| The Presbyterian
Hunger Program (PHP) is a ministry of the
General Assembly Council of the Presbyterian
Church (U.S.A.).
For over thirty years, the PHP has provided a channel
through which Presbyterians can be engaged in the
fight against hunger -- in the United States and
around the World. The work of the PHP is guided by
the General Assembly adopted Common Affirmation on
Global Hunger. |
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Presbyterian
Hunger Program
http://www.pcusa.org/hunger
Today 37 million Americans live in a state of poverty,
hunger and hardship. That's more than last year and
more than ever before. But working together, we can
reverse the trend. Click here to see the "Poverty
Map" and how the various states are ranked. Remember
to promote the One Great Hour of Sharing offering in
your congregation. This offering supports the
Presbyterian Hunger Program, Self Development of People
and Presbyterian Disaster Assistance. Bread for the World - www.bread.org
In the joint resolution proposed by the new Democratic
leadership, nearly $1.5 billion would be added to poverty-fighting
programs over the previous year's budget. These
proposed increases would expand efforts to help hungry
and poor people get access to health care, sufficient
food and other basics. This is a greater
increase than either the House or Senate passed in
their individual FY 07 bills!
TAKE ACTION: Urge your senators to approve H. J. Res. 20 without amendments.
Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121
Learn more about our current Offering of Letters, Seeds
of Change: Help Farmers, End Hunger.
Through
giving to the annual One
Great Hour of Sharing offering and year-round support
of the Hunger
Fund, Presbyterians provide the PHP with nearly four
million dollars a year to support ministries of direct
food relief, development assistance, public policy advocacy,
education, and lifestyle integrity.
Contact
Your Hunger Action Enabler
If
you are building or contiuing to develop a hunger
ministry in your congregation, you are invited to
contact Tom
Haller, your Hunger Action Enabler.
As a HAEs, Tom acts as a resource to congregations
within the presbytery in promoting Presbyterian programs,
special offerings, advocacy, and education in the areas
of Hunger Action, Peacemaking, and Restoring Creation.
To
talk to Tom regarding how he can support
and/or augment your congregation's life and ministry
in Hunger Action, Peacemaking, and Restoring Creation,
you may contact him at:
Tom Haller
2719 Blackburn Drive
Davis, CA 95616
(530) 756-5794
haller@omsoft.com
Joining
Hands For Hunger On The Move
How
do you connect with people in a country on the other
side of the planet? India is 12,300 miles give
or take from Sacramento and the cultural divide is
almost as wide, so how do you work to build solidarity
with people struggling to gain access to land, water
and sustainable livelihood with a middle class group
of Presbyterians in sunny California? You begin
by bringing in Alexa Smith & Lionel Derenoncort
from Louisville to put on a workshop on campaign development
and strategies. To sweeten the pot you bring
CG Jacob, the executive secretary of CHETHANA, to help
inform the group about the current projects of the
India group and you have the makings for a very stimulating
discussion.
Our Joining
Hands working group in Sacramento is made up of 10 enthusiastic
members from 5 different churches in our Presbytery,
almost all of whom made it to the workshop held Friday
evening & all day Saturday at Westminster Presbyterian
Church, right across the street from the state capitol. We
talked about complimentary & parallel campaigns that
work to support each other and how to identify a focus
project to develop the right campaign. We talked
about using the media, Alexa's expertise, to empower
the campaign and developing alliances with interested
groups locally and nationally who would support the campaign.
Our focus is leaning toward issues of water privatization
and use by multinational corporations. In Northern
California Nestle Corp is trying to build a bottling
plant that will use a great deal of water and may harm
the environment. This possible campaign will
be parallel to the current campaign in India seeking
to prevent Coca-Cola from overusing ground water & thereby
harming small farmers in their region. The workshop
was very helpful in helping us see the process of working
on hunger issues that affect both US & India and
has given us confidence to tackle the challenging work
of seeking God's justice around the world.
Joining Hands is a model for systemic change that the
whole church can embrace. Our work directly affects
the poor families in our world who are seeking sustainable
ways to feed themselves and provide for healthy families
and communities. God calls us to share resources
that empower others to gain access to the abundance
of life that God intends for all people. It also
helps educate our members & congregations about
our responsibilities to examine our own lifestyle habits
that may affect others in the world. We can see
the connection between our over consumption and the
injustices it brings on our sisters and brothers in
India and other developing nations.
The JH Committee recently endorsed a new opportunity
for a volunteer from our Presbytery to work alongside
C. J. Jacob
in South India for 3 months. The goal is to continue
to educate and inform our church communities in the ways
we can be more effective in bringing about change where
injustice impacts the lives of others locally and in
India. For more information regarding the volunteer program
contact garrycox@westminsac.org or
916-442-8939.
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