Annual conference presidents of United Methodist Men join their prayer advocates in holding up potatoes for the Society of St. Andrew and food packets for Stop Hunger Now. The assembly agreed to expand their anti-hunger efforts during a March 3-7 meeting in Nashville.
NASHVILLE, Tenn.–– United Methodist Men, a veteran organization in the battle against hunger in the United States, agreed to expand its anti-hunger offensive to other nations around the planet.
Society of St. Andrew
During a 12-year partnership with the Society of St. Andrew, United Methodist Men contributed $2.3 million to Meals for Millions to provide 176.8 million meal servings.
Hunger Relief Advocates related to United Methodist Men also led over 50,000 volunteers in more than 4,000 gleaning efforts to provide 19.7 million pounds of produce donated to 11,306 critical feeding agencies.
Stop Hunger Now
The National Association of Conference Presidents, meeting March 3-7 in Nashville, agreed to also support Stop Hunger Now, a Raleigh, N.C.-based agency that provides 13-ounce packages of dried food for hungry families throughout the world.
After boiling in water for 10 minutes, the rice, soy, dehydrated vegetables and 21 vitamins and minerals in each plastic packet provides six nutritious meals at 25 cents per serving. The food stores easily and has a shelf-life of five years and transports efficiently.
Several churches and districts have already hosted packaging sessions. Some 3,000 volunteers participated in a Lynchburg, Va., meal packaging event for Haiti in January. The event’s goal of 100,000 meals was more than doubled and the district raised $51,000 to pay the shipping costs.
Larry Dozier, vice-president of the National Association of Conference Presidents, urged leaders to connect with the Stop Hunger Now office to make plans for a food packaging event in each of their conferences. “Next year we hope to have one food packaging in each conference, and many districts,” said the Gardena, Calif. leader who’s been charged with promoting the program nationally.
Larry Malone, a staff executive with the General Commission on United Methodist Men and president of the men’s affiliate with the World Methodist Council, recently invited Korean Methodist Men to establish a warehouse in South Korea to distribute food packets to North Korea and other nations in Asia.
Two-front effort
“Partnerships with the two agencies complement our organization perfectly,” said Larry Malone, a staff executive with the General Commission on United Methodist Men. “It addresses two of our four areas of focus, ministry with the poor and global health.
“Stop Hunger Now allows us to address hunger internationally and complements our long-standing relationship with the Society of St. Andrew. With the two we’re able to extend hunger relief around the world.”
For information about Stop Hunger Now visit www.stophungernow.org, and for Society of St. Andrew go to http://www.endhunger.org/