Week 1: You were hungry.

“Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food?”

Week 1

Simple Actions

Children

• Put one food item each week into a “Matthew 25 Box.”

• Decorate paper lunch bags for pantry meals.

Youth

• Skip one snack or meal; donate the cost.

• Volunteer to sort food donations.

• Introduce advocacy using Advocacy 101 for Young Adults: When Faith Meets Public Policy

• Use Act2Day4Tomorrow to introduce (primarily youth) to the practice of fasting

Families

• Cook one simple, low-cost meal together.

• Say a prayer before meals naming people who made the food possible.

• Visit your local food bank.

• Explore the 5 Calls app to make your voice heard, an easy and effective way for U.S. constituents to make a policy difference

Congregations

• Highlight a local hunger ministry during worship.

• Host a reverse food pantry (deliver food supplies to persons unable or fearful of leaving their homes)

• Provide meals to your local emergency winter shelter.

• Introduce advocacy using one-session Bible study Living Into Our Faith in Action

• Use the Climate and Hunger Toolkit from ELCA World Hunger

• Intro to advocacy resources from Women of the ELCA Called to Be Political (But I don’t want to be political!)

• Organize a book study of The Color of Law, by Richard Rothstein, which examines how institutional racism policies, especially in housing, have impacted people of color and contributed to a wealth gap.

• ELCA-WH ‘At the Table’ Vacation Bible School focuses on storytelling

Worship & Advocacy Tie-In

• Use prayers of thanksgiving at Communion.

• Pair with ELCA World Hunger education or Bread for the World Offering of Letters.

• Introduce your legislator to your local food bank.

• Introduce advocacy using ‘Advocacy Made Easy’ 1-page discussion starters

• Introduce advocacy using 2-page resource On-Ramp to Advocacy