Corinth Baptist participating in World Vision’s famine

By Community Member | March 5, 2014 5:37 pm

Corinth Baptist Youth of New Kent will participate in a 30-hour famine as a joint movement across the nation.

Wars and natural disasters dominate the world’s daily headlines, but behind the scenes and far from the spotlight, hunger and preventable diseases claim the lives of 24,000 of the world’s children every day. More than one billion people go hungry everyday and there are more than six billion people that live on the planet. One in six will go hungry tonight.

Why so many? For some families, the only food they have is whatever they can grow themselves. One drought or flood can wipe out a year’s harvest. When it does, there’s no supermarket or food bank they can turn to. Others can barely afford food despite their best efforts. Either way, hunger is anything but yesterday’s problem. For one billion people, it’s a problem right now.

But world hunger is 100 percent preventable, and teens from Corinth Baptist Church are ready to help.

This April, those teens will be joining the efforts of hundreds of thousands of young people all over the nation and set aside the usual “stuff” that fills their daily lives. Instead, they will do World Vision’s 30-hour famine entitled “Releasing the Feast” – the theme for this year. By going without food, they get a taste of what the world’s poorest children and families face everyday.

Prior to the weekend event, students will raise funds with the knowledge that every $35 they raise can help feed and care for a child for a month. The teens will be dividing into groups and hitting the streets to collect money and non-perishable items on Saturday, Apr. 5. All money will go to World Vision and all food will go to a local food bank.

The public can also help by dropping off donations at the “Refugee Village” in the church’s youth building across from the Historic New Kent School on Friday, Apr. 4 after 4 p.m. or all day Saturday, Apr. 5.

For more information on the 30-hour famine, visit www.30hourfamine.org or call 800-7-FAMINE for information.