FUMCFW Rises Against Hunger

By February 21, 2020

For the past seven years our congregation has gathered together during the season of Lent to help feed families who suffer from hunger by using many hands to package meal bags filled with rice and beans.

Food insecurity happens for many reasons—drought, fires, floods, or government instability.

But we can do something to help.

Rise Against Hunger is an international initiative distributing food to some of the world’s most vulnerable population. The organization was founded in 1998 by United Methodist Minister Roy Buchanan. They are a national meal-packaging program whose goal is to end hunger by providing food and life-saving aid to those people who are most at risk.

On March 1, 2020 FUMCFW will host our 8th annual Rise Against Hunger food packaging event in the Justin Building. We aim to host at least 120 volunteers so that we can reach our goal of packaging more than 20,000 meal kits to send to hungry communities across the globe.

First Church members and guests of all ages can help pack bags of rice and beans, making this a great project for parents and children and our whole church family! Each year our FUMCFW Youth commit their time and their hearts to this worthy cause by volunteering for Rise Against Hunger as part of their Youth Service Project. Kat Bair, our director of Youth Ministries reflects on past years’ events, “Packing 20,000 meals is no small feat. The youth will take the 9:30-10:30 block and will fill 75 spots we have pretty easily, but there are still 30-minute spots left later in the morning, and we’d love to have you come serve with us and the rest of your church family!”

We need YOUR help too.

Kat goes on to poignantly remind us that, “We can sometimes feel overwhelmed by all that needs to be done in the world, but there is no better cure for that feeling than just doing something, and you would be amazed what we can all get done together.

So, let’s see what we can do…together.

With your help we hope to surpass 100,000 meals packaged over the years we at FUMCFW have volunteered for this life-giving event.

volunteer