NW END HUNGER UPDATE

Faith Action Network Update....partnering with LPPO

2011-11-22T09:01:00.001-08:00

An Update for the Synod Hunger Team from the Faith Action Network

Your ELCA State Public Policy Office

At the September 2011 Synod Hunger Team meeting, team members asked the Faith Action Network for an e-news article to provide recipients with a brief update about the FAN merger, and to highlight two or three hunger-related legislative priorities for the year. We send this update with gratitude for the opportunity to re-connect, and to join our energies with yours to create the legislative victories that will reduce hunger in our state and nation.

The Faith Action Network absolutely remains your ELCA Washington State Public Policy Office, enjoying robust local, synodical and churchwide connections. LPPO's merger with the Washington Association of Churches continues the powerful work of both organizations by broadening our network and increasing our resources. The ELCA has a strong tradition of partnering with ecumenical and interfaith bodies, and we are proud to strengthen that tradition while remaining rooted in our baptismal vocation to "strive for peace and justice in all the earth."

If you have made financial contributions to LPPO in the past, we thank you and ask you to continue your giving. If you have not, we invite you to do so! You may continue to send financial gifts to: Faith Action Network, 766 John St, Suite B, Seattle, WA 98109. There is also a giving button on our website at www.fanwa.org.

And now for some hunger-related legislative updates!

1. 2011 Legislative Success Threatened

In the 2011 session LPPO and WAC, along with their anti-poverty allies, were successful in sustaining funding for the WIC/FMNP (Women, Infants, and Children/Farmers Market Nutrition Program). Funding for this small but important program was to be "zeroed out" in the second year of the 2011-13 biennium, but we took the lead to restore fall funding for the second year of the biennium. This program will be threatened again this year, and we will need your voices to persuade legislators to keep it going strong!

2. Meals for Kids Coalition

FAN is currently a partner, along with the Children's Alliance and the Washington State Nutrition Association, in a Meals for Kids Coalition. We are attempting to increase access to free school meals for children from low-income households. Currently, depending upon household income, families either pay full price, reduced price, or receive lunches free. Cuts threaten $6.8 million that was used to establish the free tier. Our strategy is to preserve the $6.8 million and the free tier, and remove the reduced price tier so that more families will qualify for free lunches in these difficult economic times.

Since Kari wrote this for us in September, be sure and check our the FAN webpage for the latest development.

Kent Lutheran working with Sudan

2011-11-22T09:00:00.001-08:00

Follow Kent Lutherans exciting outreach partnership with the 40 Sudanese who worship with them. Sand Water Filters, Shoes, Misson Trips, you name it. More details on their blog

TURKEY TROT 2011 Ck it out

2011-11-22T08:58:00.001-08:00

For going on twelve years, members of Seattle congregations (mostlyLutheran, but not exclusively so) have gathered at Green Lake Park on the day after Thanksgiving to get some fresh air and exercise and to raise money for World Hunger through the ELCA World Hunger Appeal. The theme for this year's

12th Annual Turkey Trot for World Hunger is

"Occupy Green Lake!" and a special emphasis will be placed on our church's anti-malaria initiative. We will gather at Green Lake Park's Aqua Theatre for registration on Friday, November 25, between 8:30 a.m. and 9:00 a.m.

After a brief opening program, you can join all of us turkeys as we make our way around the lake. There are two Sundays before the big day. Won't you please share news of this event in whatever manner you are able?

Details and materials such as bulletin inserts, posters, and sponsorship forms can be found on our website: www.turkeytrot4hunger.org.

Thank you so much for taking a few moments to help out! And please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.

Grace and Peace.

Erik Wilson Weiberg

Response Ability Builders

2010-03-07T20:27:00.000-08:00

Response Ability Builders......This exciting ministry was started by a Lutheran pastor, Eddy, and involves building and teaching others to build emergency housing. Watch here for more from Eddy as this ministry develops and as he visits Haiti to see the doors open for temporary housing there.

Taking Root...... learn so you can share...

2009-10-28T22:39:00.001-07:00

Take time to learn more about the ELCA Hunger Program's new resource Taking Root, a complete curriculum for your congregation, with programming for children and youth, easily adapted for adults and multi generational groups.

Information on the ELCA Hunger site. This is powerful material.

If you want some hands on introduction call Bob or Carol Wall or Kristie Neklason. Kristie's email is on this page and reach the Walls at carolhage@gmail.com or bobcwall@gmail.com We are available to come to your congregation and do a sample class or even to come to tell your congregation about the Hunger Appeal

Subscribe to Hunger Rumblings...2 posts herein

2008-11-26T10:05:00.000-08:00

Sign up to receive Hunger Rumblings blog postings (like the two below) in your e-mail inbox. Visit http://blogs.elca.org/hungerrumblings/ , then click on the "Subscribe by Email" link found in the left-hand column under "Tools for You."

Hunger Rumblings
I am resolved...are you?

