Television show, study guide examine faces behind hunger Oct. 20, 2004  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 Oct. 24 television 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 notes 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 takes an in-depth look at hunger
and offers solutions. More than 115 ABC affiliates have agreed to air
the documentary. 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.
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A UMNS photo courtesy Society of St. Andrew
�Hunger No More: Faces Behind the Facts" includes the faces of young people involved in gleaning programs to help fight hunger.
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| Mennonite
Media produced the one-hour TV documentary �Hunger No More: Faces
Behind the Facts" for the National Council of Churches. The program will
begin airing on ABC stations Oct. 24, 2004. It's meant to highlight
"community economic development; advocacy with state and federal
governments to change systems that allow poor people to escape the cycle
of poverty and hunger; and positive choices individuals have made to
eradicate chronic hunger in our lifetime.� The hunger-relief work of the
Society of St. Andrew will be featured using its Harvest of Hope and
Potato Drop activities. Other sponsoring partners are the World Hunger
Program of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Church World
Service, United Methodist Committee on Relief, the Society of St.
Andrew, with cooperation from Bread for the World and United Methodist
Communications. A UMNS photo courtesy Society of St. Andrews. Photo
number 04-396. Accompanies UMNS story #410, 9/14/04. |
The Society of St.
Andrew, 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. The
NCC’s sponsoring partners for Hunger No More include Mennonite Media,
the United Methodist Committee on Relief, Church World Service, the
World Hunger Program, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the
Society of St. Andrew, with cooperation from United Methodist
Communications and Bread for the World. United Methodist Communications
contributed footage from Africa. 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. After airing, the documentary with study guide will be available on DVD and VHS video.
The study guide/bulletin insert also may be downloaded from http://www.ncccusa.org/hunger. The Web site also contains a list of ABC affiliates and program times. For more information, call (800) 999-3534. News media contact: Linda Green, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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