"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat"
Matthew 25:35a
Did you know?
Many of our brothers and sisters in our hemisphere live in extreme poverty; the lack of food is not a statistic but an urgent, daily reality.
Many of them and their children go to bed hungry because they do not have enough resources for food.
Many of them are forced to choose between buying food or necessary medications.
Many of them work in day to day jobs without any social safety net programs to fall back on when crisis strike.
Many of them do not have pensions or government retirement benefits to fall back on and cannot depend on family members, who are often struggling financially, to take care of them as they age.
I Was Hungry, was founded in 2014 to address the issue of hunger among brothers and sisters in our family of churches, where the average church member makes less than $13 a day and where some children were going to sleep without eating all day.
We wanted to hear Jesus say to us someday, "I was hungry and you gave me something to eat."
Results
We have fed over 500 disciples throughout Central America, Mexico and Venezuela with a total of nine churches where members are being supported.
How
Disciples sponsor families of disciples in one of the churches currently supported by the program. The monthly sponsorship amount is $44. The family receives a food stipend of $40 per month or a pantry basket of equivalent value per month (the mode of distribution is determined locally depending on the needs); $4 of the $44 goes to support a brother or sister who runs the program locally in each church. Disciples who sponsor families have the ability to communicate and build relationships with the family or individual they sponsor if they wish to do so. Our organization is run by volunteers, with some administrative support provided by the Central Jersey Church of Christ.
Who
Our program prioritizes providing food to disciples who are widows, elderly, disabled, ill, single moms, or in situations of extreme poverty or a temporary financial crisis. In order to increase their income and becoming more financially stable, recipients who are physically able to work are encouraged to learn English, computer skills, pursue higher education, or participate in other self-improvement programs as they become available locally.
