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Hoosier United Methodist News Archives
| Hoosier United Methodists together |
Nov./Dec. 2004 |
TV show, study guide examine faces behind hunger
By United Methodist News Service
How can United Methodists impact the hunger epidemic domestically and globally?
Answers to questions such as this are available in a study guide designed to accompany an October TV documentary focusing on hunger issues.
The National Council of Churches produced the one-hour program, "Hunger No More: Faces Behind the Facts," for the ABC-TV "Vision and Values" series.
The hour-long television special noted that while many people do not worry about where they will get their next meal, there are many others across the United States and throughout the world for whom food insecurity is a daily fact of life. The documentary took an in-depth look at hunger and offers solutions. More than 115 ABC affiliates aired the documentary including ABC-TV affiliates in Fort Wayne and Evansville.
The guide, also available as a church bulletin insert, asks what people think when they hear that people are starving to death. It contains a study process, biblical passages on hunger, information about global and domestic policy, and possible solutions.
The intent is to give information and ask questions "so people will not feel overwhelmed with the issue but can take next steps to do something," said Shirley Struchen of New York, one of the documentary's executive producers. "This bulletin insert/study guide is designed to assist us to see more than statistics and facts and gets us to the stories of people," she said.
The issue of hunger in the United States and other countries is not new, but "the important thing is that there are solutions, and each of us as individuals can play a part," Struchen said. "The guide puts important information in one place so we can use it in our journey in working to eliminate world hunger."
United Methodists involved in hunger programs are featured in the closed-captioned documentary, including segments that show people participating in potato drops, gleaning fields and working in food banks.
The Society of St. Andrew (www.endhunger.org), an ecumenical ministry supported by United Methodists, harvests potatoes and salvages other fresh produce that would otherwise go to waste, re-directing the food to agencies serving the poor. The documentary for ABC includes footage of the society's potato drop during the United Methodist General Conference last spring in Pittsburgh, and the gleaning of produce from previously harvested fields in Virginia. The society's "Harvest of Hope" program offers mission opportunities to glean food and learn about hunger issues.
Through contributions to Advance #982920, the United Methodist Committee on Relief supplies food for the hungry and assists with development programs in poor countries. Checks written to UMCOR can be placed in church offering plates or mailed directly to UMCOR, 475 Riverside Drive, Room 330, New York, N.Y. 10115. Donations by credit card can be made by calling, toll free, 800-554-8583.
The documentary TV program with study guide is now available on DVD and VHS video.
The study guide/bulletin insert also may be downloaded from www.ncccusa.org/hunger. For more information, call 800-999-3534.
Last updated on 25 Apr 2008