Global Food Price and Distribution Crisis
Today approximately 854 million people in the world go hungry and with rising prices another 100 million people are at risk of starvation. At the same time, 1 billion of us are overfed.
Some staff from various PC(USA) ministry areas will begin to fast monthly as we continue to educate ourselves and discern ways to faithfully respond to the Global Food Crisis. Starting on August 1, and on each subsequent Friday before the first Sunday of the month (Communion Sunday, in many congregations), we will fast from Friday evening and break the fast with communion on Sunday morning. We invite you and your congregation to participate with Presbyterians from around the country in this call to prayerful action for the sake of our sisters and brothers who are hungry and poor. Read more.
Responses to climate change could increase hunger
Biofuels (fuels made from plants like corn, palm oil trees and other biomass) are touted as a substitute for fossil fuels with fewer global warming emissions. But is it true? New research demonstrates that biofuels may actually increase greenhouse emissions.
Find out What's New and learn more about climate change and its impact on hunger.
Make Poverty History hot off the press
PHP has just produced with Church World Service a brand-new educational booklet with simulations, skits and worship activities on hunger and poverty. The activities relate to the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) of Hunger and Poverty, Education, Health, Environment/Water and Partners in Development. The target year for halving hunger and poverty is 2015, so don't wait. Learn how to make poverty history and order or download this resource. [Read more]
Remembering the Lessons of Hurricane Katrina
By Leslie Woods, Associate for Domestic Poverty and Environmental Issues, Presbyterian Washington Office
In January 2007, riding on a bus down St. Claude Avenue, which cuts across the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, I was struck that the Lower Ninth hasn’t changed much since I started visiting almost a year ago. To my left was the neighborhood of Holy Cross, where small, respectable houses that had clearly once been lovely and well-kept homes, were slowly being gutted. To my right was utter devastation.
On my first visit, the right side of St. Claude looked like a war zone. Houses were washed away, trees uprooted, and debris littered, piled as high as the houses that no longer stood there. Read the rest of Leslie’s account
Read the Hunger Program’s special report – with photos - from New Orleans
Hunger and poverty increases in the United States
While the U.S. government can help alleviate hunger by improving and expanding the national nutritional programs, ending hunger ultimately requires broader efforts to reduce poverty in America through decent, good-paying jobs.
Toward that end, PHP supports living wage campaigns and Let Justice Roll. Learn more about Let Justice Roll and educate yourself and people in your congregation through the resources available through PHP.
The numbers are staggering. Today 37 million Americans live in a state of poverty, hunger and hardship. That's more than last year. More than ever before. But working together, we can reverse the trend. By joining with those in need, we can change the picture of poverty to one of hope. Hope comes through the Hunger Program grants and through our work with partners to collaboratively solve this problem.
Ending extreme poverty is realistic
 Photo by Dan White The world could end extreme poverty within a decade if wealthy
nations fulfilled their pledges to increase development aid,
Columbia University economist Jeffrey D. Sachs said on Jan.
17 as he presented a plan to the United Nations for achieving
that goal. To learn more, read "The End of Poverty." |
