Hungry experience worst year ever?

The US Conference on Mayors released their Hunger study a few weeks ago and it looks bleak. Emergency food assistance increased an average of 18 percent in the cities surveyed, with a record number of first time requests. Those of you working in hunger already know- this is going to be a rough year! Pass the word, pass the hat and help out today! Take a look at the Food Research and Action Center's (FRAC) overview of the hunger report.

Coach of the Denver Broncos, Mike Shanahan, promotes the CROP Hunger Walk

Coach Mike Shanahan recently made a Public Service Announcement encouraging people to get involved with CROP Walk. He is offering an autographed CROP t-shirt to the person who raises the most money for world hunger in Colorado!! Take a look...

Call your senator right now!

Bread for the World's letter writing campaign this year is for the Global Poverty act. Congress is considering their action RIGHT NOW! Here is a great video about how to easily make a call to your Senator.


Global Poverty Act from Matthew McAllister on Vimeo.

Make your call today- we need them to co-sponsor this bill. For more information click here!
http://www.bread.org/take-action/call-congress-today.html

Zambia and Central Presbyterian

How lucky we are! Churches in our Presbytery have had several trips to Africa planed. Yuma Presbyterian sent folks to Milawe, 1st Presbyterian Ft Collins will be sending folks soon...and perhaps others that I don't know about.

I am privileged to be part of the team going to Zambia this week, and I look forward to working with the Chawama Church whose members are very active in caring for AIDs orphans. In the country of Zamiba it is estimated that one out of every six people is living with HIV/AIDS. In 2005 98,000 people died of AIDs; in that same year it was estimated that there were 710,000 AIDs orphans in the country.

Saturday the team of Cindy Garcia, Glenn Perica, Ken White, Diane Kirkpatrick and myself met to sort and pack the generous supplies donated for the AIDs oprhans and their school. The next step is packing our own gear and departure this Thursday May 8th. Please follow along with us on our trip. We'll plan to share stories and pictures here on this site (as technology permits).

Karamu Ringera- International Peace Initiatives

Dr. Karamu Ringera, Kenya, founder of the International Peace Initiatives spoke to students at Silver Creek High School 4/21/08. Here are some notes:

Free Rice- It really works!

Most of you have seen the Internet phenomenon "free rice" by now. Not only does it teach new vocabulary, but it actually donating rice to needy countries.

By learning new vocabulary, users earn grains of rice as points. When you get the correct answer, you get the sponsors of the Free Rice site donate 20 grains of rice

John Breen, game inventor, set it up so that the rice is distributed through the UN’s World Food

Program. As of April 14th 2008 almost 26.5 TRILLION grains of rice were donated to needy countries. Click here to see a short video how free rice reaches Bangladesh.

Now don't think this is all easy stuff- the vocabulary is set up with 45 levels of difficulty and new words are being added all the time in order to make it challenging or easier. The site states that they are on the hunt to find the hairiest and most difficult words in the English language! They are also looking to add easy words, medium words and all the other words you might ever want to know. In short, they do not want you to run out of vocabulary to learn anytime soon... :)

So- play on! Enjoy the game. You can always click on the new FREE RICE picture on the left side!

Peacemaking Conference

Registration is now open online for

2008 Presbyterian Peacemaking Conference

Sowing Mustard Seeds: Working for God’s Justice — Confronting Poverty

This is a terrific opportunity for you and your family to explore and participate in unwinding the multiple issues that perpetuate poverty in our communities and the world.

Check out this conference July 15-19th at Chapman University. Click here for more information!

ECO Palms!

Did you know:
* Approximately 300 million palm fronds are consumed in the United States annually.
* A congregation of 1,250 members orders approximately 700 fronds for Palm Sunday services.
*Eco-palms are purchased directly from harvesters at 5 to 6 times the normal payment per frond.
*Your purchase of eco-palms helps improve standards of living and protect forests.

