Brethren invest half-million dollars for turning hunger around.

A half-million dollars to counter world hunger was raised in 2006 by the Global Food Crisis Fund and the growing projects it spawned through the Foods Resource Bank. The effort was marked by several firsts, reported Global Food Crisis Fund manager Howard Royer, including the "REGNUH ... Turning Hunger Around" campaign of senior high youth and senior adults, and a doubling of the number and acreage of local growing projects for the Foods Resource Bank. The fund is a ministry of the Church of the Brethren General Board.

Giving to the Global Food Crisis Fund topped $318,000 in 2006. Of this amount, approximately $100,000 came from the REGNUH campaign of National Youth Conference that featured tithing, a run/walk, and hunger education and worship components. The fund was further supported through "My 2 Cents Worth" offerings of congregations, churchwide art and hunger auctions, vacation Bible school and camping projects, and individual donor gifts.

Fourteen Brethren growing projects, some engaging partner churches of other denominations, raised over $200,000 for investing in Foods Resource Bank agricultural programs in poor countries, in the 2006 preliminary accounting. First-time growing projects were launched by Brethren in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Minnesota, and--gearing up for the winter wheat harvest in 2007--Kansas. Other sponsors in 2006 were the first Brethren camp, Camp Mack in Indiana, and the first Brethren retirement community, Brethren Village in Lancaster, Pa.

Were the donations of Brethren to such efforts as Emergency Disaster Fund, Church World Service/CROP, Heifer International, SERRV, America’s Second Harvest, Bread for the World, and other hunger- and poverty-focused endeavors taken into account, the level of giving would likely be tripled, commented Royer. "Brethren have a passion for reaching out to the world’s poor and vulnerable," he stated.

"A significant initiative of the denomination last summer was the adoption of the Millennium Development Goals by Annual Conference," said Royer. "But more significant still is that the Church of the Brethren did not just sign on to the goals to reduce poverty and hunger; its response reveals Brethren sense deeply the call of Christ to feed the hungry and to work toward a healthier and more just world."

Both the Global Food Crisis Fund and the Foods Resource Bank issue grants that enable partner agencies in underdeveloped countries to launch sustainable, community-based agriculture. The grants currently support work in two-dozen countries.

Source: 1/17/2007 Newsline