Work for WORLD HUNGER at Annual Conference

The membership of the WNCC came through with flying colors at the Annual Conference! 106,087 meals were packed for Stop Hunger Now and approximately $15000 in canned goods were delivered to the food banks and food pantries.

Approximately 450 volunteers helped to pack the food. After a slow start on Thursday afternoon, the youth representatives and their friends were present that night and "caught up" the count. The flow of volunteers through Friday was steady averaging 60-90 persons for each 2-hour session.

Canned goods were delivered to the Kern Center for collection (actually we found food scattered throughout Lake J). We filled up the Disaster Response Truck and waited until Friday afternoon for the Manna Food Bank truck from Asheville to pick up food. Using five volunteers, food was exchanged to the Manna Food Bank truck and it motored off for Asheville. Prior to Annual Conference, the Office of Mission/Outreach received calls from several churches that they had full pickup trucks with food. We instructed these trucks to go "straight to the food banks" rather than have the trucks bring food to LJ and then turn around and take it back. In addition, we received calls from churches with food pantry needs. After consideration, we sent some of the collected foods to these food pantries.

THANK YOU for your consideration and help in this matter!!!

Starvation in Kenya

Starvation in Kenya
by Mary Beth Coudal

Several children in Nakuru Camp, Kenya for the internally displaced enjoy a nutritious meal.Image by: Melissa Crutchfield Source: UMCOR

New York, NY, February 20, 2009--Several weeks ago, Felix was admitted to the Maua Methodist Hospital, in Maua, Kenya, with severe tuberculosis. Felix weighed 20 pounds and was three feet tall. He was nine years old. Missionary Jerri Savuto sat by Felix's bedside, watching him gasp for breath.

"How hungry, alone and desperate he must have always been. I reached out and touched him and smiled at him," said Nurse Savuto. "His eyes looked up and met mine and then his little face broke into a smile. He gained weight and seemed to be doing much better but died four days ago." Jerri Suvuto is one of six United Methodist missionaries serving through Global Ministries in Kenya.

As many as 10 million Kenyans, a majority of them children like Felix, are dying due to pervasive drought and famine. The Kenyan newspaper, The Daily Nation, projected that October 2009 will be the first opportunity for a substantial rainfall. Ms. Savuto worries that many in Kenya will not live to see that next big rain.

As malnourished children are admitted to Maua Hospital, with their families' unable to pay, the staff goes without pay and the facility lacks money for necessities. So, too, families flock to Kenyan churches for food, prayer, and comfort, yet parishioners are no longer able to support their pastors. They subsist on donations. The Methodist Church in Kenya is seeking funding to continue the mission of the hospitals and churches.

Bishop Stephen Kanyaru M'Impwii, head of the Methodist Church in Kenya, visited the New York headquarters of the General Board of Global Ministries on February 19-20, 2009, to highlight the need for increased relief efforts. He met, among others, with the Rev. Edward W. Paup, general secretary, to convey the urgency of the famine.

"I'm not telling you what I've heard," Bishop M'Impwii said. "I'm telling you what I've seen. Starving people have died. It's very serious. Even in the capital, there are very many, many orphans."

"We are currently supporting churches in Kenya to respond to the famine in Nairobi, Coastal Province, and the Rift Valley (Nakuru)," said Melissa Crutchfield, an International Disaster Response executive with the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR). "These activities include provision of food aid for some of the most vulnerable populations, including nursing mothers, vulnerable children, orphans, school children, people living with HIV and AIDS, and internally-displaced people from the election violence last year. The grants are also providing some medicines for a clinic in Nakuru, and agricultural inputs like seeds and tools, so that farmers in that region can begin to grow for themselves again."

A report from the United Nations indicates childhood malnourishment is at the level of one in five in Kenya, a number which exceeds emergency requirements. "The number of people who are starving in Kenya seems to increase daily. Our pediatric ward continues to have so many starving, emaciated children admitted," reported Missionary Jerri Savuto.

