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Nourishment for the body and soul
God's Word is clear that we are to minister to the poor and needy as part of our Christian lifestyle. Caring for those in need is an opportunity and a privilege as well as an obligation. We must not view it in any other way.
Hunger continues to be one of the greatest problems facing our world today. There are many causes. Natural disasters and human-made catastrophes have a devastating effect on food production. Poverty is increasing once again. Won’t you prayerfully consider how God would have you participate in this important ministry to feed the hungry?
The primary focus of the Hunger Offering is to assist Southern Baptist missionaries throughout the world in their attempt to end malnutrition. Missionaries use human-needs projects to help people obtain food and practice good health habits.
Each project also includes an evangelistic witness to facilitate church planting—the very focus of missionary efforts on the field. It is an intentional combination of “loving God and loving neighbor” (The Great Commandment: Matt. 22:37-40).
Examples of hunger projects:
· senior citizen feeding programs
· soup kitchens, hospitality houses, Baptist rescue missions
· providing and stocking food pantries
· food in disaster situations when disaster funds are not available, or not adequate
· agricultural education on how to grow food
· clean water wells
All human needs projects:
· have an intentional spiritual strategy and share the Gospel
· have Southern Baptist personnel who are a part of the community or remain in contact with the community being served
· involve local input and expertise to help personnel assess needs and establish goals that make sense culturally, economically and efficiently
· have accountability measures
Most of us have our kitchen cabinets and refrigerators brimming with food. Do we give the issue of hunger and malnutrition the attention it deserves?
Southern Baptist missionaries and volunteers are offering nourishment for the body and soul. Every Southern Baptist can have a part in those ministries through gifts to the Hunger Offering. In fact, we can be assured that God expects us to do just that. He expects us to demonstrate an urgency to pray, to give, and to minister on behalf of those who are hungry – both physically and spiritually.
Through your generous gifts to the Hunger Offering, you are providing missionaries the resources they need to feed and educate the needy of practices to help them become self-sufficient.
The Hunger Offering, through which 100 percent of the donations flow straight to the hungry, serves missionaries in Alabama, North America and internationally.
100 percent of your donations go toward hunger needs. Nothing is taken out for administrative or promotional costs.
As Christians, we are called to reach out to those in need. God will honor your gifts and the greater blessing will be yours.
"…and if you offer yourself to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted one, then your light will shine in the darkness, and your night will be like noonday. The Lord will always lead you, satisfy you in a parched land, and strengthen your bones. You will be like a watered garden and like a spring whose waters never run dry." Isaiah 58:10-11
AROUND THE WORLD
Millions of people around the world are reached every year with food for their bodies and the “Bread of Life” for their souls through ministries funded by the Southern Baptist Hunger Offering.
An estimated 1 billion people do not have enough food to be healthy. Every day 25,000 people die from hunger-related causes… that’s 1 person every 3 and a half seconds. Unfortunately, it is children who die most often.
IN NORTH AMERICA
In many ways, America is the land of plenty. But for 1 in 6 people in the United States, hunger is a reality. Right now, approximately 49 million Americans are struggling with hunger, and 17 million of those are children. More than 42 million people, or 8.1 million families in America, are without enough food every day[footnoteRef:1] [1: https://aspe.hhs.gov/basic-report/financial-condition-and-health-care-burdens-people-deep-poverty.]
In the most recent year, more than $1 million was provided to more than 1,000 hunger ministries. Also, 4.5 million meals were provided using hunger funds and more than 21,000 professions of faith were reported through hunger relief ministries in North America.
IN ALABAMA
Alabama has the 2nd highest food hardship rate in the nation (Food Research & Action Center Inc) 19.2% of Alabama’s population is food insecure.[footnoteRef:2] That means 919,670 Alabamians were "food insecure," or struggled to afford a nutritionally adequate diet. [2: Feeding America, Map the Meal Gap]
Feeding ministries in Alabama:
There are 46 feeding ministries in Alabama with 6,936 volunteers who provided 10,812 meals and food for 79,286.
The 3,071 workers who are trained in evangelism led 28,457 evangelistic encounters resulting in 286 professions of faith and 90 baptisms.
While you were reading this information, an estimated 36 children somewhere in the world died from malnutrition or starvation, the question now is ... What Will I Do?
What Will I Do?
How can I help?
PRAY - Prayer is the most important way you can help Southern Baptists meet human needs. Please pray that through these ministries, many will receive physical assistance and also seek and find our Lord.
ACT - Lead your family, Sunday school class or small group to organize a food drive, serve at a local hunger ministry, or provide for a family in need.
