Epworth UMC to sponsor Hunger - A Call to Action during October
Hunger is a part of everyday life for many people in the world, including the local Delmarva community. Right now there are millions of Americans who are struggling with hunger on a daily basis. These are often hardworking adults, children and seniors who simply cannot make ends meet and are forced to skip several meals or even go without food for several days.
Epworth United Methodist Church’s Missions Pathway will sponsor a variety of events in October providing a platform from which people become aware and educate themselves about the causes of hunger in America and throughout the world.
On Saturday, Oct. 5, from 8:30 a.m. to noon, Epworth’s Missions Pathway will host a Stop Hunger Now meal packaging program project. Stop Hunger Now was established in 1988 as an international hunger relief organization that coordinates the distribution of food and other lifesaving aid around the world. The meal packaging project is a volunteer-based effort through which participants package high-protein, dehydrated meals for use in crisis situations.
Through a fun and engaging assembly line process, teams of up to 40 volunteers can package 10,000 meals in just two hours. Volunteers of all ages will participate in this viable solution to combat hunger among the world's most impoverished. For more information about Stop Hunger Now, go to www.stophungernow.org.
Epworth will also offer its seasonal Food and Faith series Wednesdays in October, which includes a light supper beginning at 5:15 p.m. and more than seven class offerings conducted between 5:45 and 6:45 p.m. Sponsored by the Faith Development Pathway, several of these classes are geared specifically to hunger and will engage participants in a variety of ways, helping them experience what it means to live hungry.
Activities will range from sampling the Stop Hunger Now meals to exploring what the SNAP program offers a family, to participating in the poverty diet, whereby participants will experience the challenges of living on $4.50 a day for food. Several other non-hunger-related classes will also be offered. For more information, go to www.eumc.org, or call the church office at 302-227-7743.
On Sunday, Oct. 27, Epworth’s Social Justice Pathway will present the internationally renowned film, "A Place at the Table." This film shows how hunger poses strong social, economic and cultural implications for the nation, and how to solve the problem of hunger by deciding as a nation to make healthy food available and affordable. The film looks at food insecurity in America through the lens of three people struggling to feed their families and the implications of that challenge.
According to the Rev. Vicky Starnes, senior pastor, “Hunger cannot be solved just through our soup kitchen and food pantry efforts. We must, as members of the human race, step up and say 'No more hunger' and take action to make this happen. Hunger - A Call to Action - is the first step for us. Please join us at Epworth as often as you are able in October as we tackle this important issue of eradicating hunger once and for all.”
