hunger

Hello All!

Well, we made it to the end! The 30-Hour Famine was a success (in my opinion at least). 22 youth and 4 adult participants from four area churches gave up eating for 30 hours so others could eat! I hope to tell more specifics in the days to come about our experience. But for now, here are some highlights:

Anne Miller and Jon Whited making our “Tribe:Haiti” experience come to life a little more by sharing stories from their trips to Haiti.
Celebrating Jon’s birthday on Friday night with a candle put straight on a plate (since we couldn’t eat anything) and then with the treats his parents brought for dessert when we broke our fast this evening.
Lots of laughter and games!
Going door-to-door collecting food, coats, and blankets for those in need. (Yes, in the wind and the snow).
Later in the day, a man showed up at church with 7 more blankets that he wanted to donate to our collection for people to keep warm this winter.
We left some of the food we collected to the First Trinity Food Pantry and then took nearly 70 extra pounds of food to the Food Bank of WNY where we toured their warehouse and learned more about those in need around our area.
The Canfield Family cooked us an awesome spaghetti supper to break our fast and helped clean everything up!

Thanks to everyone who helped out and especially a big thanks to all the youth participants who gave up their time, money, and food for 30 hours so others can have what they need. You’re AWESOME!

According to the American Community Survey, Buffalo is the third poorest large city in America.

Across the state, 2.3 million residents rely on emergency food assistance each year. That breaks down to about 570,000 different people turning to emergency food programs for weekly help in the state of NY. (From “Hunger in America 2010. Feeding America.”) Hunger isn’t just something that impacts people in all those “other” countries around the world. People in America, people in our own neighborhoods, suffer from hunger everyday.

This weekend at the 30 Hour Famine, participants will have a chance to make an impact in our own community. Through one of the activities, students will collect non-perishable food items, water, and blankets/coats. With the items collected, we will restock what is needed in the First Trinity Food Pantry. Saturday afternoon the participants will be going to the Food Bank of Western New York. Here we will donate the rest of the food collected, get a tour and hear more about hunger in WNY. The Food Bank of Western New York works with around 400 member agencies in four counties to distribute food to those in need. These 400 agencies serve over 96,000 people, 39% of whom are children and 11% of whom are seniors. Any blankets or coats we collect will be given to area agencies to hand out to people who need some extra warmth this winter.

Please continue to pray for the 30 Hour Famine this weekend. I also invite you to get involved in this fight against hunger in WNY. Here are some ideas of how to help:

Bring non-perishable food to church (and give it to Bekah) between now and Saturday morning. What we don’t need at the First Trinity Food Pantry will be taken to the Food Bank of WNY.
Every time you go grocery shopping, by one extra non-perishable food item and donate it to a Food Pantry like the one we have at First Trinity.
Get connected by volunteering your time serving at places like the the Food Bank of WNY , Friends of Night People, or other food related agencies in the area. A group from First Trinity goes every other month to serve at Friends of Night people. Click here (and scroll down the page a little) to get connected with that group.

Tag: hunger

Hunger in WNY