Several churches in our Presbytery used Eco Palms for their celebration of Palm Sunday this year. What a great way to show your purchasing practices to support the world community!

For more information visit: ECO PALMS

Want to be part of the solution? Or....

Souper Bowl!

The Super Bowl is almost here...and now is the time to begin planning for your own "celebrations" to help hungry people on or around February 3rd.

Your church can participate in two ways:
#1. On or near NFL Super Bowl Sunday, students of Presbyterian churches join others in their communities in asking their members to donate money or food to those in need.

#2. Sometime before the big game- your students can participate in a Service Blitz, doing volunteer work at your choice of charities. An hour or an afternoon- doing just about any project that can help hungry people. Most importantly- it helps teach your students the importance of reaching out to help others in your community!

For more information go to Souper Bowl of Caring website, or contact me!

Farm Bill is here...

Thanks go out to so many of you who studied the farm bill and contacted your congressman about this important piece of legislation. As many of you know, all reform amendments were defeated late last week, including the Grassley/Dorgan amendment.

So, Holly H from Bread Blog asks...Where do we go from here? She has a couple of suggestions that are worth pursuing:

1) Learn more about how your member of congress voted and why.

2) Take Action. Get Fired Up!
Send your senators holiday cards, either expressing your gratitude for their support of a fair farm bill or expressing your disappointment that they blocked much-needed reforms that would have benefited hungry people. (Here is a release from David Beckman- is your senator on the list?)

Farm Bill mark up

Here is some information from Matt Newell-Ching, Western Regional Organizer from Bread for the World.

...there’s a good likelihood that a farm bill committee markup will take place next Wednesday, 10/23. Our analysts in DC are working hard to figure out the specifics of the plan and what kinds of recommendations we would like to see, and what kind of pressure we’ll need to put on Senators Salazar, Baucus, and Crapo (and other Ag Committee Members). So for now, ...feel free to keep making phone calls with message of reform, and expect to hear soon about what specific proposals we may be calling about. The 800 number is still active: 800-826-3688.

SO- Ask Senators Salazar and Nelson to reform the farm bill in the committee to:

• provide a safety net for all farmers-not just those who grow program crops,
• adequately fund vital needs in nutrition programs, rural development and conservation.

Look for more information at the upcoming Presbytery meeting!

CROP Walk successes!

The front range and Nebraska have completed several CROP walks in recent weeks. My son Alex and I were able to attend the BOULDER crop walk with some folks from Longmont Central Presbyterian Church. The walk raised over $43,000 with only 270 walkers this year. Would love to hear how the other walks did- please leave me a comment so we can all find out! I hope you were amazingly successful!

More CROP info...

The 22nd Annual Boulder CROP Walk will be held October 14th with a 1:15 registration and 2pm start.

This year's goal is to to exceed 450 walkers and $50,000.

Benefits will go to Community Food Share, Church World Service and Bread for the World.

For more information on signing up to walk, contact Suzanne Dysard, 303-530-0411, cropwalksuz@att.net

If you have more information about any of the other front range walks- please contact Phil Goerner so he can post here! Thanks!

CROP Walks- Fall is here!

Our churches all have a tremendous opportunity to participate in CROP WALKS to help the hungry! Check it out-

Boulder October 14
Broomfield September 29
Estes Park September 29
Fort Collins October 7
Greeley October 6
LaSalle October 6
Alliance third week in October
Loveland April 1
Windsor October 7

One of the most effective ways for us to help hungry people is to participate in a Crop Walk. This is a fund-raising effort that supports hunger locally, and the relief and development effort of Church World Service nationally and worldwide. Church World Service has long been a first responder to worldwide disasters, pouring immediate aid and relief to victims and those suffering. Additionally, Church World Service remains in disaster stricken areas for years helping to rebuild and lend emotional and financial support to victims. Church World Service is also involved in in other programs too. Please read more about it Church World Service. Also- here are some frequently asked questions.