"So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom" (Psalm 90:12). "Wake up!" says the Psalmist, "For you own good get smart and change now.life is short!"
Only 27 shopping days until Christmas! What irony! Between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve we are regularly reminded to number our days.our shopping days.
Maybe our current economic realities can serve as a wake up call to get smart and change shopping-as-usual, for our own good and the good of the world. To that end, I resolve to:
1) Buy nothing the day after Thanksgiving (November 28). Search online for "Buy Nothing Day" to learn more about this unofficial, loosely organized, counter-cultural movement.
2) Give up malls and mega stores for Advent. I do this because I'm an impulse buyer, easily sucked in by twinkly lights and colorful displays.
3) Step up my charitable giving. Our economic times are tough, to be sure, and tough economic times are surely hardest on people who already vulnerable. These are the perfect times, then, to step up and give an extra donation to your congregation; to churchwide ministries like the ELCA World Hunger Appeal and ELCA Vision for Mission; and to the other ministries, agencies, and organizations that count on your support. Through ELCA Good Gifts (www.elca.org/giving) charitable donations are transformed into really good Christmas presents.
4) Give value-full gifts. I will expect a lot from the gifts I give. They will be some combination of the following:
* A gift donation, like ELCA Good Gifts
* locally grown, raised, produced, or sold
* needed and wanted
* eco-friendly
* consumable
* hand made
* recycled, reused, repurposed
* Fair Trade
Are you resolved? What have you promised yourself as we count the days until Christmas?

"I am resolved" resources

I wrote an article about my 30-year journey to get Christmas gift-giving "right" for the December issue of Lutheran Woman Today magazine. This article won't be featured on the LWT Web site until December, but you can get a sneak peak. The online version (http://tinyurl.com/susiesays) doesn't include the picture, so I'm sharing it here. My dad took this picture of me with my mom, my first book of prayers, and my beloved stuffed cat [un]creatively named "Kitty."

There are many resources to help "keep the reason for the season" during Advent and Christmas, notably Whose birthday is it, anyway? by our friends at Alternatives for Simple Living.

Don't forget the Pentecost (see pages 2, 3, 10) and the Advent--Easter (see pages 3, 4, 5) editions of ELCA World Hunger's Congregation Connections

The current issue of ELCA World Hunger's Top 40 Resources catalog highlights our Christmas card, resources connected to ELCA Good Gifts and God's Global Barnyard, and other gifts-and-giving helps.

Thankful blessings,
Sue Edison-Swift

One day,one meal, one dollar... by Jason Mendoza

2007-08-31T08:07:00.000-07:00

NW Washington couple take the ELCA Food Stamp Challenge

Jason Mendoza and his girlfriend Krista Oppie worship at Maple Leaf Lutheran Church in north Seattle. Krista is part of the Synod Hunger Team and attended the Hunger Leaders Conference/GME this summer where the idea of the taking the ELCA Food Stamp Challenge (see details at end of this article). Krista is also heading for Luther Seminary this fall. Here is their story.

One day, one meal, one dollar

When presented with this challenge I looked at it like a vulture looks at fresh meat. I had plans, I had recipes and I was determined. I went to culinary school and know how took price food as well as cook.

Day one started off with a couple slices of bread and some cheese and for lunch a nice scramble of fried stale bagel chunks with herbs eggs and tomatoes before my girlfriend and I parted ways to go to work. We both noticed we were pretty hungry and by the time dinner rolled around it was hard to concentrate and before I knew it, on the first day, all that careful planning had ended up in a quick run to the store for a cup of over salted instant noodles.

For the next four days we found ourselves growing hungrier with each meal as well as irritable, the food was good but we had to make it with what we could afford...which was, most of the time, the same thing we had had staggered through the previous days.

Ashamedly on the second to last day of the experiment unable to weather anymore quiche or peanut butter curry we called it quits for health and sanity's sake. So was this experiment accurate? yes and no. A lot of people can and
must live like this, the greatest reason we failed is that our bodies were in shock, we had been eating so well in the weeks prior that our bodies couldn't adjust fast enough.

At the end of the week we met with friends and community members at Maple Leaf Lutheran Church to discuss Dollar Challenge and share a dollar meal.

Over the course of the five days I made it a point to say there are ways feed yourself and your family in a way that are healthier than the fast and fatty diets that haunt us and, after the chatting and sharing of experiences over that meal it is clear that to ask anyone to live in this country for a dollar per meal per person is nothing short of ludicrous.

Artiicle submitted by Jason Mendoza * August 2007

Below is the program introduced at the Hunger leaders workshop and presented here by Sue Edison-Swift.

Can $1 Curb Your Hunger?
Take the ELCA Food Stamp Challenge and find out!

Each month about 25 million people in the United States participate in the nation's largest nutrition program: Food Stamps. The reality for many folks who participate in the Food Stamp program is that the average benefit of $1 per-person, per-meal is not nearly enough and many healthy food choices are out of reach.

This fall, Congress will reauthorize or write a new U.S. Farm Bill. The Food Stamp program is part of the Farm Bill so now is our chance to make needed comprehensive reform happen. We can help family farmers and reduce hunger for millions of Americans!

Here's what you can do.

+ Take The Food Stamp Challenge: Can $1 curb your hunger? The challenge before you is to live for one week on the national average Food Stamp benefit of $1 per-person, per-meal. Try serving a Food Stamp Challenge meal for your congregation or community. What will you eat? How will you feel? Is it healthy? Are you hungry?

+ Make Your Voice Heard: Call or write your member of Congress and ask her/him to make sure that the per-meal benefit for the Food Stamp program is raised so low-income families can purchase healthy foods like fresh fruits and vegetables. This can help local farmers, too! More and more farmers markets are accepting payment with Food Stamps.

+ Share Your Gifts: Help hungry neighbors around the world and close to home by giving generously to the ELCA World Hunger Appeal. Consider sharing the money you saved in food costs by participating in the Food Stamp Challenge. Give online at www.elca.org/giving or call 1-800-638-3522

ONE Lutheran congregation

2007-04-23T20:06:00.000-07:00

Your congregation can be a ONE Lutheran congregation. Check it out at www.elca.org/advocacy
Make it your 2007 goal