One of those emaciated children is four-year-old Martin. Tall for his age, he must have received nutrition earlier in his life, according to Ms. Savuto. "But now the family has nothing. He was admitted with malaria, pneumonia, severe anemia, and starvation. We can help these children recover from their illnesses and even gain weight, but then we have to send them home to the same situation. The hospital has started a program to send food home with families of children like this," Savuto said.

Ms. Savuto also reported that in the capital, Nairobi, she saw many Maasai herds of cattle roaming through the city streets searching for a patch of green to graze upon. She wrote:
Their cattle are dying and they are migrating. We need your help. Please pray for us and please remember the hungry everywhere. You may not see them, for often they are invisible, but they are there, standing quietly, pleading with God to help them. I know God hears them. Do you?
Donations to assist UMCOR's response in Kenya can be dropped in local church collection plates or mailed to UMCOR, P.O. Box 9068, New York, NY 10087. The check should be made to "UMCOR Advance #982450, International Disaster Response," with "Kenya Famine" on the memo line.

For credit card donations, visit UMCOR's web site at http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umcor/ for online giving information or call (800) 554-8583. Give now.

Mary Beth Coudal is the staff writer for Global Ministries.

Project at Gideon Grove UMC

The Gideon Grove United Methodist Church near Stokesdale has a "Community Garden" planned for this year at the trailer park near by. This will add to the church's project of planting.

The church has been planting a garden for years. They are growing in pounds of produce raised yearly and looking forward to SPring planting. The Society of St. Andrews has not gleaned but picked the first harvest giving them the highest quality produce for their mission. They started in a small area of the church yard with approximately 100'x200' and raised 4,000 pounds of potatoes. Last year they planted 2.5 acres.

They are looking for "seed potato" connections. If you have any connection to help them get donations for seed potatoes, please contact Randy at drbraswell@earthlink.net

Breakfast at Glenwood UMC

Glenwood UMC in Greensboro provides a free pancake breakfast every Saturday morning to the poor of our community. May 2009 will mark the 5th year we have provided this "all you can eat" hot meal to all those that show up at our church between 8 and 10 am each Saturday morning.

We never know how many people will show up on any given Saturday morning but we have become accustom to serving between 200 and 300 men women & children.Glenwood UMC is a small (70 people on Sunday morning) urban church which is located only a few blocks from government low cost housing.

A number of homeless people show up each Saturday morning with all they own in bags of some sort. Besides the food, some of our church members minister to our guest as opportunities present themselves. Some people have made confessions of faith at the breakfast. Much of the labor involved with the breakfast is provided by people in the community that have no other connection to the church.

Some people attending the breakfast have become active members of the church.Included in the breakfast are hot pancakes, sausage, ham, bacon, butter, milk, coffee and usually a choice of two kinds of fruit juice. Some people are so hungry the consume as many as 24 pancakes which is available to them by repeatedly going through the serving line.Several Methodist Churches in town take turns bringing over their youth groups to assist with the breakfast to give them a "hands-on" opportunity to serve the poor of our community.

The primary problem with the people we serve is under or unemployment. To respond to this need, we started classes to help them find sustaining employment. Last year we had a 32 class-hour Christian based program to assist them in finding employment. We are preparing to start another class this spring.

Peace,
Bob Sadler, Chair - Evangelism/Outreach,
Glenwood United Methodist Church,
Rev. Sarah L. Smith, Pastor,
Rev. Jean Nall, Assistant Pastor
1417 Glenwood Ave. Greensboro, NC 27403

The Hunger Connection

The United Methodist Church is a connectional church. Sadly, we have failed to use the connection effectively. Beginning at the end of January the Mission /Outreach Office will begin “organized and unorganized connections” through conference calls, internet blog-spots, and skype calls with those interested in working in partnership on the world hunger issues. To be part of these conversations, contact our office and indicate areas of interests: Asia, Africa, Europe, Caribbean/Latin America or USA.

Many churches are already involved in mission activities with the hungry. Some are doing Relief Work — providing for immediate hunger needs (food packets, Second Harvest). This type of ministry is needed and welcomed. Immediate needs must be met. Other churches are involved in Development — helping people to help themselves in the future (agriculture, business, ponds).