GIVE - The generosity of Southern Baptists allows missionaries and ministries to immediately minister and meet human needs as they occur. Promote giving in your church to benefit hunger relief.
How Is MY dollar spent?
When a dollar is contributed to the Hunger Offering the first 25% will be used to feed the hungry in Alabama by assisting associations and designated churches with food pantries. The remaining 75% will be placed through the Global Hunger Fund.
The Global Hunger Fund is divided with 80% to the International Mission Board for overseas hunger projects while 20% is sent to the North American Mission Board to support hunger projects in the United States and Canada.
Because personnel and volunteers are already in place, and promotional expenses come through other budgets...
100% of your gift is used to minister to the hungry in Jesus’ name
A dollar in…a dollar out to help hungry people!
No other relief organization can make this promise!
Hunger Sunday Teaching Plan
By Global Hunger Relief
1. Can you think of a time when you felt like you were starving? Can you think of a time when you ate too much?
2. What emotions do you feel when you hear that there are almost 1 billion men, women, and children suffering from hunger around the world?
3. Read James 2:1-4. Where have you experienced poverty in your community? How can churches be guilty of showing favoritism as described in this passage?
4. How can we be guilty of seeing people in need as “issues”? How should the Gospel shape the way that we see those who are in poverty?
5. Read James 2:14-18. How does faith show itself practically in a person’s life?
6. Read Matthew 6:11, Matthew 14:15-21 and John 7:37-38. How did Jesus connect physical needs with spiritual needs?
7. How should God’s definition of “neighbor” lead us to care for hungry families living thousands of miles away from our church?
8. What actions can you take as an individual and as a church to meet the physical needs in your community and around the world?
Hunger Quick Facts
Facts about poverty and hunger in America
Even in the world’s greatest food-producing nation, children and adults face poverty and hunger in every county across America.
· More than 37 million people struggle with hunger in the United States, including more than 11 million children.
· A household that is food insecure has limited or uncertain access to enough food to support a healthy life.
· Children are more likely to face food insecurity than any other group in the United States.
· More than half (56%) of food-insecure households participated in at least one of the major federal food assistance program — the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly Food Stamps); the National School Lunch Program and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (often called WIC).
· In Alabama, 795,760 people are struggling with hunger - and of them 243,880 are children.
· The average cost of a meal in Alabama is $2.98. Data from Feeding America's Map the Meal Gap 2019 study.
· Find the Hunger facts for your county: https://map.feedingamerica.org/county/2017/overall/alabama
· Food insecure people in Alabama: 795,760.
· Food insecurity rate in Alabama: 16.3%.
· Estimated program eligibility among food insecure people in Alabama 52% are eligible for assistance. Food insecure people in Alabama who are NOT eligible for assistance 48%.
County Detail Data Table - Overall (P)1
County
Total Population (13-17 ACS)
Food Insecurity Rate (2017)
# of Food Insecure Persons (2017)
% FI ≤ Low Threshold
% FI Btwn Thresholds
% FI > High Threshold
Autauga County
55,036
13.2%
7,270
49%
14%
37%
Baldwin County
203,360
11.6%
23,560
46%
14%
40%
Barbour County
26,201
22.0%
5,760
60%
17%
23%
Bibb County
22,580
14.3%
3,240
46%
19%
36%
Blount County
57,667
10.7%
6,140
54%
21%
25%
Bullock County
10,478
24.8%
2,600
60%
18%
22%
Butler County
20,126
20.6%
4,160
65%
16%
19%
Calhoun County
115,527
15.7%
