urgent, national conversation about what needs to be done, by the Government and others, to ensure that children get the food they need to give them the best start in life, and that nobody in the UK needs to go hungry."

People affected by hunger, or with ideas about how the Government should tackle the issue, are being urged to add their voice to the campaign by joining End Hunger UK's 'Big Conversation' at www.endhungeruk.org, on social media using the hashtag #EndHungerUK, or at local charity and community group events being held across the UK, until March 2017.

The World Council of Churches has worship and action materials for the Churches' Week of Action on Food at www.oikoumene.org/en/press-centre/events/churches-week-of-action-on-food - including this prayer:

Good and gracious God,
You are gathering this community from across the earth,
asking us to pour out our lives on behalf of those who hunger.
For hope. For justice. For daily bread.

You are asking us to see the earth as you do,
So very, very good.
Trees with fruit, bursting with seed.
Green plants for food, for humans and for every living creature.
As a holy place for everything that breathes and to whom you have given life.

Yet we see the realities before us and it takes our breath away:  
Those whose bellies growl every day.
Those who consume more than their fair share.
Those who walk miles for clean water to drink.
Those whose gardens are demolished by corporations who lease land quietly and displace lives to make a profit.
Those whose farms have crashed under the weight of cheaper foods that undercut local prices by decisions made far away in trade agreements.
Those whose very lives are impoverished more by our globalising economies.

Breathe new life into us...
As a global community.
As local congregations.
As networks of committed people.
As individual souls, all unafraid.
For we see anew our depth, breadth and life.

Gather us together so that we may remind each other of your intent for this earth.
Gather us so that we may pour out our lives in Christ’s name, as Christ does, on behalf of those who hunger.
For hope. For justice. For daily bread.
So that it will be on earth as it is in heaven.
For now and for always.

Post Tags: hunger

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