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Linking Food-Buying and Consumption to Hunger

There’s something about the physical act of placing your can in a bag or on a table that gives a sense of direct involvement and making a tangible difference. The food then goes to the people who need it most–people who can’t afford to buy it.

But John Arnold, executive director of Second Harvest Gleaners Food Bank in Grand Rapids, Mich., says there’s more to think about in doing this. He says what is beneficial to the giver sometimes isn’t as beneficial as we might think to those on the receiving end.

Arnold poses this scenario: Let’s say you donate $10 worth of canned goods to a local charity or pantry. It’s a fair exchange–you give $10 in food, and those who ultimately receive the food get $10 worth of help. But if you give that same amount to the agency in cash, it can usually obtain food more cheaply from local food banks like Arnold’s, sometimes as much as $200 worth of food with the $10 you gave! Plus, when you consider a cash donation and a likely 25 percent write-off on your taxes, Arnold says, that’s $200 worth of food for just $7.50, almost 27 times as much as just donating the food yourself.

How can we ever afford to help feed everybody who is hungry, Arnold asks. The answer, he says, is to stretch our resources, to use them in the most effective manner possible.

Arnold says instead of having a canned-goods drive, consider collecting donations through a church group, youth group or the congregation as a whole. Then arrange a trip for a group to go with the local agency when it uses your donations to buy the food. Help them pick out and deliver the greater quantity of food that was made possible by your donations.

Whether you have one or thousands of dollars to donate to hunger ministries, limited resources can sometimes provide unlimited blessings to people who need them if only you ask yourself how you can make the most difference with what you have, Arnold notes.

Forgo some trips to McDonald’s
Reformation Lutheran Church, Brookfield, WI, promoted the World Hunger Appeal with its members this way: “During the summer months, we placed a folding table in our narthex with a red and white checkered picnic tablecloth. On this we placed a new Smokey Joe barbeque grill which was loaned to us by a member of our social ministry committee. We then purchased a large hamburger, which really is a dog’s chew toy, but served the purpose wonderfully, and we placed it on the grill along with barbeque tools. We then made up a poster advertising a ‘burger a month’ contribution to World Hunger. A huge response and a lot of smiles were received.”  (photo on right)

Double duty for coupons
A member of an ELCA congregation in Austin, Texas, offers this idea from her friend as a way to set aside money throughout the year for the ELCA World Hunger Appeal: When she uses a coupon at the grocery store, she considers the money saved a gift that she sets aside to be give later to the World Hunger Appeal. “Small amounts saved weekly or monthly can add up to a gift of significance for the feeding of the hungry,” she says.

Grocery store discount cards
If you carry a card to be scanned at the checkout counter for discounts at the grocery store where you shop, donate what you save on each shopping trip to the World Hunger Appeal.

"Charity day" at local grocery stores
Some grocery stores offer to donate a small percentage of sales (sometimes on a specific day or for a set period) to charities that register with them. Check with your grocery store to see if it has such a program. New Frontiers Natural Foods in Solvang, Calif., donated five percent of its total sales on one day in January 2000 to the World Hunger Appeal as part of its “five percent Wednesday” program (the third Wednesday of each month). A local ELCA congregation arranged for the city’s newspaper to carry an article about it in advance so people would know to shop there that day. If you arrange for this at a local store, be sure to publicize it in your congregation with your members (and neighboring congregations) so they know to shop at that store on that day.

Eating out and remembering the hungry
Every time you eat out at a restaurant, set aside $5 or a percentage of the bill—or other set amount—to give to the ELCA World Hunger Appeal.

Losing weight and remembering the hungry
David Ramse and Winston Persaud, professors at Wartburg Theological Seminary, agreed in summer 2002 to loose weight and donate $10 to the ELCA World Hunger Appeal for each pound the other lost. Persaud lost 10 pounds, and Ramse lost 8 pounds. “This was a good incentive for us to lose pounds for World Hunger,” Ramse wrote.

"Hunger tithe"
Carol J. Castello, Arcanum, Ohio, sends a yearly “hunger tithe” to the ELCA World Hunger Appeal. Here’s how she does it: She saves money throughout the year for the World Hunger Appeal aside from her regular monthly giving through her congregation. This “savings” accumulates from “tithing” the money she and her family spend in eating out at restaurants, including fast-food places, and from what they spend on their pets. “I decided several years ago that if we could afford such ‘luxuries’ as meals at restaurants and having pets, then we could certainly ‘afford’ to gie to help relieve other people’s hunger from lack of such luxurious lives.”

Carol also accumulates “found money,” which is simply that—any money that she finds along the sidewalk, street or anywhere. “I always strive to find at least a penny a day ($3.65); my ‘goal’ for this year was to triple that and find at least $10.95.” She even finds money on her travels! Some of Carol’s $185.22 donation for 2001 was found during a mission trip to South Dakota when she enlisted the whole team of 21 to spot “lost coins.”

“Such ‘gimmicks’ keep me motivated and actually challenge me to give more each year! For 2002, I’ve decided, in addition to ‘tithing’ our ‘animal expenses,’ I am going to use someone else’s idea for meals eaten out and set aside the cost of an extra person’s meal (Christ himself, perhaps at our table?) and give that toward my hunger giving.”

Food booths at fairs
Each Labor Day weekend, Aid Association for Lutherans (now Thrivent Financial for Lutherans) Branch 7715 conducts a “Stop by for a Rib-eye” steak sandwich “Helping Hands” concession at Stonewall Jackson Arts and Crafts Jubilee in Weston, W.V.

The prime motivation of the “Helping Hands” event is to financially support individuals or families in need, local communities, or state, national and international charities.

In one recent year, 79 people volunteered at the steak sandwich concession. Their 670 volunteer hours made it possible to qualify for $5,500 in matching funds from Thrivent, resulting in a total of $11,000, of which $400 was sent to the ELCA World Hunger Appeal.

“Pound out hunger one $.25 at a time”
Trinity Lutheran Church, Roanoke, Va., set a goal of collecting 25 pounds of quarters for the ELCA World Hunger Appeal’s 25th anniversary in 1999. A sign saying, “Pound out hunger one $.25 at a time” sat above a scale in the church’s narthex to encourage members to add to the collection, which included an appeal for food items for a neighboring church’s pantry.

Fund-raising meals in congregations
In 2002, Immanuel Lutheran Youth Group of Burlington and Bethune, Colo., raised $3,000 for the World Hunger Appeal. The money was raised in just one evening and was also matched by [Thrivent Financial for Lutherans] with an additional $950. The youth prepared and served a spaghetti dinner and played "Hunger Jeopardy." Free-will donations were accepted, and the youth contributed by "winning" money for the Appeal out of their own budget. The youth prepared for the game by studying for two weeks in Sunday School and one student set up the "Jeopardy" board using PowerPoint.

>[Learn how to play "Hunger Jeopardy"]

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