18,100
55%
17%
28%
Chambers County
33,895
17.9%
6,070
59%
22%
19%
Cherokee County
25,855
12.5%
3,230
56%
22%
22%
Chilton County
43,805
13.1%
5,740
61%
16%
23%
Choctaw County
13,188
19.5%
2,570
57%
22%
21%
Clarke County
24,625
22.9%
5,640
61%
17%
23%
Clay County
13,407
14.5%
1,940
61%
17%
22%
Cleburne County
14,939
13.5%
2,020
52%
22%
26%
Coffee County
51,073
14.2%
7,240
49%
18%
34%
Colbert County
54,435
14.7%
8,000
52%
15%
33%
Conecuh County
12,649
20.9%
2,650
65%
24%
12%
Coosa County
10,955
15.7%
1,720
57%
27%
16%
Covington County
37,519
14.6%
5,480
53%
18%
29%
Crenshaw County
13,866
15.8%
2,200
55%
20%
26%
Cullman County
81,703
11.8%
9,660
54%
21%
25%
Dale County
49,393
16.1%
7,940
54%
17%
29%
Dallas County
40,755
27.2%
11,100
71%
17%
12%
DeKalb County
71,194
12.4%
8,840
65%
19%
16%
Elmore County
80,989
13.3%
10,740
43%
13%
44%
Escambia County
37,621
18.4%
6,930
60%
20%
21%
Etowah County
103,132
14.6%
15,010
56%
17%
27%
Fayette County
16,657
14.4%
2,400
58%
19%
23%
Franklin County
31,507
12.9%
4,060
65%
13%
22%
Geneva County
26,572
14.8%
3,930
62%
12%
26%
Greene County
8,533
29.7%
2,540
76%
21%
3%
Hale County
14,995
22.2%
3,330
65%
18%
17%
Henry County
17,110
14.2%
2,430
57%
20%
23%
Houston County
104,108
16.5%
17,160
55%
18%
28%
Jackson County
52,326
13.6%
7,130
65%
12%
23%
Jefferson County
659,460
17.8%
117,600
51%
15%
34%
Lamar County
14,021
15.2%
2,140
61%
19%
20%
County
Total Population (13-17 ACS)
Food Insecurity Rate (2017)
# of Food Insecure Persons (2017)
% FI ≤ Low Threshold
% FI Btwn Thresholds
% FI > High Threshold
Lauderdale County
92,590
14.0%
12,950
50%
20%
30%
Lawrence County
33,288
13.4%
4,470
52%
19%
29%
Lee County
156,597
17.0%
26,560
58%
10%
33%
Limestone County
91,695
12.2%
11,190
48%
14%
38%
Lowndes County
10,362
26.4%
2,740
66%
17%
16%
Macon County
19,358
25.6%
4,950
58%
20%
23%
Madison County
353,213
13.8%
48,830
45%
12%
43%
Marengo County
19,743
22.0%
4,330
63%
20%
17%
Marion County
30,058
13.3%
3,990
57%
19%
25%
Marshall County
94,738
12.2%
11,520
65%
13%
22%
Mobile County
414,328
17.9%
74,120
53%
16%
31%
Monroe County
21,745
24.1%
5,240
68%
14%
18%
Montgomery County
227,120
20.7%
47,040
55%
15%
30%
Morgan County
119,157
12.9%
15,380
52%
17%
31%
Perry County
9,680
28.6%
2,770
76%
13%
11%
Pickens County
20,170
18.9%
3,810
63%
14%
23%
Pike County
33,287
21.0%
6,980
59%
15%
26%
Randolph County
22,530
15.3%
3,450
58%
15%
26%
Russell County
58,480
19.2%
11,220
57%
18%
26%
St. Clair County
86,937
11.7%
10,160
50%
14%
36%
Shelby County
208,721
9.3%
19,340
38%
13%
49%
Sumter County
13,084
27.7%
3,620
70%
13%
17%
Talladega County
80,888
17.2%
13,930
56%
20%
24%
Tallapoosa County
40,756
16.6%
6,770
58%
17%
26%
Tuscaloosa County
204,424
16.4%
33,580
49%
15%
36%
Walker County
64,927
14.6%
9,470
62%
12%
27%
Washington County
16,746
17.2%
2,890
56%
17%
27%
Wilcox County
10,919
29.3%
3,200
68%
17%
15%
Winston County
23,968
13.1%
3,140
60%
24%
16%
State of Alabama
(2017 aggregate of Congressional Districts)
(2017 State)
Total Population (13-17 ACS)
Rate of Food Insecurity
Food Insecurity Persons
≧Low Threshold
% FI Btwn Thresholds
% FI > High Threshold
4,874,747
16.30%
795,760
52%
16%
32%
Feeding America, Map the Meal Gap
Area Food Banks
Courtesy of www.FeedingAmerica.org/hunger-in-america/alabama
How to Give
Give Through Your Local Southern Baptist Church
Designate your gift for the “Hunger Offering”
Give Through Your State Baptist Convention
Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions
Attn: Accounting Office
P.O. Box 681970
Prattville, AL 36068-1970
Please designate on your check that it is for Hunger
Read more online: www.alsbom.org/hunger
Order free Hunger Offering and other promotional resources:
www.CooperativeProgramResources.org/hunger
For resources and Hunger offering envelopes contact:
Lori Lockett or Jim Swedenburg
1-800-264-1225, ext. 2304; 334-613-2304
e-mail: [email protected]
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