CROP Hunger Walk season is here. CROP Hunger Walks help end hunger at home and around the world. If you've already signed up, great! If you haven't, here's a link to help you see if there's a CROP Hunger Walk in your area this fall.

TOGETHER, WE CAN BAG HUNGER! How can you help? It's easy! Pick up yellow bags for your church here at the Presbytery Office. Ask your congregation members to collect food for a family of four for one week, fill the bags and take to their local pantry. See flyer for more details. (bulletin insert version)

The Presbyterian Hunger Program is leading a delegation to Nicaragua, and you are invited!! Participants will experience the benefits of Fair Trade first-hand when they visit coffee, craft and sewing cooperatives. The delegation is perfect for anyone involved in a congregation, college or camp that uses Fair Trade coffee or Sweat-Free T-shirts. It’s also great for anyone who has hosted a holiday bazaar with Fair Trade products, or simply wants to learn more. Delegates will: • Meet Fair Trade farmers and artisans • Pick coffee and stay in homes of farming families • Visit a pottery cooperative connected with the PC(USA) Global Marketplace • Meet the women who sew Sweat-Free Ts • Build community with fellow Presbyterians • Learn about Nicaragua, Fair Trade and more! The delegation is sponsored by the Presbyterian Hunger Program, Equal Exchange and CEPAD (the Council of Protestant Churches in Nicaragua). Applications are due November 11th! For more information and to download the Application, visit www.pcusa.org/delegations. Costs are approximately $575 plus airfare. $575 is all-inclusive of meals, lodging, translation, in country transportation, etc. Some need-based scholarship assistance is available.

FEED YOUR NEIGHBOR SUNDAY IS BACK! This year, your congregation can choose ANY Sunday to be Feed Your Neighbor Sunday 2011.  Choose a date, and ask your congregation to bring produce from their garden, from a farmer’s market, or grocery store.  The Society of St. Andrew will provide worship guides, children’s activities, and a location for you to take the fresh, nutritious food you have collected!  See the invitation for churches to participate. Thanks for all that you do to help feed those in need in our community!

PC(USA) Campaign For Fair Food Short Video and Supermarket E-Action Please to visit the CIW website for a fantastic new video entitled “One Penny More.” The new two-minute video highlights the connection between the tomatoes we buy in supermarkets and the farmworkers who pick them. And share this video with members of your congregation. After you watch the video, you can send an e-mail to Publix, Kroger, Ahold (Stop ‘n Shop and Giant) or Trader Joe’s asking them to support fair wages and conditions for farmworkers.  Read more about the Campaign for Fair Food. Visit the CIW’s Modern-Day Slavery Museum The CIW’s Modern-Day Slavery Museum is on tour throughout the southeast. If it is coming to your area, please visit it and encourage others to do the same. If not, take a virtual tour of the museum through photos and the downloadable museum booklet which traces the continual presence of slavery in different forms in the fields of Florida and what we can do to end it.

Extolling the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ fair food agreements with corporate buyers and Florida growers, The New York Times ran an in depth article which built upon their favorable editorial in December.  The article illustrates the importance of all actors in the food industry bringing their power to bear if exploitation in the fields is to change once and for all.  That means the supermarket industry must join the fast food and foodservice industries in ensuring improved wages for farmworkers and implementing farmworker monitored codes of conduct to address abuses.

Interested in Ecological & Economical Justice Issues? Stay up to date with the latest news from the PC(USA)'s Global Eco(n) Justice Newsletter.

Stay informed about the Presbyterian Hunger Program (PHP): The PHP Post is a hunger justice journal from the Presbyterian Hunger Program.  The latest hunger-related news from this program can be found in the most recent edition: PHP Post - Winter 2009.

Interested in keeping up with Hunger Awareness and Advocacy programs and news?  Check out the Bread for the World blog: www.breadblog.org.

 

Direct Food Relief to people suffering from chronic or acute hunger in the United States and around the world. Grants are allocated to such things as shelters, pantries and missions.

Development Assistance which includes teaching poor people better agriculture and nutrition techniques, public health, family planning, community organizing and economic development.

Public Policy which advocates, through peaceful means, political or economic policy changes to provide more food in the United States and other nations, empower self-development or promote freedom from oppressive and unjust systems that fail to meet basic needs.

Lifestyle Integrity through which the Church teaches awareness of the Earth's limited resources and promotes personal lving and corporate practice that move the world toward the sustainable use of resources.

Education and Interpretation, which involvesteaching the public about the root causes of hunger and motivates people to act and to educate others.