AY Honors/Hunger Relief/Answer Key

Hunger Relief

Skill Level

1

Year

2005

Version

25.11.2024

Approval authority

General Conference

1

Find a news report on the topic of world hunger and discuss with your Pathfinder Club unit what steps are being taken to reduce hunger in the area featured in the story.

The ADRA Presents series of videos includes very good introductions to ACS and disaster response in short video segments. These videos are available through AdventSource .

2

Listen to a person who directs food distribution in your area, including a church, community center, soup kitchen, etc. Find out about the people they serve, some causes of food needs in the community, and how they meet these needs. Share your findings with your instructor.

If you do not know who this person is in your church, ask your Pastor. As a courtesy, let this person know ahead of time what questions will be asked so that preparations can be made. Invite this person to a club meeting - the question and answer session would make an excellent devotional activity for your club's opening exercises.

3

Describe the causes of hunger in your country. You can do this by writing a short essay, doing a presentation, skit, or producing a one-minute video. Present this at your school, civic group, Pathfinder Club, or at church.

The point of this presentation should be to convince the group to whom you are speaking to participate in a hunger relief program. It could be that you wish to establish an ongoing "food pantry" in your church, or simply participate in an annual food drive.

4

Collect food items for the local community food bank or food distribution center, or if this is not possible select a family that needs assistance and bring the items to them.

The best way for your club to meet this requirement is to contact a local food bank and offer to conduct a "Can Collecting" drive for them. The food bank will likely be more than willing to talk to your club when you deliver the food you have collected.

List of acceptable donations

Usually, these items are accepted.

• Breakfast items (bread loaves, oatmeal, cold cereal, breakfast bars, toaster pastries…)
• Lunch and dinner items (bags/cans of pasta, rice, instant noodle packets, dry soup pouches, pork and beans, chili beans, canned soups, canned vegetables and fruit, beef stew, canned chicken and tuna, instant mashed potatoes, dry beans…)
• Snack and dessert items (canned fruit, pudding cups, granola bars, crackers, dessert mix, fruit cups, raisins by the box, store-bought cookies, wafers, potato chips of any flavor, trail mix, dried fruit, fruit leather, pretzels, beef jerky, candies…)
• Baking supplies (pancake and muffin mixes, cake and icing mixes, flour, condensed milk, canned pie fillings…)
• Condiments (ketchup, mustard, gravy, pasta sauce, peanut butter, jelly…)
• Beverage items (powdered milk, juice, canned/bottled pop, bottled water, meal replacement drinks, drink mixes, tea bags, coffee…)
• Pet food/treats
• Personal hygiene products
• Household cleaning products

Many Pathfinder club participate in an annual can drive, often around Halloween. Typically, the club will donate the collected food items to needy families for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

If your club has never done this, you begin by printing out a map of the territory you wish to cover. Divide your club into small teams, with at least one adult per team, and assign a territory to each team. Some clubs go door to door and collect food all in a single day. Others distribute plastic grocery sacks to each residence and pick them up at a later date (such as the next day or the next week). If you opt to distribute grocery sacks, it is a good idea to staple a flier to each sack describing what you are doing, including contact information. This can also be an opportunity to distribute evangelistic literature, such as Steps the Christ.

5

Visit a food bank, food distribution center, or soup kitchen and volunteer to assist the staff. This can be done with your Pathfinder group or unit. Talk with the staff to find out how the food is gathered and what some of the challenges are in finding food to distribute.

Either one of these is an excellent activity for a Sabbath afternoon. This activity can certainly be used to fulfill Outreach requirements found in the class curriculum.

If you choose to help out in a soup kitchen make arrangements ahead of time, letting them know how many helpers you expect to bring. The only thing your club will need to do is show up and do the work.

A group of Pathfinders can prepare enough food to feed a group of people three times larger than themselves in less than an hour. You will need to buy supplies ahead of time, and it's not a bad idea to have the menu approved by the kitchen ahead of time. A simple sack lunch could consist of the following:

• Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
• Juice box
• Apple, orange, banana, or other fruit
• Cookies, brownies, or other "dessert" item

If you buy the food at a discount warehouse club (such as Costco, Sam's Club, BJ's, etc.) you should be able to keep the cost close to $1.50 per meal. You can also talk to a grocery store manager in your neighborhood, and they may be willing to donate the items you need.

As with any off-site Pathfinder activity, be sure to bring copies of medical release forms and permission slips for each one of the participants under the age of 18.

Note

This honor could be earned with little difficulty if it were integrated into the regular autumn programming of a typical Pathfinder Club. Start by presenting the ADRA Presents videos to your club. Then have your club prepare and make a presentation to your church in readiness for your annual Can Collecting drive. After the Can Collecting drive, deliver the food to a local food bank and ask the staff there to talk to the club. Follow that up by making sack lunches for a soup kitchen. The rest will be easy.

References