Educational Resources. Meals Now and Food in the Future: Help Catholic Relief Services and Stop Hunger Now Fight Hunger

Transcription

1 SM : Help Catholic Relief Services and Stop Hunger Now Fight Hunger

2 1 Feeding hungry people is a belief that runs deep among Catholics. It resonates in biblical stories that tell us about God delivering hungry Israelites and Jesus feeding the multitudes. And it fuels our practice of giving alms to those who are poor, running soup kitchens and holding food drives. Equally essential to our tradition is the call to find solutions to the root causes of poverty and hunger. The Catholic Relief Services Helping Hands program responds to this call by addressing both. Through it, Catholics in the United States share their blessings by providing food to quell immediate hunger in places like Burkina Faso. Participants also provide funding for development programs that help people become economically independent and reduce the need for food assistance. Meals Now Located in the heart of the Sahel in West Africa, Burkina Faso remains one of the poorest countries in the world. Enduring cycles of drought and flooding, people in Burkina Faso work hard to meet even their most basic needs. In times of emergency, Burkina Faso has relied heavily on the United States to fund school feeding programs and to care for the country s most vulnerable populations The United States, though, recently eliminated

3 2 food deliveries to these programs in Burkina Faso and many other countries. Those most affected by food shortage include orphans, elderly people, disenfranchised people, those with disabilities and widows, and their well being is at stake. The mission of CRS is to serve those who are most in need. Through the Helping Hands program, Americans can step forward to help feed vulnerable people now. Food in the Future Burkina Faso is a country of farmers. So, why does it struggle constantly to provide enough food for its citizens? A large part of its agricultural land is dedicated to growing cotton, which doesn t add to the local food supply. Instead, residents grow most of their food just enough to get by on small household plots. But drought or floods can take away everything. Those who rely on growing cotton for their income face the risk of rising and falling prices, or natural disasters, all of which can devastate the country s overall economy. For nearly 70 years, CRS has worked in Burkina Faso, developing extensive programs that not only feed hungry people, but provide resources and training to help them rise from poverty and escape hunger for good. Your participation in the Helping Hands program supports such development programs. The meals you package with Stop Hunger Now

4 3 will go to facilities that will distribute the food to those in need. And through this program, you ll be helping those receiving your packed meals to learn skills gardening, cloth making or poultry raising that will help them escape poverty permanently. The additional funds raised by Helping Hands also enable local institutions serving the meal recipients to buy local foods, such as fruits and protein, that are an important part of a wellbalanced diet, as well as to contribute to other needs, including hygiene products. CRS is also providing those institutions with training to improve their organizational business, staffing fundraising skills. This organizational development support helps institutions face extraordinary challenges and become more effective, efficient and sustainable so they can serve more community members. How to Address Global Hunger The Catholic Response The balanced response that CRS Helping Hands provides addressing immediate hunger among people who are poor globally and assisting people to sustain themselves in the long term is an approach that the Catholic Church in the United States urges through U.S. national policy. In its 2011 document Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has listed the elimination of poverty as an

5 4 ethical imperative. The bishops write that the goal of helping families and children overcome poverty means ensuring adequate resources at home, while also helping to overcome widespread hunger and poverty around the world, especially in the areas of development assistance, debt relief, and international trade. (para. 90). In his Encyclical Caritas in Veritate, Pope Benedict XVI also framed the world s responsibility to end hunger in terms of fostering social policy that addresses poverty s root causes. What is missing in addressing world hunger, he writes, is a network of economic institutions capable of guaranteeing regular access to sufficient food and water for nutritional needs, and also capable of addressing the primary needs and necessities ensuing from genuine food crises, whether due to natural causes or political irresponsibility, nationally and internationally. The problem of food insecurity needs to be addressed within a long-term perspective, eliminating the structural causes that give rise to it and promoting the agricultural development of poorer countries (para. 27). You Can Support the Church s Work in the World Catholic Relief Services is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. CRS

6 5 alleviates suffering and provides assistance to people in need in nearly 100 countries, regardless of race, religion or nationality. CRS is proud to serve our poor brothers and sisters around the world on your behalf, and is grateful for your support. As a follow-up to your efforts through the CRS Helping Hands program, you can stay connected to this vital work in the following ways: Go to CRS.org for resources and information to help you take the following steps: Pray. In your daily prayer, your devotions, group gatherings and parish liturgies, pray for the grace to hear the cry of poor people and to respond with the Christ s love and justice. Learn. Understanding the root causes of global poverty helps us respond knowledgeably and effectively to the cry of those who are poor in the world. Receive regular updates on the work of CRS overseas and its programs and activities for Catholics in the United States. Act. In your conversations, your civic engagement and your opportunities to learn and to teach, you help others to hear the cry of our poor brothers and sisters, and you provide the fuel for effective change. To engage in key issues that affect global poverty, join Catholics Confront Global Poverty, a joint initiative of CRS and the USCCB. Give. Your time, your talent and your treasure are all great blessings to people in a world of need. Through your generosity, you extend the love of Christ throughout the world.