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Grow a "Hunger Tree" between All
Saints Day and Thanksgiving For
three consecutive weeks in November, Ashley Dittmer, Trista
Dittmer and other children from Christ Lutheran Church, Belfair,
Wash., helped "grow" a hunger-awareness tree. This is how they
did it:
Week 1:
(All Saints Day): During the worship service, children
distributed paper leaves, upon which members wrote the name of
a person who helped them become aware of hunger and Jesus'
call to help. The children hung these leaves on an empty tree.
Week 2:
Members reflected on their blessings and named them on another
leaf – and the tree gained more foliage.
Week 3:
(the Sunday before Thanksgiving): The whole congregation
rededicated itself to helping to end hunger in our time.
Members wrote a promise on yet another leaf to do something
specific – including giving to the World Hunger Appeal. After
the children hung this final set of leaves, the finished tree
served as a reminder of the congregation's renewed commitment
to fight hunger in God's world.
Here's another congregation-tested
idea for a "hunger tree" from Joanna Mullins, a member of
Trinity Lutheran Church, Philadelphia, PA.
This activity takes place over a
longer period of time, perhaps a few weeks or months. It
involves asking members for their individual commitments to end
chronic hunger and poverty and recording them in a tangible
way–on "leaves" that hang on a tree. As leaves are added, the
tree "grows." Although leaves fall off trees in the autumn, this
activity is good for this season, especially during pledge
drives, because members are encouraged to grow or renew their
commitments, rather than shedding them like a tree's leaves.
Construct a tree from wood (What else
are trees made of?), or find or buy a live, but bare, indoor
tree. Cut out paper (you can use different colors) in the shape
of leaves (see illustration for one possible shape). Before you
cut out the leaves, you may wish to photocopy text or graphics
onto each one, such as the World Hunger Appeal logo or "I pledge
to __________," or "I will give __________ [time or dollar
amount]."
Encourage members to write their
commitments and/or prayers on a leaf and attach them to the
tree's branches, either with tape or other method. Here are some
suggestions:
- I pray that the Spirit will guide
us to reach out to all who hunger.
- I pledge to fast once a week in
solidarity with the hungry.
- I pledge $5/week.
- I pledge to do one act a week to
end hunger in my neighborhood and one act to end hunger in
God's world.
Mullins says, "We kept the leaves in a
basket on a table in the parlor, with several pens handy. The
tree stood in the parlor by the entrance to the chapel."
This activity is ideal for children to
participate in, and you may wish to have worshipers fill out
leaves during the service and place them in the offering plate.
Variation:
Connect hanging a leaf with a give-away. Mullins says, "Using
brightly colored card stock, a computer, Hunger Appeal stickers,
cross stickers, Earth stickers, and binder rings, I made modest
key chains that anyone could take away when he or she hung a
leaf. The key chains hung on the tree, to be replaced by the
paper leaves."
Another variation:
If your congregation participates in a Christmas-present buying
activity for a local family in need or other similar activity,
make your church's Christmas tree your "hunger tree." Hang paper
cut-outs in the shape of angels on the tree with gifts that need
to be purchased written on them, or have these in a basket next
to the tree, and as people volunteer to buy gifts, hang the
cut-outs or a replacement on the tree.
A fall or pre-Christmas variation that
Mullins suggests is a "challenge tree"–hanging specific
hunger-related challenges or requests on the tree for people to
meet by a certain time. |