Working together, using The Advance for Christ’s Church and the Western North Carolina Conference’ Advances (WEB ADDRESS) provides options for smaller organizations and churches to get involved with larger organizations and churches. 100 % of all contributions through The Advance go to the program the donor has sponsored. Let’s put the connection to work.

Information on the connection will be in the wncc-enews.

Why are prices High?

1. Poor Harvests, lack of fertilizers, and restrictive trade policies — The world production of cereals has not kept pace with the demand. The cause is from droughts, flooding, and a lack of fertilizers (a petroleum product) in many parts of Asia and Africa. As stocks have dwindled, some countries have now placed export restrictions on food to protect their own supplies. This is especially punishing poor countries that depend on imports for much of their food. Stocks of cereal products have dropped from 650 million tons to just over 400 million tons.
2. Increasing price of fuel — Food products track energy costs. As the price of oil rose over $140 a barrel, the cost of running a farm rose. Petroleum is a key ingredient in making some types of fertilizer, which is increasingly essential to agriculture in countries where the “ground has been used up” due to the lack of crop-rotation and the constant use of land.
3. Diversity of crops for bio-fuels — The expensive fuel costs created more demands for alternatives. In the United States, farmers are devoting more land to corn at the expense of other crops and turning more of the corn they grow into ethanol. Both corn and grain prices have been driven higher (increase of corn used for fuel — 2000: 4%, 2008: 24%).
4. Increase in demand — As countries become richer (China and India), people tend to purchase foods such as fruit and meat more than staples, such as rice. As a result, more grain has been diverted to feed livestock than people. Staples for people have risen as a result, as have the prices of meat products, ad the demands go up.

Future Anticipations: Prices are not expected to go down anytime soon. Even though oil costs have gone down, the demands for bio-fuels and the move towards protectionist trade policies have kept prices high. There will be areas of the world with significant food shortages (Asia and Africa) while other countries in the same region may have increases in food production kept within the home-country. Countries with poor agriculture practices will suffer the worst.

Sources: United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization; Agriculture Department; Energy Information Administration; World Bank; International Food Policy Research Institute; and Global Food Price Index.

World Hunger Report # 1 -- Kenya

John Calhoun, United Methodist Missionary in Kenya writes: “Inflation is running at about 15-20% annually with prices rising even higher each month. Food Stables, such as bread, maize, and wheat flour, sugar, milk products, and meats were all up 20% (the first five months of 2008).”

“One factor is the skyrocketing cost of fuel. A gallon of unleaded gasoline now costs about USD 6.12. Naturally, this makes transportation of food products very expensive. At the present time Kenya is not suffering starvation or famine. But the cost of food is eating away at the average income. In the rural areas, there is fear of serious shortages to come.”

Mission Initiative: WORLD HUNGER

2008 has been particularly hard for millions of people the world over. High energy prices took their toll, especially among the poor and the working poor. As costs for transportation went up, so did the cost for the most basic of products needed by humanity — food.

Added to the rising cost of food is the impact by disasters — a cyclone in Myanmar, droughts in Asia, and man-made disasters in Africa. In addition, fore-closures of properties in America have closed many family farms in the Mid-west portions of America.

In the face of what is being called the worst food emergency in our life-time, the Commission on Mission/Outreach is calling for the churches and membership of the Conference to place missional priorities on meeting the needs — locally, nationally, and internationally.

Rice, the stable for most of the world has doubled and tripled over the past year. The food banks of North Carolina have been innodated by people needing support — many people who have never needed help in the past. The hard facts of the crisis world-wide exacerbate already appalling and inexcusable realities:
· One out of three children in America go to bed hungry;
· One in four children in America go to school without breakfast;
· A child dies of hunger every five seconds in the world;
· One in four children in the developing countries is underweight;
· American diets of the working poor have shifted to more fatty foods and away from healthy foods.

In this edition of Missions Alive, on the conference webpage, at the District Leadership Conferences, and in the WNCC enews churches and members will be made aware of ways they may be able to end some of the world hunger in the world. Some help will be through “relief” efforts, but it is hoped that most of the help will be through “development” efforts.

For additional information or speakers for local churches, contact the Office of Mission/Outreach. Also, see the Mission/ Outreach Guidebook for Advance Special information