The Presbyterian Hunger Program celebrates Presbyterians working to alleviate hunger and end its causes.
The purpose of the Hunger Action Congregation process is to acknowledge the faithful work of Presbyterians around the country who are responding to the biblical call to help alleviate hunger and end its causes. Through stories and encouragement, we wish to be mutually inspired to pursue broader and more justice-oriented ministries.
Yours is a Hunger Action Congregation if you are doing an activity in one or more of six areas. For congregations that are doing one or more activity in all six areas, you can be a Certified Hunger Action Congregation. All of the Hunger Action Congregations will be celebrated on October 16, World Food Day.
Ending Hunger and Its Causes: Six Areas:
- Hunger Alleviation: providing and/or sharing food in a dignified way with an eye to long-term structural solutions
- Development assistance: addressing the root causes of hunger and poverty through equitable and sustainable development
- Hunger Education: learning about systemic causes of hunger, leading towards faithful action that is informed and directed by directly affected people and partners
- Lifestyle Integrity: adopting sustainable personal and corporate lifestyles to restore justice and protect all of God’s creation
- Corporate and Public Policy Witness: advocating and campaigning for changes in policies and practices to end hunger and its causes, promote self-development, and care for creation
- Worship: incorporating prayer, education, and preaching about ending hunger and its causes into worship
How to Become a Hunger Action Congregation
- Form a Hunger Action Team (if you don’t already have a similar team or committee to steward this work)
- Gather church members – including children and youth – who are passionate about addressing hunger, poverty and related injustices. Decide how often you’d like to meet to assess and grow the church’s practices in this area.
- “Together, review the Covenant here, download it, and fill it out. You will likely want a record of your application, so please keep this Word version as your church’s copy of the Covenant.
- Then you will be ready to cut-and-past from your Word document into the online form, which is the official application that PHP receives.
- Covenant to become a Hunger Action Congregation | There are two levels: Covenanting and Certified
Covenanting: If you are doing hunger-related work in one or more of the six areas (Hunger Alleviation, Development Assistance, Hunger Education, Lifestyle Integrity, Corporate and Public Policy Witness, Worship), check the activities you are currently doing. Be sure to invite children and youth to participate. You can submit the covenant anytime, and September 15 is the annual deadline so the Hunger Action Congregations can be announced in time for World Food Day on October 16.
You will be recognized on the PHP website as a Covenanting Hunger Action Congregation for three years. PHP will communicate with you periodically with updates, opportunities, and stories from other congregations to encourage you to increase or broaden your hunger ministries into other areas.
Certification: If you are doing activities in all six areas, after submitting the completed Covenant, you will be certified for three years as a Certified Hunger Action Congregation and will receive a certificate to post in your church. You can renew certification by describing a new area of work or by submitting a story about your work for publication on social media and for possible use in the PHP Post justice journal. We will send you a reminder before the 3 years have expired.
- Use your version of the covenant form and go online to fill out and submit the covenant at bit.ly/hungeractionform
Learn about current Hunger Action Congregations
- See a map of current Hunger Action Congregations. View here.
- Find the list of current Hunger Action Congregations here.
- Read about the launching of the Hunger Action Congregations program in 2017 here.
Resources
- HAC Bulletin Insert – include your congregation’s information and use to assess interest within your church
- Word version of the HAC Covenant to discuss with other church members
- Poster/placemat – Become a Hunger Action Congregation
- To fill out and submit the Covenant, please go to: HAC Covenant – official online application
- Become an Earth Care Congregation – flier with photos from current HACs (also available in a half page text format)
Stories about Hunger Action Congregations
- Faith Des Peres fights hunger in greater St. Louis
- Backpack Buddies to Living Wages: Clarksville Presbyterian Church, Virginia, serves students and others in their community
- Pleasantville Presbyterian Church (New York) practices outreach, looks for innovative ways to help people in need
- Small congregation, Covenant Presbyterian Church in Kansas City, Missouri, uses food pantry to impact community
