Joining Hands is a holistic international hunger ministry. The program builds bridges of solidarity between coalitions of churches in the United States and networks of overseas churches, grassroots groups and nongovernmental organizations NGOs.
The focus of the program is to address the inequities and suffering resulting from the spread of globalization, through community education, advocacy, alternative economic activities, lifestyle changes and spiritual grounding. Visit the Joining Hands website to learn how your presbytery or congregation can join hands with our partners overseas. Through our grant partnerships PHP supports projects where the activities respond to a real need, are driven by affected communities, and bring about long-term improvements in the quality of life of those communities, increasing self-reliance and empowerment.
In considering these partnerships, PHP prioritizes organizations which have good working relations in their own countries with a national church body, whether or not it is a formal partner of the PC USA.
It also may show existing relationships with community organizations, government agencies and other programs which share the same goals. In , PHP is also responding to extreme hunger and famine where there are urgent needs. Learn more.
Homelessness , hunger and food insecurity are a reality for more than 50 million people in the US, so efforts to alleviate hunger and eliminate its root causes are critical. PHP celebrates and complements the faithful work of congregations which run and support feeding programs locally.
Food and Faith explores the relationship between our food sources and how they relate to our moral beliefs. It examines the physical and spiritual aspect of nourishment. The initiative exists online as a blog , but it weaves its way into nearly everything that PHP does.
Presbyterians can learn about Food and Faith through educational resources like the Just Eating Curriculum and by participating in special events such as the month series of 40 hour fasts in response to the global food crisis. PHP recognizes that Christians must be willing to stand with those who have been made poor until they are heard by powerful institutions and decision makers.
Sometimes the advocacy work to change systemic causes of poverty involves addressing business practices that diminish human well-being and fostering new models of corporate responsibility.
The Campaign for Fair Food is an ongoing effort in partnership with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers CIW to establish purchasing practices within the retail food industry that ensure and advance fair wages and other human rights of tomato pickers who labor at the base of these corporate supply chains.
Congregation-Based Community Organizing is a strategy for rebuilding communities, revitalizing congregations and developing individuals into effective leaders and change agents. These organizations provide a vehicle for churches, schools, unions and non-profits to carry their concerns and values into public life, as they create policy and hold those in power accountable for their decisions. Learn more on the Congregation-Based Community Organizing website.
The Hunger Program houses Enough for Everyone , a lifestyle integrity and education program which focuses on the big picture of our economic lives and asks not what our dollars do in the offering plate, but what our dollars do in the marketplace.
PHP also relates to Presbyterians for Earth Care , an Eco-Justice network dedicated to environmental wholeness with social justice, seeking to be a prophetic voice for substantive change in the church and in the world. Hunger Program Staff. Hunger Program Advisory Committee. Hunger Action Advocates. Resources and materials are available from the Presbyterian Hunger Program, including educational resources for congregations and individuals.
Many resources are available as free downloads or as printed copies for purchase. Below you will find links to specific resources created by the hunger program as well as recommended resources produced elsewhere.
Many can also be used as placemats for hunger-related events. PHP accompanies communities and civil society organizations in their campaigns to improve policies or corporate practices that impact fundamental rights to water, food, land and other natural resources.
Find a variety of resources and information in the areas of worship, education, outreach and facilities. Food Sovereignty for All Handbook: Create a community garden or other faith-based initiative using this resource the for guidance. Food Movements Unite!
Discussion questions arranged by the themes of head, heart, hands, biblical and transformational provide the basis for adult book study groups to do four- or six-week studies. About million people suffer from hunger worldwide. To learn more about hunger and poverty in the U.
Choose between an already recorded narrated version sit back and play for a group discussion or class , or download one with notes that you can rehearse and lead yourself. Download any and all of these here. Study Your Community Food Assets — The Presbyterian Hunger Program has created this youth group hunger education activity that can be adapted as an adult study or intergenerational activity, for either a 75 minute session or broken into two smaller sessions.
Help meet needs in your community and globally through these food relief activities. Take Action — Stand in solidarity with our partners through letter writing and engaging members of Congress. Webinars — Register for upcoming webinars and to see previous presentations. Reflection Action Trips — The Presbyterian Hunger Program is promoting experiential trips which analyze the root causes of hunger and poverty while calling participants to engage in solidarity actions with our local and global partners.
With local leadership, these groups are responding to critical needs, addressing root causes, increasing self—reliance and building community power. Take the Snap challenge! Cents-Ability — Congregations invite every member — of all ages — to contribute a few cents at every meal. Half of the collected funds can stay in your congregation to benefit local hunger ministries and the other half is sent to the Presbyterian Hunger Program.
At the same time, Nodem says big corporations from Europe, Asia and the U. Farmers, in turn, lose their ancestral land and their ability to support their families thus causing a new problem as they migrate to cities in search of work. The second table focuses on trade justice. Trade agreements often exacerbate poverty in countries by imposing hardships on developing country farmers, making access to affordable medicines more difficult and constraining the kinds of policies developing country governments should enact to protect their own citizens and fight poverty.
Of particular concern to this table is the Trans Pacific Partnership between the U. Once it is in place, there could be long-term economic, social and environmental consequences. Extraction and climate are the focus of the third table.
Countries like Peru, Congo, Bolivia and Cameroon have suffered significant environmental damage from oil mining and gas operations that have contaminated the water, air and soil. PC USA partners are working to ensure the statements on profit made by the exploitation of these resources be made public so they can follow how they are being used for local development.
In Peru, the Joining Hands Network Red Uniendos manos is working with communities and partner organizations to propose new regulations for companies seeking to do resource extraction business in the country. Nodem says the three tables have generated a lot of interest. More than Presbyterians have signed on to participate.
We are also encouraging people to travel and see firsthand how these unjust global structures have harmed citizens in these countries. Many Presbyterians have shared how getting out of their zone of comfort has helped them to realize how these same structures affect people in the United States as well, and global solidarity is a good way to address them together.
Those interested in joining one of the three discussion tables can contact Valery Nodem at valery. Tags: bolivia , cameroon , compassion peace and justice , congo , el salvador , farming , food , haiti , hunger , india , peru , poverty , presbyterian hunger program , sri lanka , world mission.
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