Sometimes its hard to know what to pray about when the topic is global hunger. This short guide will provide you will some prayer points, scriptures to consider for reflection as well as a prayer you can read with your faith community.
Use our prayer map placemat to help you keep people living with hunger at the top of your mind. Countries identified are ones where there are communities living with a hunger crisis. And you can also see the places where conflict is a major driver of hunger. This map is set to be printed on 11×17 tabloid size paper.
You now have the opportunity to download the above resources. In addition, we’ve added some additional goodies that will truly expand your worship and learning below.
This activity will help your faith community reflect on the mealtime reality of millions of hungry people in crisis around the world.
Prayer expresses faith and hope, and leads us to further action. Participating in the Ration Meal is a simple way to break bread together as an individual or group and bring those in need of emergency food into your prayer focus.
A WORSHIP RESOURCE FOR WORLD FOOD DAY
This collection of worship resources includes calls to worship, prayers, benedictions, litanies, music, sermon videos, meditation starters, and other diverse elements for children and youth groups that all focus on addressing the injustice of hunger.
This resource includes 3 videos of varying lengths to extend an invitation to your church, family, or others in your community to participate in a ration meal for World Food Day.
We pray and give thanks to the Lord before each meal. We offer prayers of gratitude for our ease of access to food, for the hands that prepared it, and the nutrients that fuel our bodies. But what would it look like if you were surviving on only a daily food ration? What if you could only eat one or two meals per day – would you still be eager to give thanks and praise the Lord?
Monday, October 16, is World Food Day. It is an international day to reflect on the importance of food in our lives and to recognize the millions of women, men and children who are going to bed hungry too often. We encourage you to share these videos in your church service on the Sunday before World Food Day – Sunday, October 15 – as well as post them on social media to encourage your community to participate in a ration meal and get a glimpse into the everyday reality of those experiencing hunger around the world.
Print these posters to help promote World Food Day and any events you have planned around the day.
Print this bulletin cover to help promote World Food Day and any events you have planned around the day.
“Jesus told a story about a whole lot of people who got hungry. They were grown-ups and children who went to hear Jesus talk and they stayed and listened all day. In fact, they stayed so long that it began to get late and everyone was hungry. Jesus asked his disciples to feed everyone, but they didn’t know how to do it…..”
“…God does not favor the fortunate; the seasons roll around for the poor as for the rich. With open-handed generosity, God causes the earth to bring forth food for all. Only humans hoard, creating shortages for others. But God holds nothing back; God plays fair with everyone…”
This collection of worship resources includes calls to worship, prayers, benedictions, litanies, music, sermon videos, meditation starters, and other diverse elements for children and youth groups that all focus on addressing the injustice of hunger.
This Readers Theatre setting for 4 voices can be used in worship as a dramatic way to bring the Gospel to life.
Achieving our goal of ending global hunger often means providing food for people in need, but we know that more is needed to ensure people enjoy regular access to enough nutritious food to lead healthy and active lives.
“…We dare to dream of a world
in which hunger is unknown:
where scarcity is an illusion,
and everyone has a place at the table. We dare to dream of a world in which generosity is the norm: where greed finds no foothold, and there is more than enough for all…”
Read and reflect on the account of the feeding of the 5,000 in John 6 and Jesus’ following teaching on being the bread of life. There’s something about everything that Jesus said and did that needs to be seen as part of a greater whole.
“…What do you bring to Christ’s table? We bring bread, made by many people’s work from an unjust world where some have plenty and many go hungry. At this table, all are fed and no one turned away…”
Our government has an important role in providing assistance. And adding voices from churches, and individuals like you, helps hold governments to account and makes a real improvement in people’s access to basic rights, like food.
If decision makers don’t hear from their constituents, they may assume people don’t care about global hunger.
Please voice your support by writing a letter to the Minister of Environment & Climate Change, and the Minister of International Development, this is a quick action you can take that can make a big difference!
Our current food system fails to meet the needs of most people or our planet.
Since 2014, climate change, conflict and economic downturns have halted a decade-long decline in hunger.
Now COVID-19 has led to devastating increases in food insecurity. Something is wrong! Our current food system both contributes to climate change and is threatened by its impacts. Without action on climate change, hunger is likely to rise even higher in years to come.
“…Some people have few difficulties in accessing food, others face many challenges. Can you name some of the challenges that some people in Canada and around the world may have when trying to access food?… Sometimes people who have many resources (like money) say that they are blessed. Does that mean that others are not blessed?…”
“…God has provided. There is enough food in the world to feed everyone and yet today over 800 million people are facing hunger. Stop and think about that number. Around the world, more than double the population of Canada lives without the security of knowing that when they feel that pang of hunger at the end of the day, they will have enough food to nourish their bodies. Millions who worry that food will run out next week or next month and not know how they will fill their families’ plates…”
We live in a world of abundance. We also live in an unequal world. For some, a feast may be a simple meal of rice with vegetables, or cassava and sardines. Tables around the world vary greatly. However, giving thanks for food is universal.
Whether it’s a simple meal in solitude, or a feast with friends and family gathered together – how do you give thanks around your table? Are there prayers or songs you go back to time and again, much like a favorite recipe?
Inspired by the traditionally sung mealtime grace “For food in a world where many walk in hunger”; the Giving Thanks booklet is a collection of tables graces from different communities and cultures around the world, gathered and designed to encourage the practice of reflecting on God’s provision of food to us, while guiding us toward a hunger for justice that all may be fed.
Host a ration meal at lunch hour or another time. You could have a ration meal for your class, youth group, or invite the whole community to an evening event Learn together about emergency food given to people in crisis situations or when sufficient food is not accessible.
The pandemic has created significant challenges for people around the world. For the millions facing hunger, the disruptions to food systems and economic slowdown are creating new challenges. Now, more than ever, food assistance and protecting people’s livelihoods are essential.
A breakdown anywhere in a food system prevents people from having regular access to enough nutritious food to lead active & healthy lives. This digital game allows you to learn about different types of emergency food assistance that are distributed when the food system is disrupted.
Did you know that most of the people who experience hunger globally are small-scale farmers. After years of progress against global hunger the number of hungry people in the world is rising again.
Take turns rolling the die and moving around the gameboard as a small-scale farmer in a developing country. You have enough food to get by day-to-day but don’t have food stored for the future. You don’t have money to spend on learning and experimenting with new farming methods. Your goal is to break the cycle of food shortage and hunger.
“…Merciful God of compassion and justice, have mercy on us as we confess our sin.We are not the stewards Christ calls us to be. Riches possess us while others go hungry. We mismanage creation with our pollution and strife to obtain ever more than we already have. We abuse your provision for us by our selfish desires.
Help us hear again Christ’s call to be faithful, and through him forgive us as we repent of our sin and turn from it…Lord, hear our prayer…”