For more information about how to sign up to participate about these CROP Hunger walks, please contact the Rocky Mountain Church World Service office at 1-888-297-2767.

The farm bill passed the House in late July, and now moves on to the Senate.

Your letters provided insight and (possibly) pressure to force congressional leaders to add provisions to the bill that increase funding for nutrition and conservation programs that will help hungry people and promote environmental stewardship.

Now we have a great opportunity to contact our senators to encourage them to strengthen the bill. There are still many steps in the process of finalizing this legislation. Major farm bill decisions remain to be made in the Senate.

A number of good things have happened-Including the call from the PCUSA Stated Clerk (Clifton Kirkpatrick) joining in a call for farm bill reform.

But we still need your help. Contact your Senator and urge them to take a crucial step in ending hunger over and above what the House bill did.

Please contact me for more information.

Without our voice, Congress would not have given serious consideration to the need for reforms in the farm bill.

Seeds for Change...

Wow- the boys and I are here at the Bread for the World Seeds gathering! Pretty inspiring so far. There are almost a dozen folks here from Colorado- Ft Collines, Durango, Littleton, Longmont, Mead and more! Some great stories - that are being told on the Bread for the World Blog (campus bread) and pictures can be found on Flickr!

My favorite of the day was the afternoon session with SN Hagel (NE) and Harold E Ford Jr. What great gentlemen they are- strong public servants who are advocates for those suffering from poverty and hunger. I'll write more later too!

National Cathedral tomorrow- for the Interfaith Convocation on Hunger. What a conference!

Umuntu Ngamuntu Ngabantu !

The importance of Mothers...
I was preparing for a children's sermon at my home church and the scripture chosen for Mother's day was 2 Timothy 1:4-12. I was rereading vr 5- "I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you."
While researching, I ran across an article by Lamin Sanneh, professor of missions and world Christianity and history at Yale Divinity School. In his paper Naming and the Act of Faith he talks about the critical way our faith is passed from others to us, and connects us as people.
He describes a Bantu proverb Umuntu, ngamuntu, ngabanu - a person is a person because of other persons. "Faith connects us with others" Sanneh says. So when we work with hunger we are profoundly impacting our fellow Christians.
In my work with hunger, I have seen a lot of actions of faith. Speaking truth to power, caring for those suffering injustice and feeding the hungry. If we were Timothy's family, what types of examples of faith would we be showing our grandchildren's children?

Farm Bill update

This year's emphasis for our Public Policy work is to urge our senators and representatives to improve our nation's farm policy so that it better serves hungry people.

Already, our letters and phone calls are working. Bread For the World Regional Organizer Matt Newell-Ching reports that:

Thanks to our communication with our leaders, an Senators Dodd (D-CT) and Smith (R-OR) proposed an amendment to increase the International Affairs budget which would increase the amount of resources available for poverty-focused assistance. This added amendment is a critical one and was supported by over 1,000 phone calls from folks working hard for the hungry.

Let's keep it up! ~HAE

Souper Bowl of Caring update...

Many churches were able to participate in the Souper Bowl of Caring this year. This is an opportunity to collect funds for hungry people and support local mission. A complete report will be presented at Presbytery. But here is a list of participating churches this year. (almost double from last year!)

Central Presbyterian
Milliken Presbyterian
1^st Presbyterian Berthoud
1^st United Loveland
Mountain View Presbyterian Church
Community Church of the Rockies
United Presbyterian Church of the Apostles
1^st Presbyterian Boulder
Westminster Presbyterian Church
Family of Christ Presbyterian Church
Weldon Valley Presbyterian Church
1^st Presbyterian Church Sterling
1^st Presbyterian Church Akron
United Church of Broomfield
1^st Presbyterian Boulder (Children’s ministry)
St Andrews Presbyterian Church
Nederland Community Presbyterian Church

If your church participated, but is not listed- please post your results on the Souper Bowl of Caring website. You can also contact your Hunger Action Enabler. Thanks for all your efforts!